Greenbelt is a planned city located in Prince George's County, Maryland. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 21,456.

Geography

Greenbelt is located at 39°0'2" North, 76°53'18" West (39.000460, -76.888325).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 15.6 km² (6.0 mi²). 15.5 km² (6.0 mi²) of it is land and 0.1 km² (0.04 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 0.50% water.

History

Greenbelt was settled in 1937 as a public cooperative community ("an experiment in American socialism") 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 (originally called Homestead, but later renamed Roosevelt) was planned in New Jersey, 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 town on a site that had formerly consisted largely of tobacco fields. Eleanor Roosevelt also was heavily involved in the first cooperative community designed by the federal government in the New Deal Era, Arthurdale, West Virginia , which sought to better the lives of impoverished laborers by enabling them to create a self-sufficient, and relatively prosperous, cooperative community.

The architectural planning of Greenbelt was innovative, but no less so than the social engineering involved in this federal government project.

Demographics

As of the census² of 2000, there are 21,456 people, 9,368 households, and 4,965 families residing in the city. The population density is 1,385.3/km² (3,586.6/mi²). There are 10,180 housing units at an average density of 657.3/km² (1,701.7/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 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. 6.45% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

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

In the city the population is 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 are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 32 years. For every 100 females there are 91.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 88.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city is $46,328, and the median income for a family is $55,671. Males have a median income of $39,133 versus $35,885 for females. The per capita income for the city is $25,236. 10.2% of the population and 6.0% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 12.7% of those under the age of 18 and 7.2% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

External links

• Greenbelt city government website
• Greenbelt Community website
• Virtual Greenbelt