Save Our Land, Save Our Towns 2000
Distributed by Bullfrog Films, PO Box 149, Oley, PA 19547; 800-543-FROG (3764)
Produced by Tom Hylton
Director n/a
VHS, color, 57 min.
Adult
Environmental Studies, Economics, Business, Urban Studies
Date Entered: 11/09/2018
Reviewed by Michael J. Coffta, Business Librarian, Bloomsburg University of PennsylvaniaThe host of this documentary, Pulitzer Prize winning newsman Tom Hylton, initially draws a bleak picture of American population distribution. The American middle class exodus to the suburbs has been leaving behind shells of communities and brought about development of the “suburban sprawl” of strip malls, parking lots, and commuter roadways where expansive farmland once laid. Hylton provides many compelling tales of the flawed logic of construction of suburban housing developments which increase commuting time, harm the environment, and leave dilapidated, racially severed cities behind. Furthermore, Hylton elaborates on the questionable logic of local zoning laws. Having no regional oversight, many counties’ zoning laws make it advantageous for developers to build on farmland instead of redeveloping vacant urban lots. Hylton uses a good deal of humor to point out the lack of sensibility of such laws.
Hylton offers hope after superbly outlining the problem of suburban sprawl. He discusses the philosophy of city and town planners in Europe. He also points to the positive trends set in places like Celebration, Florida; Portland, Oregon; and Charlotte, North Carolina. Finally, Hylton suggests a creative way to build a new community in the lot of an abandoned pie factory in Hylton’s hometown of Pottstown, Pennsylvania.
Save Our Land, Save Our Towns is highly recommended for all audiences above and including high schools students due to the strength of its sensible organization and demonstration of the problem. Hylton provides an earnest and affable delivery in his narration. In his plan for new communities, however, Hylton fails to answer the simple question, “Where will these people work?” Hyton speaks of ways to build housing in vacant factory sites but says nothing about replacing the factories. This is a fine film that examines one aspect of a large and complex problem, but certainly warrants further discussion of the macroeconomic issues that lead to urban flight and the disappearing American manufacturing base.