Clark Stepping Down;
Hausladen Stepping Up

After four terms as downtown alderwoman, Bitsie Clark is moving on. She plans to announce that news later Thursday as she introduces the man she hopes will be her successor.

Clark, who has represented Ward 7 (downtown) for the past seven-and-a-half years, will be a guest of honor at a Thursday evening press conference called by Doug Hausladen, who’s declaring his candidacy for her seat.

“I’m running because I want to take my work in the community to the next level,” said Hausladen, who will turn 29 in two weeks. A Yale grad, he until recently chaired of the Downtown-Wooster Square Community Management Team.

Hausladen is the first known aldermanic candidate to have ever set up an ​“exploratory” campaign committee before becoming an official candidates. (Mayoral and presidential candidates sometimes do that.)

“I want to give voice to the people in the community that have solutions,” Hausladen said Thursday. ​“I want to further my work with Elm City Cycling to create a bikeable and walkable neighborhood downtown.”

Hausladen first came to New Haven in 2000 to attend Yale. After graduating, he started a hotel furniture liquidation company in Florida and bought a house there. But it didn’t take. ​“I hated Florida. I missed New Haven,” he said.

In 2006, Elm Campus Partners property management company (where he continues to work) lured him back to New Haven, where he now lives on York Street.

As alderman, Hausladen said he would pursue ​“people powered policy” by listening to constituents and helping to empower them to make the change they desire. ​“Bottom-up stuff is what I’m all about,” he said.

Clark offered an unqualified endorsement of Hausladen’s candidacy.

“I think he’s tremendous,” she said.

Hausladen has been very effective working with nightclubs downtown, she said. He’s a knowledgeable person who can communicate effectively with all the different people an alderman needs to deal with, she said.

Clark said her departure from the board is a result of returning to the full-time work after nine years of retirement. In March she took a job as the executive director of East Rock Village, a new organization that helps provide services to senior citizens who want to remain in their own homes. At 79 years old, Clark found juggling a full-time job and a demanding aldermanic position is too much, she said. She often gets home from work and has no time to even eat dinner before she has to head out to aldermanic obligations, she said.

Clark said she will finish out her term this year. She said she’s proud of many things she’s accomplished as a lawmaker, particularly her work as a member of the Youth Services Committee to establish the street outreach workers program.

“I’ve had an enormous amount of fun. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. The whole thing has been fun,” she said.

Hausladen will kick off his campaign at 6 p.m. Thursday in Temple Plaza at 160 Temple St.