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Living New Deal NYC

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If you didn’t know better, you might get the impression that New York City owes its existence to private wealth alone. From NYU Langone Medical Center to Geffen Hall and from the David H. Koch Theater to the Rose Center for Earth and Space, many of the City’s hospitals, cultural institutions, and tourist destinations proudly display the names of private benefactors for all to see. But there was a time—from 1933 – 1943—when the federal government funded and built the city’s public works. The Living New Deal NYC’s Working Group is determined to raise public awareness of that incomparable ten-year period via tours, panel discussions, social and traditional media, and our signage project, which aims to design and mount signs at New Deal legacy sites across the five boroughs of the city.

Recent Activity

Updates & Advocacy

Table of New Deal Projects in New York City

Living New Deal August 14, 2020

By Frank da Cruz, Kermit Project This is an attempt to list all the tangible New Deal contributions to New York City: bridges, highways, tunnels,…

Raising the New Deal Flag in New York City

Margaret W. Crane May 22, 2019

Two hundred New Yorkers gathered at the Center for Architecture on May 7 to kick off a Living New Deal initiative to familiarize New Yorkers…

Living New Deal NYC: WPA Pools, Still in Widespread Use in the City, Display New Badges of Honor

Living New Deal August 21, 2020

WPA Pools, Still in Widespread Use in the City, Display New Badges of Honor Living New Deal partners with NYC Parks to affix New Deal…

Gordon Parks, “Showing America to Itself”

Jonathan Shipley July 28, 2020

“What the camera had to do was expose the evils of racism, the evils of poverty, the discrimination and the bigotry, by showing the people…

Who We Are

In the spring of 2018, a diverse group of New Yorkers—all ardent fans of the New Deal—came together to form a Working Group charged with bringing public attention to the New Deal’s stunning achievements in the city.

Until the arrival of COVID-19 on our shores, we were meeting once a month at Roosevelt House, a gracious yet modest townhouse on East 65th Street that was home to Franklin and Eleanor during the early days of their marriage. Today, it is part of the Hunter College campus, with Deborah Gardner serving as curator and historian-in-residence. We count ourselves fortunate indeed that Gardner is a member of our Working Group.

All of us dearly hope to meet again in person, once it is safe to do so. But our work continues. In fact, it sustains us.

A special project of the Living New Deal, we’ve built our forces with the help of the organization’s California founders and also through our own networking efforts. The Working Group started out with a half a dozen members, a number that has more than doubled over time, and we’ve also continued to forge relationships with a broad network of like-minded individuals and organizations, including the American Institute of Architects (AIA New York), City Lore, the Museum of the City of New York, FDR Library, and the National Jobs for All Network, among others.

All of us dearly hope to meet again in person, once it is safe to do so. But our work continues. In fact, it sustains us.

As well, we’ve recruited a distinguished group of advisors, who have already helped us advance the cause in important ways. These include:

• Sheila D. Collins
• Teresa Ghilarducci
• Ira Katznelson
• Peter Marcuse
• Ruth Messinger
• Nick Taylor
• Mike Wallace

The Working Group includes people from a wide variety of backgrounds and disciplines, including architecture, history, urban planning, public policy, computer science, journalism, and the arts. What we all share in common is a passion for the New Deal: its physical legacy—visible everywhere you look, if you know where to look!—and its visionary spirit, so urgently needed in our country and our world today.

We invite you to get to know us! Read on for short profiles of today’s New Dealers in a city that’s home to more than 1,000 New Deal legacy sites.

The NYC Team

Ruth Messinger, Advisor

Born and raised in New York City, Ruth Messinger imbibed her parents’ passion for FDR and especially for the New Deal as a model for what government could and should do. Her long career as a social worker, celebrated New York City politician, and honored social justice leader reflects and magnifies that passion.

At Harvard University, she was inspired by one of her professors, who started every class saying, “I told Franklin….”—a phrase that seemed to connect her to a living past. Read more

Videos

Contact

To join our efforts as an adviser, institutional partner, supporter, or active member of the NYC working group, please contact us at [email protected].

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