New Haven Oral History Project: Francis Clark
Summary Description
Francis Clark is an alderwoman in New Haven, the former Executive Director of the Arts Council and a Staff Member of the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. Clark was born and raised in New York City, and came to New Haven in 1956. She discusses Mayor Richard Lee's redevelopment programs in the 1960s, focusing specifically on the development of Audubon Street. As part of the city's efforts to revive its downtown, leading New Haven citizens fought for the construction of an arts center, to be located on Audubon Street. After a flurry of work in the 1960s, the Audubon program stalled for a decade. It was resumed in the 1980s, and now stands as a center of the arts in downtown New Haven, housing the Arts Council and the Neighborhood Music School. Clark recognizes that the redevelopment efforts failed in many important ways, including an insensitivity to pre-existing community structures, but she insists that the developers' intentions were noble. Clark mentions that she has lived through three periods in which a tangible excitement and a sense of possibility filled the city of New Haven: the redevelopment years of the 1960s; the early 1980s, when aspects of redevelopment left unfinished were picked up again; and recent years. Interviewer: Dolan, Thomas Length (min): 80, (6)
Category Tags
City Planning, Development, and Gentrification; Law, Policy, and Decision-Making
New Haven Neighborhood
Downtown
Recommended Citation
Clark, Francis, 2003 November 18. Oral Histories Documenting New Haven, Connecticut (RU 1055). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library. https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/12/resources/2867.