Paul Bass Photo
Doug Hausladen, at right, with partner-in-street-redesign Giovanni Zinn, the city engineer, at May’s opening of a new/old portion of Columbus Avenue near the police and train station.
Doug Hausladen is returning to running just one government agency rather than two.
As of Thursday, Hausladen will work full-time as executive director of New Haven’s parking authority.
He will no longer serve simultaneously as the city’s director of transportation, traffic and parking. His deputy, Karla Lindquist, will fill the role for now on an interim basis, according to city Economic Development Administrator Mike Piscitelli.
Hausladen has served in the latter capacity since 2014, appointed by Toni Harp. He took on the second position, at the parking authority, in August 2015.
Now the parking authority has a new deal with the state to oversee an expansion of Union Station, meaning there’s a lot more work to do.
“Now that that deal is finalized, it’s time to have a full-time executive director,” Hausladen told the Independent. The parking authority felt the need for a full-time chief again “to make sure that that redevelopment moves forward on a timely schedule, make sure the state and the city partnership works well and has a successful implementation for the Hill neighborhood.”
Thomas Breen Photo
Hausladen at a 2020 community safe streets meeting.
The parking authority, a quasi-governmental body, manages thousands of parking spaces at the Union Station, Air Rights, Temple Street and Crown Street garages as well as surface lots all over town.
As head of traffic and parking for the city, Hausladen worked on a state-funded study to improve city bus service. He organized a successful bid to convince the state legislature to change a law to make it possible to construct two-way protected bike lanes in town. Since then, the city has been in the process of building such cycletracks on both the east and west sides.
Hausladen may be most remembered in the city traffic job for standing in the way of the consummation of a suspicious city contract peddled by an indicted California businessman looking to lower his prison time by helping the feds sting municipal officials. Hausladen earned the epithet “fucking Doug” for refusing to sign off on the contract despite pressure.
He also has spent countless hours helping cyclists and drivers avoid heavy traffic or navigate detours amid a city building boom, including a “Downtown Crossing” project filling in the old Route 34 Connector mini-highway-to-nowhere. Watch him guide a reporter through the latest detour in the video below.