![]() ![]() This language paved the way for later assessments of the worth and treatment of the immigrant community.Īt the time of the commission’s report, the use of the automobile was becoming more and more common. “The plan recommended is intended to take advantage of present real estate conditions, to recognize all the growing conditions and to produce a simple, dignified and economical solution of the many problems involved,” the commission wrote.Ī city planner in 1910 detailed the conditions in Douglass Rae's 2003 book " City: Urbanism and Its End": “Back tenements, unsanitary shacks, crowding, secrecy and filth are the results of crowding poor and ignorant people into a region where each of the insufficient number of dwellings has a long piece of wasteland tucked in behind it out of sight.” The population of New Haven climbed 19.14% between 19 to 133,605 people. The report, if taken seriously, could have enacted changes that would have catered to city residents, rather than those who came to visit or work, by providing public transportation options and community spaces. The report landed on the desk of Mayor Frank Rice, who ignored it, as trash removal preoccupied his mind. The priorities in the document included expanded railroads, a subway beneath nine blocks, parks and playgrounds, a public square and the widening of some streets. “A lot of what they did you have to understand in the context of the times, and it's not what we would today consider winning strategies,” said Lizabeth Cohen, professor of American Studies at Harvard, who authored a book on New Haven City Planner Ed Logue. The mayor responsible for the project, Richard Lee, is not alive to tell his side of the story but relatives, experts and friends of the family said his quest to make New Haven into a “model city” was rooted in good intention. Why lobby Congress for funding to complete a project many historians view as a failure? Well you can't walk in a community that has a highway running through it.” “Communities are knitted together by your ability to walk and move about. “You've got communities that are bisected by highways that are both separated and segregated,” said Karen Dubois-Walton, executive director of the Housing Authority of New Haven. New Haven residents still struggle with housing insecurity and ramifications of the program. It’s been 63 years since the “Oak Street Connector” replaced Oak Street and disconnected the grid of tight-knit neighborhoods in New Haven. A staggering 793 units were slated for luxury housing. Of the 1,500 units that replaced, the city assigned half to elderly and middle-income residents. (Map from the Jewish Historical Society)īetween 19, the city demolished 5,000 living units, according to “ No Haven: From Civil Rights to Black Power in New Haven, Connecticut'' by Yohuru Williams. Maps like these laid out priority areas for urban renewal projects. ![]()
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