A history of the New Deal program intended to improve the living
conditions of America's underclass.
In 1935, under the direction of the Resettlement Administration, the
United States government embarked on a New Deal program to construct new
suburban towns for the working class. Teams of architects, engineers,
and city planners, along with thousands of workers, brought three such
communities to life: Greenbelt, Maryland; Greendale, Wisconsin; and
Greenhills, Ohio. President Franklin Roosevelt saw this as a way to
create jobs. Resettlement Administration head Rexford Tugwell longed to
improve the living conditions of the nation's underclass.
In Best-Laid Plans, Julie Turner identifies where the Greenbelt Towns
succeeded and where they failed. The program suffered under the burden
of too many competing goals: maximum job creation at minimal cost,
exquisite town planning that would provide modest residences for
low-income families, progressive innovation that would serve to honor
and reinforce traditional American values. Yet the Greenbelt program
succeeded in one respect--providing new homes in well-planned
communities that continue to welcome residents.
Town planning and suburbanization did not follow the blueprint of the
Greenbelt model and instead took a turn toward the suburban sprawl we
know today. The Greenbelt towns may represent an unrealistic dream, but
they show an imagined way of American life that continues to appeal and
hints at what might have been possible.
