Greenbelt News Review

08/22/2025

Greenbelt Labor Day Festival Schedule for Friday, Saturday

At 6 p.m. on Friday, August 29, the Ferris Wheel starts turning and the grills start sizzling as the Greenbelt Labor Day Festival returns to the town center. Carnival rides, bingo, fair food, sporting events, music performances, the big parade and a chance to connect with your community and neighbors are all just around the corner. The News Review has a quick guide to getting the most out of this beloved summer-ending festival. See this week's issue for the events on Friday and Saturday; next week’s issue will focus on events for Sunday and Monday. Also find your pull-out guide in this week's issue!
Read more here: https://www.greenbeltnewsreview.com/news-stories/greenbelt-labor-day-festival-schedule-for-friday-saturday-2/

08/21/2025

GESTA Calls for Intervention To Halt Closure of Visitor Center

Goddard Engineers, Scientists and Technicians Association (GESTA) International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 29, the union representing federal employees at the Goddard Space Flight Center, is calling on Congressional leaders, local government officials, economic stakeholders and the public to take immediate action to stop the proposed closure of the Goddard Visitor Center ‒ a decision that, if enacted, it says would inflict irreparable harm on the community, the regional economy and NASA’s public mission, they argue.

Read more here: https://www.greenbeltnewsreview.com/news-stories/gesta-calls-for-intervention-to-halt-closure-of-visitor-center/

08/20/2025

City Council Nominations Opened Monday; Noncitizens May Run

On Monday, August 18, the period in which to file as a candidate for Greenbelt City Council began. Any qualified voter who is at least 18 years of age is eligible to run. Beginning this year, that includes noncitizens.

Read more here:

Published continuously since the New Deal City of Greenbelt was founded in 1937, the News Review is delivered free to most Greenbelt residents. In 1970 we won a landmark First Amendment case in the Supreme Court.

08/18/2025

Update on Saturday law enforcement activity on Ridge Road

The Metropolitan Police Department has announced the arrest of a 30-year-old resident of Ridge Road. On Saturday, August 16, members of the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested the man and charged him with felony assault of a police officer.
The charges stem from an incident in March when officers attempted to stop the Greenbelt man on U Street, Northwest in DC. At that time he fled, hitting two officers with the ATV he was driving.
The man was also charged by the State of Maryland earlier this month with misdemeanor fi****ms and ammunition violations.
More in the August 21 issue.

08/16/2025

Greenbelt Police Department Not Involved in Morning Activity on Ridge

Update: At 12:12 p.m. on Saturday, Greenbelt Police Department issued the following statement:
"Early this morning, the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force executed a warrant at a home in the 100 block of Ridge Road. This warrant was connected to a case from Washington, D.C., involving the D.C. Police. No officers from Greenbelt were present during the ex*****on of the warrant."
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Shortly before 6 a.m. this morning, Saturday, August 16, at Greenbelt Elementary School, there was a gathering of individuals who appeared to be law enforcement agents and eight or more unmarked vehicles.
According to eye witness reports and a Greenbelt News Review reporter, they proceeded from the elementary school along Ridge Road, towards Lastner Lane, dispersing from their activity on Ridge Road before 7 a.m.
Greenbelt Police Department (GPD) was recently involved in a multi-agency operation on Ridge Road (see the July 17 issue) but this morning GPD told the News Review they were not involved in any activity on Ridge Road.

08/14/2025

Preservation Plans Are Proposed For Greenbelt’s Historic Cemeteries

On July 23, Carolyn Gimbal of Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson (JMT), who has been contracted by the city to formulate a plan for the preservation of Greenbelt’s historic cemeteries, presented their Master Preservation Plan for Hamilton, Turner and Walker cemeteries in Greenbelt. This was the first public introduction of the plan, which was funded in part by a grant matched by the city.

Read more here: https://www.greenbeltnewsreview.com/news-stories/preservation-plans-are-proposed-for-greenbelts-historic-cemeteries/

08/14/2025

Former Fire Chief Tiffany Green
Placed on Administrative Leave

Tiffany Green has been placed on administrative leave, with pay suspended, the Office of the County Executive told the Greenbelt News Review. The suspension of her pay is pending the resolution of the investigation.
Green is Prince George's County Assistant Deputy Chief Administrative Officer for Public Safety. This comes less than two months after she retired as Prince George's County Fire Chief on July 1 to accept her new position, under new County Executive Aisha Braveboy (see the July 3 issue).
See page 8 of our current issue.
https://www.greenbeltnewsreview.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/GNR20250814.pdf

08/13/2025

Maglev Stopped in Its Tracks

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) announced that the proposed Baltimore-Washington Superconducting Magnetic Levitation rail line, known as maglev, is no longer happening.

Federal officials cancelled the $26 million in grant funding for the project.

Read more here: https://www.greenbeltnewsreview.com/news-stories/maglev-stopped-in-its-tracks/

08/09/2025

Greenbelters Urged to Garden

Over 80 years after the establishment of Greenbelt’s community gardens, Councilmember Danielle McKinney launched Greenbelt Grows this April.

She said that the initiative, partnered with the Greenbelt Rotary Club and the Chesapeake Education, Arts and Research Society (CHEARS), is geared toward helping gardeners grow more and address issues like food insecurity by creating stronger community connections.
..She hopes that residents can use Greenbelt Grows as a network to get information about gardening and also to share produce with those who may need it.

Shaymar Higgs, founder and executive director of The SPACE: Free Art for All, said that’s exactly what he’d like to see in Greenbelt.

“I always have plants that I’m trying to give away, cuttings that I’m trying to give away. There isn’t really a channel for that, or even for tool sharing,” Higgs said. “It would be nice to have those kinds of channels.”

He also has a plot on Gardenway where he grows plants native to Maryland and plants that are part of local African American history, and he’s started his own initiative to encourage gardening in Greenbelt.

His initiative, called Real Men Grow, focuses on improving men’s mental health by getting men in the garden and comfortable in nature.

Read more here: https://www.greenbeltnewsreview.com/news-stories/greenbelters-urged-to-garden-may-help-with-food-insecurity/

08/08/2025

James K. Giese, Former City Manager, Has Died August 2, 2025

James K. Giese, 94, Greenbelt’s city manager for 28 years, died at his home in the Collington retirement community on Saturday, August 2. He served from 1962 to 1990. Giese steered the city during the 1960s and 1970s, known as Greenbelt’s turbulent development years that brought major highways, shopping centers and single-family housing throughout the planned community and threatened the green belt. He was named Greenbelt’s Outstanding Citizen in 2010.
More here and in next week's issue:
https://www.greenbeltnewsreview.com/news-stories/james-k-giese-former-city-manager-has-died/

08/04/2025

The Greenbelt Branch Library closed Sunday, August 3. It will reopen on Tuesday, August 12. The closure is necessary to replace major HVAC components.

The closure has resulted in the cancellation of most of the events scheduled to happen at the library that were included in current issue of the News Review.

08/02/2025

Greenbelters Hold Emergency Meeting about BARC Closure

Greenbelt residents met on Saturday, July 26 in the Greenbelt City Council chambers for an emergency meeting in response to the potential closure of the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC).

Read about it here: https://www.greenbeltnewsreview.com/news-stories/greenbelters-hold-emergency-meeting-about-barc-closure/.

Published continuously since the New Deal City of Greenbelt was founded in 1937, the News Review is delivered free to most Greenbelt residents. In 1970 we won a landmark First Amendment case in the Supreme Court.