About

I am a resident of Greenbelt, Maryland, a suburban town about 15 miles from the center of Washington, D.C. Greenbelt is not a large city, with about 23,000 people at the 2010 census, but it is a town with a proud history. It was the first of three planned garden cities built by the U.S. Government during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, and it was a rare experiment in community planning. This year, in 2012, Greenbelt is celebrating the 75th anniversary of its founding, and I will be documenting life in Greenbelt in this blog from January 1 to December 31. I will follow city events and I also would like to include activities by Greenbelt organizations and interview Greenbelt residents. My goal is to produce a photographic record of Greenbelt in 2012 as the FSA photographers such as Arthur Rothstein and Marjory Collins did during the early years of the town’s history. I am interested in seeing how this New Deal experiment has worked out 75 years later.

So if you are a Greenbelt organization holding events in the city, or if you are a Greenbelt resident who wants to share your memories or impressions of the city, or if you just want to comment on something, please let me know at ericzhangindc at gmail dot com.