Euglossine orchid bee pollinating a vanilla orchid flower in the train exhibit at the U.S. Botanic Garden. If you’re looking for something fun (and educational) to do between now and New Year’s Day, the U.S. Botanic Garden gets my enthusiastic vote, especially since their beloved trains are running outdoors! (Thanks to covid, and now permanent.) It’s weather-permitting, of course, but ...

A big Greenbelt welcome to our new city manager Josue Salmeron and his family, who JUST bought a GHI home on Ridge Road! When I ran into them, Josue’s wife Tania Hutchinson was marveling at Roosevelt Center, and the kids Ahnika and Josue Brooks seemed to like it, too. On the left is a brother (of Josue, I believe), who ...

What a news week for Greenbelt – the election, and now the announcement late Thursday that Greenbelt has been selected as the site of the new FBI headquarters! It’s SUCH a big story for Greenbelt – the announcement and everything to follow – that Greenbelt Online is reporting it, with a focus on coverage by the media. We begin with ...

“What happened to emails from Greenbelt Online?” It took hearing that question (from someone in the grocery store) for me to finally realize that subscribers to this blog had stopped receiving updates by email – back in March of this year. Sorry!!! The reason is that the number of subscribers had become too large for our free version of Mailchimp, ...

Mayor Emmett Jordan holds the city’s Proclamation of the 20th Anniversary of the Forest Preserve. He’s joined by “forest protectors” Susan Barnett, Paul Downs and Konrad Herling, as Council member Ric Gordon applauds. Photo by the author. What a glorious event it was celebrating the 20th anniversary of Greenbelt’s beloved Forest Preserve. A crowd of forest-lovers turned out to hear ...

Voting Starts this Saturday Click here for details about voting in the 2023 City Council elections. Problems with Greenbelt’s Council Elections Back in 2017 I predicted low voter turn-out in the Council elections due to Greenbelt’s system of voting – all Council seats are at-large – which pro-democracy and voting rights groups criticize, for good reason: At-Large Voting as Incumbent ...

Remember October of 2022, when Greenbelt’s first Wild Rumpus event was brought to us by our very talented Recreation and ARTS Department? Here’s a quick highlights video if you don’t. As the community gathered again in Roosevelt Center to see V. 2 of Wild Rumpus, we wondered if it would be a repeat of that wonderful event, or something new ...

Greenbelt’s very own, very special Utopia Film Festival happened last weekend and was, by all accounts, a big success! A project of Greenbelt Access Television, the festival started in 2005 and shows a wide variety of films (features, documentaries, and shorts) from independent filmmakers from the DC area and beyond. With the mission of “Seeking a better world through film,” ...

Greenbelters pick out their pumpkins at the main tent The Greenbelt Pumpkin Festival kicked off last weekend, starting with the annual pumpkin carving in Roosevelt Center on Friday.Despite the rainy weather all afternoon, the community showed up in the evening to excitedly pick out their pumpkins and get to carving. Thankfully, multiple community members came together and provided their personal ...

The niche sport that has grown in popularity for teenagers and young adults over social media this year has been around in the senior community of Greenbelt since before the COVID-19 pandemic. What began as four people playing pickleball — three of whom had never played before — turned into an organized senior program that meets four times a week ...

A black-gum tree lived to an unusually old age in Greenbelt, Maryland, near Research Road and the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. Within a few years of 1720, this black gum sprouted in an old-growth forest, based on growth rings visible on the tree’s stump and the historical record. In 2018, the black gum died and was cut down. The tree’s ...

  Engineering and design consultants from MDOT and Neighborhood Design Center (NDC) meet with advocates for the Greenbelt East Trail. Left to right: Diane Harris and Dan Behrend of Friends of the Greenbelt East Trail, Greenbelt mayor pro-tem Kristen Weaver, design consultants Ben Max (MDOT/JMT Engineering ), Micaela Ada (NDC), Toyin Animashaun (MDOT/JMT), and Laura Robinson (NDC), Charnell Ferguson from ...

From left, Greenbelt Sharks swimmers Kathy Labukas, Billy Webb, Kendra Keeney, Sandra Bowman, coach Jack Trudeau, Jean Lentz and Jon McElderry at the Princemont League Championship in August of 1959. Kathy was 9 and won 2nd place in freestyle. Kathy Labukas grew up in Greenbelt and swam with its first swim team, which formed in 1957. The coach, Al Castaldi, ...

Recent sightings of Clarke Bedford’s art cars awaiting service at Greenbelt Auto and Truck. Meet the Creator I’m just one of the many Greenbelters using this parking lot near the Greenbelt Co-op who’s stopped to gawk and photograph the incredible-looking cars sometimes parked there. These “art cars” are the work of Clarke Bedford, retired after 23 years as a conservator ...

Not far from Greenbelt, located inside the Patuxent Wildlife Research Refuge, is this humble little laboratory – the Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab – that’s internationally famous among entomologists, ecologists and an assortment of nature-loving professionals and amateurs, too. It’s led by Sam Droege (rhymes with “hoagie”), a wildlife biologist with the Eastern Ecological Science Center, which works with ...

Greenbelt’s Second Annual Pride Festival earlier this month was a joyful and inspiring event, a feel-good happening I didn’t know I needed until suddenly I did. A sentiment no doubt shared by the large crowd. Seeing some very competent photographers and videographers at the event, I stopped taking them myself, except for snapping this cute dog all dolled-up for Pride ...

There’s a new business in town, a most welcome dance studio located conveniently in Beltway Plaza Mall – the Evolution Dance Studio. It’s located near the AMC movie theaters, next to Shaymar Higgs’ Free Art for All and across the hall from his Third Space Lounge. It’s a creative hub! So far, classes are offered in: Ballet/Lyrical, Hip Hop, Jazz, ...

This year’s Greenbelt Green Man Festival was a huge hit, thanks in large part to these intrepid organizers, from left: Tim Sauerwein, Raven Eyes Cagle, Dorian Winterfeld and Amethyst Dwyer. We thank them!! Entertainment Highlights Video Like the festival itself, this highlights video was a collaboration. (A two-day festival edited down to 4 minutes? It took a village!) The names ...

The Festival Recently I felt lucky that I heard through the grapevine about a new film festival happening on a Saturday afternoon in the beloved and gorgeous Old Greenbelt Theatre. Because it was a “private screening” with invites going to friends and family, word of mouth somehow brought it to my attention. All I knew was the name – Wild ...

by Kate Murray It’s finally time to clean out your understairs closet and get an outdoor shed for your GHI townhouse. It’s a bit of a process and takes some planning but it’s doable. Here’s what I’ve learned if it’s helpful for you. This was definitely a learning curve for me and I spent a good deal of time stalking ...