THE VIDEO

Save Our Land, Save Our Towns is an hour-long public television documentary about saving our towns and countryside.

The program has been broadcast by more than 100 PBS stations nationwide. Like the book, the video is a story of hope - logical reasons why America's towns can be rebuilt and its countryside preserved from strip malls and subdivisions.

The program follows the quest of small town newsman Tom Hylton to discover why America's towns have declined and what we can do to revive them. His journey includes recollections of the idyllic towns of his youth, a visit to devastated inner city neighborhoods, and a look at once-verdant farmland that has been lost to development.

Hylton explores Depression-era policies which gave rise to sprawl, talks to builders about laws that encourage sprawl, and homeowners about the downsides to the "American dream."

In England, Hylton learns how green belts and garden cities preserve towns and countryside. In Oregon, he meets a farmer-legislator who pioneered growth boundaries to do the same thing. In North Carolina, he visits towns that have adopted new zoning laws to encourage traditional neighborhoods, and in Florida, he finds a new town where people can walk to the grocery store and kids can walk to a K-12 public school.

He returns to Pennsylvania to learn how new "brownfields" policies can encourage the redevelopment of our cities.

Hylton concludes by listing logical, practical ways America can rebuild its towns, preserve its countryside, and provide more secure, neighborly communities for people of all ages and incomes.