News Review Has Covered Controversy For Decades

From week one, Greenbelters sounded their yawp out over the headlines and sidebars of the Greenbelt Cooperator. Not unlike the story of the young shepherd who slew Goliath, the newspaper's dexterity for tackling its giant was built up while tending the little sheep of neighborhood tug of wars. On December 1, 1937, an article titled "THE PROPER PLACE FOR TRASH CANS," scolded negligent citizens who failed to realize "the unsightly appearance that 'parked' trash cans make in the rear of their homes" – a precursor to the battles their descendents would duke out over recalcitrant recyclers.

To be or not to be – a pet owner that is, was a decades-long debate. In 1937, a Greenbelter wrote the Cooperator warning if one person were allowed to have a dog, his neighbor would be allowed a cat, and "In the early hours of the morning it is not so easy to shut up a cat serenade." The argument ended in 1957, (or did it?), when residents with four-legged friends took their eviction cases to court and won. Fido stayed.

Cooperator contributors also took part in the public platform. In 1940, a former staff member wrote to complain about the previous issue, saying without equivocation it was the worst newspaper ever, quite simply, "it stunk." And in 1950, editor, Harry Zubkoff waxed poetic in his denouncement of a local vandal:

This I say and this I mean

And you can mark it down,

That someday I will catch the guy

Who cuts my clothesline down!

On Feb. 4, 1960, Vivian Greenbaum made it into the annals of Greenbelt News Review protests, when she printed her spouse's misdeeds. Forget water colors, Vivian went straight to the "The Scream." Calling herself "editor in chieftess," she informed readers that for two years her husband, Russell, had gone to board meetings with the words, "Don't come back editor," boomeranging between his ears. Despite this, she said, "He lost his nerve the coward," and caved to the board's wishes for him to take the post.

The newspaper's local flair continued down the years, from the hotly contested pink house that broke all color rules, to the women turned outlaw who marched into the town center wearing shorts not skirts, as well as the streakers who made the mistake of peeling it off among the brambles of Greenbelt Lake.

But the battles weren't all clothing and Chihuahuas. As the town grew, so did its debates. In 1952, when the federal government was forced to sell Greenbelt, the News Review covered the seismic shakeup. Editor, Sally Meredith spoke out in a front page editorial, titled, "Future for Sale," saying the fight to maintain Greenbelt would take "ceaseless vigilance."

A warning that proved true. From the 1950s onward, the News Review reported on king-of-the-mountain face offs between hungry developers pushing for higher density zoning and Greenbelt residents holding fast to the original pioneers' green vision. The rehabilitations of homes and public facilities have also been hot newspaper topics along with the arrival of Metro and the city's budgets.

The News Review took the trend into this century. In 2008, it covered the controversy over the seven-decade void of black members on the City Council. And minority candidate Emmett Jordan made the front page on Nov. 5, 2009, winning a seat and making Greenbelt history.

Raising city-wide and neighborhood issues, the News Review has been in continuous publication since its first days of mimeographed sheets and hand stapling. "It's unusual that a community of this size could produce a newspaper every week for 73 years without missing an issue," said Megan Searing Young, Greenbelt Museum curator.

They haven't had one lapse, "no matter what was happening, no matter how catastrophic," added Sheila Maffay-Tuthill, education coordinator of the Museum.

But there were some close calls. Mary Lou Williamson, the News Review's longest term editor, recalled a fateful Wednesday morning in 1952 that was "the greatest panic that we ever had in one week." Her neighbor was running the copy to the print shop on the back of his motorcycle when it fell off during rush hour. Despite panicked radio appeals for help and frantic searches along the shoulders of Kenilworth Avenue, like the country song – it was gone, gone, gone. Mary Lou and a team of volunteers attempted to salvage the paper. "We ransacked the waste baskets trying to recover," said Williamson.

Recover they did, keeping the record up to this week, when the Greenbelt News Review is slated to deliver its latest edition. Wagers aren't out yet on the stories the staff will cover, but it's a good bet that Vol. 73, No. 43 will make it to Greenbelters' doorsteps on time – come developers, motorcycle mishaps, high winds or streakers.

This is the last story in a series of three about the Greenbelt News Review.