 THOMAS HILTON: SAVE OUR LANDS SAVE OUR TOWNS Bullfrog Films, Inc. PO Box 149 Oley, PA 19547 USA NTSC format email Bullfrog Films visit Bullfrog Films' Website Before commenting on this review please read the FAQ page Home page Notes for publishers Want to be a reviewer? Anthologies. Books. Audio. Magazines. Software. Video. Artefacts. Web design by Gerald England This page last updated: 15th September 2003. |
THOMAS HILTON: SAVE OUR LANDS SAVE OUR TOWNS | |
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This is a video about Urban decay and suburban sprawl in America. Tom Hilton, the presenter has seen changes take place over the years in his own adopted town of Pottstown, Pennsylvania over the years. In the 30s, 40s and 50s towns and cities consisted of good housing stock. Work-places, schools and shopping were all within walking distance and people felt safe. The video documents ribbon development in Chester County as new roads cut through the area from Delaware. Expensive preservation orders saved only a small portion of the rapidly-disappearing farmland. Postwar regulations positively encouraged the growth of white middle-class suburbs to the detriment of the inner cites where subsidised housing for the poor was concentrated. Regulations in the 80s meant that re-using disused brownfield sites was more expensive than building on green sites. I was thinking about how much of this correlates with what happened in the UK in the 50s and 60s. But then, the author recounts his first trip to London. He does the tourist must-see sites on foot in an hour and a half and thinks he's just seen almost the whole of the history of EnglandI am left aghast at the man's ignorance. London doesn't feel crowded to him. He can have a whole riverside bench to himself at the height of the tourist season. Maybe that's because those citizens who aren't away playing tourists elsewhere are too busy in their offices or attending to the needs of tourists in other parts of the capital to waste their own time looking at a filthy river and the history they take for granted. But such nonsense is a diversion from the main thrust of this video. Elsewhere in the country he visits Letchworth, one of the earliest of the Garden Cities. He cites this as an example of good practice in Town Planning. Back in the States he cites Portland, Oregan where Land Use Law has been reformed to facilitate the recycling of abandonded land and the provision of suitable public transort. Other examples include Charlotte, North Carolina and Celebration, Florida. The aim in Lancaster, Pennsylvania is to change the law in order to promote regional planning, build traditional communities and to invest in exisiting cities and towns. At times, the presenter sounds like a whinging evangelist, but if you can ignore the sanctimonious, self-rightuous tone of the video, then it has a lot to say and presents some real solutions to the proliferation of urban decay and suburban sprawl. As one contributor says, it is all about "Liveability". | ||
| reviewer: Martin Grampound. |