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.

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.