In 2003, Dr. Brechin began to study the nearly invisible legacy of public works projects created during President Roosevelt’s New Deal to lift the country out of the last great depression.  The Living New Deal Project is a collaborative venture begun by Dr. Brechin and photographer Robert Dawson to document and interpret the impact of the WPA, CCC, PWA, CWA, FSA and other New Deal programs in California. They soon discovered that the New Deal legacy is so vast and poorly documented that it required the help of others to harvest information. Former State Librarian Kevin Starr has likened the Project to a WPA project from the 1930s in its ambition and scope. California’s public landscape of the New Deal includes schools, hospitals, parks, roads, sewers, airports, amphitheaters, bridges, golf courses, aqueducts, power stations, city halls, art works, and more constructed by a half dozen federal agencies.

Dr. Brechin notes, “As the worldwide economic crisis deepens, Franklin Delano Roosevelt remains the gold standard of leadership – a style and approach that many hope and expect President Obama to emulate. Few understand the magnitude and ubiquity of its achievements.” Dr. Brechin is currently vice president of the National New Deal Preservation Association and a visiting scholar at the U.C. Berkeley Department of Geography.

The Oakland Heritage Alliance is a non-profit membership organization which advocates the protection, preservation and revitalization of Oakland’s architectural, historic and cultural resources. For more information, contact the Oakland Heritage Alliance, (510) 763-9218 or email info@oaklandheritage.org.