Evening star., 1939-08-11

PAofA bCILSI IOl lOW lIlCOIl
development of similar projects bv
public and private agencies.
Greenbelt does provide better iiv-
ing for the dwellers in its 885 homes,
but its record offers scant hope to
] thousands of other loW-income FAM
, lilies around Washington and other
cities. They might like to live in
Greenbelt. too. But there probably
will be few if any more Greenbelts
until such enterprises can be made
to pay for themselves And how
ever deserving or blameless the resi-
dents of Greenbelt may be, they
must realize that in some ways they
constitute specially privileged
group, that there is much to be said
against the principle of special
privilege in democracy.
Disadvantages Listed.
Greenbelters undoubtedly realize,
too. that in certain respects they
have fewer privileges than suburban
townsmen elsewhere. They can
not look forward to owning the
| homes in which they live They
are circumScrlbed as to maximum
as well as minimum income Limits,
and know that if they prosper they
must move on. They are somewhat
aWed and confused by the fact that,
in effect their landlords and their
municipal executives are the same
persons.
There are good reasons why these
things are as they are, and to at
tempt to change them now might
be unwise. But it is we'll to note
their psychological influence.
To allow Greenbelters to buy
their homes would defeat the pur-
pose for which the houses were
built-to operate them communally
under a single ownership for the
benefit of low-income families only.
This explains also why there neces-
Sarily must be a maximum family
income limit. Still, these limitations
cause many Greenbelt residents to
look upon their town as purely a
temporary domicile, place to re-
main few years, possibly to save
money to buy a house elsewhere.
Such an attitude, as Washingtonians
well known, tends to reduce rather
than to promote civic pride. Wheth-
er Geenbelt'S present strong civic
consciousness can long endure on
such a basis remains to be seen.
Necessarily it must lose some of it's
most active and ambitious citizens
when family incomes rise too far
over the $2,250 maximum. (There
is no inf1exible rule, but when fami-
lies increase their incomes to a
point when they can we'll afford to
pay higher rents they are asked to
give way to those more in need.
This has happened in five instances
thus far)
Great Power for Officials.
On its current budget Greenbelt
could not afford to hire a full time
town manager, town treasurer and
director of public safety and drop
its present plan of paying the F. S.
AS $6,500 community manager an
extra $1,000 to serve as town man.
ager and retaining two other F. S. A.
officials at 81 a year to fill the other
positions. Neither could it afford
to maintain offices separate from
those of the F. S. AS representa-
tives. But these factors combine
to place great power in the hands
of the double-duty officials, par
ticularly the town-community man
ager
Their fears may be unfounded,
but a number of Greenbelt tenants
hesitate to speak frankly to out
siders-or at any rate to a news
paperman-stating off the record
that if they appear at all dissatis-
fed with conditions in the town
their one-year leases may not be
renewed. Exaggerated though ap-
prehension may be in such a case,
it can be removed only by separa-
ton of municipal and landlord Of
ficialdom or by a specific protective
clause in the leases.
All In all, if Greenbelt is to be a
practical as we'll as theoretical dem
onStratlon OF planned SUBURBAN nV-
ing, it must be brought closer to
reality.
Future Greenbelts must be built
on a simpler scale and with more
actual community building left for
the residents to do for themselves.
Permanence Vital.
Residents should be given the
right to remain in the community
if they wish to do so, thus afford
ing permanence and stability. This
could be done by offering them the
privilege of buying land nearby or
by establishment of higher rent resi-
dental areas for tenant income
graduates"
1t would seem desirable to have
future Greenbelts turned over to
locally owned housing authorities
as soon as practicable. (The Farm
Security Administration probably
| would be the first to insist upon