The Living New Deal Project

From San Francisco's Aquatic Park to West Berkeley's paved roads . . . to our local airports and the myriad WPA murals . . . a network of New Deal projects underlies a significant portion of our public infrastructure, largely unnoticed.

The Living New Deal Project formed in an effort to document the legacy of these works, and to make public and visible the grand heritage we owe to the policies and agencies of FDR's New Deal.

Writer Gray Brechin and photographer Robert Dawson began the project in 2003. They soon realized that the scope of the project would entail a communal effort, with contributions from California's teachers, students, librarians and historians.

In the process of revealing what the New Deal accomplished and left us, we hope to demonstrate the necessary and enriching role of the public domain in a healthy democracy, as well as to honor the forgotten veterans of our peacetime army as we honor those of wartime. (From LNDP Website)

The Living New Deal Project will culminate in 2008 (the 75th anniversary of Roosevelt's inaugural address of 1933) with multimedia presentations, a book, an online database, exhibits, public presentations and more.

Read about the ongoing efforts at the Living New Deal Project website, as well as in a recent article by Gray Brechin in the Berkeley Daily Planet: The New Deal Legacy Remains Visible and Vibrant in the East Bay.

Brechin and Harvey Smith will also host a bus tour through historic sites built by unionized labor - July 29 at 10a. The tour costs $15, begins at Aquatic Park, and reservations are required. (415) 642-8066.

• Photos of WPA Murals at Coit Tower
• Photos of WPA Murals at Rincon Center Postal Annex

^{WPA Mural at Beach Chalet - San Francisco
Photo © Ingrid Taylar}