Greenbelt, Maryland

For other uses, see Greenbelt (disambiguation).

Greenbelt, Maryland
—  City  —
Roosevelt Center typifies the Art Deco style used during the original construction of Greenbelt.
Flag Seal
Location in Maryland
Coordinates: 39°0′2″N 76°53′18″W
Country	United States
State	Maryland
County	Prince George's
Incorporated	1937
Government
• Mayor	Judith F. Davis (D)
Area
• Total	6.0 sq mi (15.6 km2)
• Land	6.0 sq mi (15.5 km2)
• Water	0.04 sq mi (0.1 km2)  0.50%
Elevation	157 ft (48 m)
Population (2010)
• Total	23,068
• Density	3,829.9/sq mi (1,478.7/km2)
Time zone	Eastern (UTC-5)
• Summer (DST)	Eastern (UTC-4)
ZIP codes	20768, 20770, 20771
Area code(s)	301 and 240
FIPS code	24-34775
GNIS feature ID	0597493
Website	www.greenbeltmd.gov

Greenbelt is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. Contained within today's City of Greenbelt is the historic planned community now known locally as "Old Greenbelt" and designated as the Greenbelt Historic District. Greenbelt's population was 23,068 at the 2010 census.

Geography

Winter view of Still Creek in Greenbelt Park

Aerial view of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland

Greenbelt is located at 39°0′2″N 76°53′18″W (39.000460, -76.888325).

MARC train platforms along former B&O (now CSX) tracks at Greenbelt Station

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 6.0 square miles (16 km²), of which 0.04 square miles (0.10 km²), or 0.50%, is water. Greenbelt's ZIP codes are 20768, 20770, and 20771.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Goddard Space Flight Center is located in Greenbelt, as is Greenbelt Park, a unit of the National Park System. The Greenbelt Arts Center is located in Old Greenbelt.

Transportation

Two major highways pass through and have interchanges in Greenbelt: the Capital Beltway (I-95/I-495) and the National Park Service's Baltimore-Washington Parkway. Greenbelt Road is a portion of State Highway 193, which connects several suburban towns.

Washington Metro rapid transit rail service from Washington, D.C., serves Greenbelt Metro Station, the northern terminus of the system's Green Line. Commuter rail service to the same station is provided by MARC's Camden Line between Washington's Union Station and the Camden Station in Baltimore, Maryland, using the original 1835 Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) track route between Washington and Baltimore, now part of the CSX System.

Bordering areas

• Beltsville Agricultural Research Center
• Berwyn Heights
• College Park
• Goddard
• Lanham
• New Carrollton

History

Aerial view of Greenbelt under construction, March 1937.

Old Greenbelt was settled in 1937 as a public cooperative community in the New Deal Era. The concept was at the same time both eminently practical and idealistically utopian: the federal government would foster an "ideal" self-sufficient cooperative community that would also ease the pressing housing shortage near the nation's capital. Construction of the new town would also create jobs and thus help stimulate the national economic recovery following the Great Depression.

Greenbelt, which provided affordable housing for federal government workers, was one of three "green" towns planned in 1935 by Rexford Guy Tugwell, head of the United States Resettlement Administration, under authority of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act. The two other green towns are Greendale, Wisconsin (near Milwaukee) and Greenhills, Ohio (near Cincinnati). A fourth green town, Roosevelt, New Jersey (originally called Homestead), was planned but was not fully developed on the same large scale as Greenbelt.

Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, helped Tugwell lay out the Maryland town on a site that had formerly consisted largely of tobacco fields. She was also heavily involved in the first cooperative community designed by the federal government in the New Deal Era, Arthurdale, West Virginia, which sought to improve the lives of impoverished laborers by enabling them to create a self-sufficient, and relatively prosperous, cooperative community. Cooperatives in Greenbelt include the Greenbelt News Review, Greenbelt Consumers Coop grocery store, the New Deal Cafe, and the cooperative forming the downtown core of original housing, Greenbelt Homes Incorporated (GHI).

The architectural planning of Greenbelt was innovative, but no less so than the social engineering involved in this federal government project. Applicants for residency were interviewed and screened based on income and occupation, and willingness to become involved in community activities. African-Americans were initially excluded, but were welcomed by the Greenbelt Committee for Fair Housing founded in 1963, and came to number 41% of residents according to the 2000 census.

Much of the community is now located within the Greenbelt Historic District; listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

Greenbelt was the subject of the 1939 documentary film The City.

Demographics

As of 2010 Greenbelt had a population of 23,068. The racial and ethnic compositon of the population was 25.9% non-Hispanic white, 47.0% non-Hispanic black, 0.3% Native American, 2.6% Asian Indian, 7.1% other Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.3% non-Hispanic of some other race, 3.3% from two or more races and 14.3% Hispanic or Latino of any race.

As of the census of 2000, there were 21,456 people, 9,368 households, and 4,965 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,586.6 people per square mile (1,385.3/km²). There were 10,180 housing units at an average density of 1,701.7 per square mile (657.3/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 39.74% White, 41.35% African American, 0.23% Native American, 12.05% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 3.11% from other races, and 3.47% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.45% of the population.

There were 9,368 households out of which 26.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 33.1% were married couples living together, 15.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 47.0% were non-families. 35.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.29 and the average family size was 3.00.

In the city the population was spread out with 21.9% under the age of 18, 12.5% from 18 to 24, 39.1% from 25 to 44, 19.8% from 45 to 64, and 6.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females there were 91.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $46,328, and the median income for a family was $55,671. Males had a median income of $39,133 versus $35,885 for females. The per capita income for the city was $25,236. About 6.0% of families and 10.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.7% of those under age 18 and 7.2% of those age 65 or over.

Government

The City of Greenbelt operates under a council-manager government as established by the city charter, the first such arrangement in Maryland. The Council consists of seven members elected by plurality-at-large voting. From their members, the Council selects the Mayor and the Mayor Pro Tem (who assumes the duties of the Mayor when the Mayor is unavailable). The Council has traditionally chosen the member with the highest vote count to be Mayor, and the member with the second-highest vote count as Mayor Pro Tem. Elections are held every two years, in odd-numbered years, in part to diminish the influence of political parties. Political party affiliations are not an official part of the city election process, and are seldom part of candidate campaigns. Regular council meetings are held on Mondays, twice per month except during July, August, and December, when meetings are held once per month.

The City Council is supported by 14 advisory boards and committees of citizen volunteers. The council appoints a professional city manager responsible for supervising government operations and implementing the policies adopted by the council.

The 2009 election selected the current city council:

• Mayor: Judith "J" Davis
• Mayor Pro Tem: Emmett Jordan
• Council Members: Konrad Herling, Leta Mach, Silke Pope, Edward Putens, and Rodney Roberts.

The council selects the City Manager:

• City Manager: Michael McLaughlin.

2009 election reform

Of the ten incorporated cities in Prince George's County, Greenbelt is one of three with at-large elections for council and mayor. (The others are District Heights and New Carrollton.) The remaining seven use combinations of districts and at-large voting. On 2008-02-28, the Maryland American Civil Liberties Union and Prince George's County NAACP sent a letter to the Greenbelt City Council claiming that Greenbelt's at-large system may violate section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. According to the letter, the 2000 Census indicated that African-Americans constituted 38% of Greenbelt's voting-age population, Asians 13%, and Latinos 6%. At the time, however, all members of the city council were white. The letter proposed that the city switch to single-winner district-based voting, cumulative voting, or choice voting, and indicated a lawsuit would follow if no reform were implemented. While the city population is racially diverse, only two African Americans had run for Council in the 30 years preceding the 2009 election, one of whom had withdrawn before the election. In June 2008, the United States Department of Justice opened an investigation into the city's election system.

In 2008, the city government hosted three public community meetings regarding election reform, in concert with the ACLU, NAACP, and FairVote. Over 100 residents attended the forums, including one of the unsuccessful African American candidates, Jeanette Gordy, who said, "My concern is that people don’t get off their royal behinds. By going to meetings I got what I wanted and found out I had power as a citizen."

In 2009, the city implemented several election reforms with the goal of increasing diversity: increasing the city council from five to seven members, adding an additional precinct in Greenbelt East to shorten voter lines, and amending the city charter to allow early voting.

In the election held November 3, 2009, Emmett Jordan, an African American, was chosen by 75% of voters, electing him to the Council as Mayor Pro Tem, the second-highest city official. Voter turnout increased from 1,898 to 2,399 voters (a 26% increase in ballots cast) from 2007 to 2009.

Education

Greenbelt is served by Prince George's County Public Schools.

The city is served by four elementary schools:

• Greenbelt Elementary School (Greenbelt)
• Magnolia Elementary School (unincorporated Prince George's County, Lanham address)
• Springhill Lake Elementary School (Greenbelt) and
• The Friends School

All of Greenbelt is served by Greenbelt Middle School and Eleanor Roosevelt High School, a highly rated magnet school; both schools are in the city.

Some other facts and schools that serve Greenbelt include:

• A private elementary and middle school near the city is The Friends School.
• A private middle and high school near the city is St. Anselm's Abbey. St. Anselm's is rated as one of the best private high schools in the nation and draws students from throughout the entire Washington, D.C. area including VA and MD.
• Other private high schools near the city are DeMatha and St. Elizabeth Seton.

Economy

Top employers

According to Greenbelt's 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city were:

#	Employer	# of Employees
1	City of Greenbelt	450
2	Eleanor Roosevelt High School	229
3	Bozzuto	219
4	ManTech International	210
5	Orbital	196
6	Springhill Lake Hotel	159
7	Giant	143
8	Xanadu, Ltd.	135
9	Indus	122
10	Martin's	121

Gallery

• 

  Apartments in Greenbelt

• 

  Extensive pedestrian paths connect residences, in this case feeding into a tunnel beneath the primary collector roadway

• 

  A grade-separated pedestrian path / roadway crossing, inspired by such configurations in Radburn, New Jersey

• 

  Albert S. Buddy Attick Lake Park. The artificial lake replaces the open parkland of the Radburn plan

• 

  Southway, a road on the southern portion of Old Greenbelt

See also

• Greenbelt News Review
• Greenbelt Police Department
• Greenbelt 15K
• New Deal Cafe
• Arthurdale, West Virginia

Further reading

• Cathy D. Knepper (2001), Greenbelt, Maryland: A Living Legacy of the New Deal (Creating the North American Landscape), The Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 0-8018-6490-9 
• Mary Lou Williamson (editor) (1987), Greenbelt: History of a New Town, 1937-1987, The Donning Company, ISBN 0-89865-607-9 

External links

• Greenbelt city government website
• Greenbelt community website
• Greenbelt Arts Center
• Greenbelt Museum
• Virtual Greenbelt at the University of Maryland, College Park
• Greenbelt Volunteer Fire Department
• Kojo Namdi Show: Kojo In Your Community: Greenbelt