Best-Laid Plans

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In 1935 the United States government embarked on a New Deal program to construct new suburban towns for the working class. Under the direction of the Resettlement Administration, 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. Designers, planners, and other experts brought their own ideas and goals into the project. We can see now, in hindsight, that the program was virtually doomed to fail from the outset. It 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. In addition to these opposing goals, the Greenbelt project faced the derision of conservative politicians and members of the media who vented their hostility toward FDR and the New Deal. Yet the Greenbelt program succeeded as well, providing new homes in well-planned communities that continue to welcome residents. The towns may represent an unrealistic dream, but they show an imagined way of American life that continues to appeal, that hints at what might have been possible"--