Videos

EDENS LOST AND FOUND

(Two of four part series - Philadelphia: The Holy Experiment and Chicago: City of the Big Shoulders)
Each program is 57 minutes

In CHICAGO: CITY OF THE BIG SHOULDERS, skyscrapers stand in what was once a field of wild onions. Today, less than one tenth of one percent of the city's original prairies still exists. But the city is bringing back its lost wilderness in both large and small ways as public policy and citizen activism drive dynamic change.

The city's mayor is at the heart of Chicago's efforts to become a greener city. "By investing in green roofs, we basically bring nature back to urban communities," says Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. He has committed major resources to develop a holistic approach to urban ecology. Green rooftops on the city's skyscrapers absorb rainfall, provide wildlife habitats, and are up to 70 degrees cooler than tar rooftops.

Chicago's commitment to green architecture and open space is integral to an economic development strategy to position the city as a cutting-edge 21st century urban environment. But environmentalism wasn't always understood as an urban priority.

For the past 30 years, Stephen Packard has played an important role in bringing the city's natural heritage back to life. "People are hungry to have the experience of being in a wild, beautiful, ancient place," Packard says. Chicago Wilderness, a coalition of more than 170 organizations, is dedicated to restoring and preserving the natural ecology around the city and cleaning up the rivers and preserving wetlands.

On the South Side of Chicago, factories have crumbled, the manufacturing economy has gone bust, and the area is home to 25 Superfund cleanup sites. As environmental activists envision the slag heaps as meadows, tensions mount over fear that the remaining industry will be forced out and there will be no hope for future job creation.

Balancing environmental goals with economic opportunity remains a challenge for America's industrial cities, but all sides recognize that pollution is a deadly option.

Kids are "how we'll turn all of this around," says Deb Perryman, an environmental science teacher at Chicago's Elgin High School, where 52 percent of her students live below the poverty level. Through her leadership, 35 acres of school land have been turned into a nature preserve where students gain hands-on experience while learning about the environment.

PHILADELPHIA: THE HOLY EXPERIMENT In the early 1900s, Philadelphia was a thriving steel town with a population of more than two million people. But the city was hit hard when its economy turned away from heavy manufacturing and its population declined by half a million people. The city is still working to demolish or repair thousands of vacant homes and abandoned buildings. Restoration efforts take place one lot at a time as the city and its community members take responsibility for their neighborhoods.

"I wanted neighbors around here to look out their window and see that crazy woman is still out here picking up trash," says the President of Carroll Park Neighbors. In her neighborhood, repeated efforts to save the park from drug dealers withered until the Horticultural Society stepped in with a monetary grant as an incentive to get the project moving.

A pioneer in city agriculture, Mary Seton Corboy has been a model for city farmers across the nation. "Now you're a pioneer but initially you're just a nutcase," says Corboy. At her hydroponic farm in the middle of the city, produce is grown above what was a Superfund industrial waste cleanup site.

Urban agriculture's success depends on restaurants to buy locally-grown produce. "Our survival really depends on making business decisions in the best interest of the common good," says one restaurant owner, who buys only local, sustainably grown, in- season produce. She believes that small farming businesses add character to a city.

Philadelphia's restoration projects go further than clearing away debris. "The heart of community revitalization is the ability to touch people's heart and souls, and I think that art can do that," says the Program Director of the Murals Art Project, which started as a cleanup effort to reduce graffiti. Her organization's large murals on buildings have become the voice of the community and the project's artists have turned the city itself into a large canvas.

"The journey starts here and now," says Lilly Yeh, an artist who is the head of another public arts project in what was one of the toughest abandoned lots in North Philadelphia. She has transformed a wasteland of abandoned buildings into a kaleidoscope of beautiful colors, a place for people to live and congregate. The project has also transformed lives.

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