Obama taps two New Yorkers for HUD posts

President Obama has picked two New York City officials to
serve in key White House posts on Housing and Urban Development, the
administration announced Thursday.

Obama will lean on Adolfo Carrion as his White House
director of urban affairs while tapping Derek Douglas as the special assistant
to the president for urban affairs. They will be the top two staffers in the
administration’s newly created Office of Urban Affairs, designed to set
strategy for the country’s metropolitan areas.

{mosads}Carrion comes to the White House after serving two terms as
Bronx borough president. The 47-year-old also served a term as president of the
National Association of Latino Elected Officials, which has lobbied the new president
for a greater representation in Cabinet and upper-level administration
positions.

Douglas will move on from his post as top Washington counsel
to New York Gov. David Paterson (D), a position Douglas has held since 2007. He
has experience at the Center for American Progress, the left-leaning think tank
headed by former Obama transition team director John Podesta, and as a top
attorney with the NAACP.

Obama praised his two new hires as “talented
leaders” who would “bring long-overdue attention to the urban areas
where 80 percent of the American people live and work.”

The new office will oversee federal money aimed at big
cities to ensure dollars are spent on effective programs. As director of the
office, Carrion will report to Obama and will coordinate all federal programs
aimed at urban areas.

Carrion has not been shy about his interest in a job with
the administration. As far back as early December, Carrion told an audience at
Yale University he had been informed he would be moving into the administration.

Many suspected Carrion might be in line to serve as
secretary of Housing and Urban Development, a post that instead went to fellow
New Yorker Shaun Donovan. Donovan served as housing and development
commissioner in New York City for about five years.