ISBN: 9781933392264 Year Added to Catalog: 2006 Book Format: Paperback Book Art: Full Color, Resources, Index Number of Pages: 8 x 10, 304 pages Book Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing Old ISBN: 1933392266 Release Date: September 15, 2006
Also in Nature & Environment
Edens Lost & Found
How Ordinary Citizens Are Restoring Our Great American Cities
Treehugger
by Petz Scholtus, Barcelona on 04.17.07
Culture & Celebrity (books)
They might be small acts of do-goods but together America's citizens are making a difference. Green is the new and growing movement many people choose to join. And this is what Edens Lost & Found, a multi-part PBS series, are highlighting. Local efforts of simply making cities more beautiful by creating communities, planting a wildflower oasis, converting rooftops into gardens, better transportation systems or Wifi for everyone are all local actions taken in a single city block. ??But make no mistake about it?? says Van Jones in his foreword of the book Edens Lost & Found. ??The true implications of their efforts are not just local. They are global??, he continues. The book is full of real-life stories of how ordinary citizens are setting up projects to make America??s cities more sustainable. The examples prove that environmental solutions can cost less instead of more and that they do trigger growth. Apart from the four example cities (Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Seattle) and its green projects, the book features a ??Path to Sustainability?? with explanations and tips for Wasted Energy, Urban Forestry, Mass Transit or Pedestrian-Friendliness. Clear and simple tips into how Green Roofs work or how to build a Rain Garden can be found throughout the book. DVDs and individual books about each documented city are also available. Edens Lost & Found by Harry Wiland and Dale Bell is available through their web site and costs $30 USD in hardback. If you??d like to get involved, are looking for teaching material or would like to know how green your city is, just dip into the web site for a start. But be aware that just reading the enthusiastic and refreshing stories may inspire you to knock on your neighbours?? doors and get them to join you to grow a vegetable garden and cover your building with solar panels . . . Thanks Mira & Todd for the tip!
Do-gooders unite in the Los Angeles version of PBS' four-part traveling series Edens Lost & Found: How Ordinary Citizens Are Restoring Our Great American Cities. Whether it's cleaning up a park in a gang-infested area or planting trees to help the ecological system, regular folk prove they can make a difference. But by the end of the hour, it feels like a bit of overkill.
Narrated by Jimmy Smits, one-hour special examines different scenarios in which locals find that getting off the couch and actively participating in the ecological welfare of L.A. gives them a feeling of accomplishment -- as well as making the city a more hospitable and healthy place to live.
First seg focuses on Andy Lipkis, the president of Tree People and a believer in the power of the pine (and the fern and the palm). Planting trees since the mid-1970s, Lipkis and his team have helped reduce smog levels; a clip of him presenting a small tree to Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show" establishes that he has never been in this for the short run.
Following seg profiles Darrell Clarke, a public transportation advocate who hopes Angelenos will one day commute by paddling down the L.A. River. It doesn't wash. "Jetsons"-like personalized spacecraft probably has a better chance of coming to fruition than L.A. boating.
Enlightening piece on Ed Begley Jr. covers the actor's longstanding commitment to everything green -- from his well-known electric car to the solar panels on his modest house. His decades-long resoluteness in a town where marriages often last less than a single TV season should be applauded.
Greater Philadelphia House & Home
September 2006
Edens Lost & Found: How Ordinary Citizens are Restoring Our Great
American Cities is the companion book to the PBS television series that premiered in May, featuring Philadelphia and Chicago. The show??s second installment, scheduled to air in October, will cover Los Angeles and Seattle.
The book??s Philadelphia section, titled ??The Holy Experiment,? declares Philadelphia as one of the great American cities that faces a range of demographic, economic and environmental challenges. The book shares the stories of average citizens, progressive government agencies and local organizations that refuse to accept defeat and choose to take action in their communities.
Edens Lost & Found reveals how to become part of a collaborative movement
of unification and renewal. It emphasizes the importance of relationships within
communities in sustaining a city??s ecosystem. The book celebrates the success stories of neighborhoods that have reshaped their land, lending further inspiration to communities who have visions of enlivening and transforming their urban landscapes.
For ordinary citizens who look for motivation from everyday heroes, Edens
Lost & Found tells the tales of four cities whose average Joe??s-turned activists have led the new wave of urban revitalization. Learn about innovative greening techniques you can implement in your community that will not only beautify your landscape but also strengthen your neighborhood relations. The book also includes a listing of Philadelphia area resources.
Review
Book News
August 2006
Focusing on Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Seattle??all cities facing a range of demographic, economic and environmental challenges??this volume highlights the many small acts of heroism, activism and leadership that bring neighborhoods together to build landscapes of beauty and surprise. Bell and Wiland, both award- winning documentary filmmakers, provide inspiring examples of citizens restoring their communities by creating sustainable urban ecosystems.
A new PBS series and companion book show how cities are turning green
For the four years I was at college in Providence, starting in 1991, downtown was a noisy, dusty construction zone. Go there today, you??d never guess it. The city tore up the concrete covering a long-buried river and now the river snakes through downtown. In the summer you can paddle it in Italian-style gondolas.
The visionary city designers who saw a river where there was just concrete are apparently not anomalous, not, that is, according to the authors of the new PBS series and companion book, Edens Lost & Found (Chelsea Green). Throughout the country, dozens of city planners and average Joe??s are taking to the streets and transforming urban landscapes.
As coauthors Harry Wiland and Dale Bell make clear, these are not just Band-Aid beautification projects, these efforts and the leaders described in the book are fundamentally changing the nature of their cities, strengthening communities, and improving the environment while they??re at it.
The book and the PBS series focus on four cities: Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Seattle.
The authors take us to Chicago where rooftop gardens are sprouting like wildflowers in the Spring. For cities, rooftop gardens are becoming an effective way for energy reduction; they provide insulation. These roofs also mitigate run-off from heavy rains. City Hall ??leads by example? with their very own.
In Philadelphia, you meet leaders who have transformed blighted, abandoned lots into thriving urban farms and ??keystone gardens,? ??long-term, high-profile, gardens that have become centers for their communities.?
In Los Angeles, you learn about innovators like Andy Lipkis, founder of the Transagency Resources for Environmental and Economic Sustainability who is helping transform the city??s relationship to water through systems-thinking and developing sustainable ways to trap waterfall and reduce the city??s dependence on water from afar.
And, you travel to Seattle where you learn about public transportation initiatives, green building efforts, waterfront restoration projects, and more.
The stories are illustrated with beautiful full color pics and handy, practical elements, too. You can find an easy-to-follow graphic for creating green roofs and a step-by-step guide for how to get your message into the media.
With An Inconvenient Truth hitting theaters now and seemingly daily news about another ??natural? disaster, more and more of us get that we??re heading into global climate crisis. Inundated with the bad news, though, we may fell numbed by the scale of the crisis. But Wiland and Bell show us that some of the real solutions might just be on our doorstep, our roofs, and in our city halls.
While we??re fighting the larger fight ?? to decrease CO2 emissions from the largest polluters, for instance ?? we can fight these smaller, local battles on the homefront, too. Wiland and Bell, and all of the inspiring heroes and sheroes in Edens Lost & Found show us how.
Check out the excellent Edens Lost & Found web site here.
GNN contributor Anna Lappé is the coauthor of Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen. ??Ingenious?: The New York Times, ??Smart and engaging?: Publishers?? Weekly. He is also the co-founder of the Small Planet Institute and a Food and Society Policy Fellow at the WK Kellogg Foundation.
The thousands of viewers who watched Philadelphia: The Holy Experiment on WHYY Sunday afternoon saw an inspiring documentary of urban growth and had good reason to be "pumped" about our city.
Philadelphia is in the spotlight in this nationally broadcast PBS program that is one segment of the four-part series called Edens Lost and Found. Organizations such as the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) and its Philadelphia Flower Show and Philadelphia Green program are featured prominently.
It is the people of Philadelphia, however, who shine brightest - people such as Iris Brown of Norris Square in North Philadelphia, Ed Ellis of Belgrade Gardens in Fishtown, Doris Gwaltney from Carroll Park in West Philadelphia, and hundreds of other featured individuals and organizations. They have embraced the powerful connection between people and the land for the betterment of their community. Their efforts, in partnership with organizations such as PHS, contribute mightily to the rebirth of Philadelphia's neighborhoods.
This documentary eloquently portrays Philadelphia and Philadelphians as both magical and very human. The film follows the paths of muralists, neighborhood organizers, artists and families who have transformed their little pieces of the planet and in doing so have been transformed. It gives us reasons to be proud of where we live, work and play. Can we ever have too many?
I would encourage everyone who cares about the city and its people to watch Philadelphia: The Holy Experiment. It is uplifting and a call to action as well. Get involved. Get excited. Support these efforts to improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods.
Midwest Review of Books
May 7, 2006
An inspiring collection of innovative, constructive project ideas for environmental and neighborhood improvement activists
The companion book to the PBS television program of the same name, Edens Lost And Found: How Ordinary Citizens Are Restoring Our Great American Cities is co-authored by Harry Wiland and Dale Bell with Joseph D'Angnese and is an inspirational and instructive guide to environmental restoration projects undertaken by ordinary cities in the cities of Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Chicago, as well as the remarkable work of many individual activists in their pursuit for a stronger, greener urban environment. Exploring the landscape and natural intervention of many smaller communities and neighborhoods, Edens Lost And Found carries its readers through the processes of remarkable transformations, and reshapings which these ordinary people in collaboration with one another help were able to achieve in a variety of circumstances and conditions. An invaluable addition to community library collections, Edens Lost And Found is particularly recommended reading as an inspiring collection of innovative, constructive project ideas for environmental and neighborhood improvement activists.
Review
Book News
August 2006
Focusing on Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Seattle??all cities facing a range of demographic, economic and environmental challenges??this volume highlights the many small acts of heroism, activism and leadership that bring neighborhoods together to build landscapes of beauty and surprise. Bell and Wiland, both award- winning documentary filmmakers, provide inspiring examples of citizens restoring their communities by creating sustainable urban ecosystems.
The thousands of viewers who watched Philadelphia: The Holy Experiment on WHYY Sunday afternoon saw an inspiring documentary of urban growth and had good reason to be "pumped" about our city.
Philadelphia is in the spotlight in this nationally broadcast PBS program that is one segment of the four-part series called Edens Lost and Found. Organizations such as the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) and its Philadelphia Flower Show and Philadelphia Green program are featured prominently.
It is the people of Philadelphia, however, who shine brightest - people such as Iris Brown of Norris Square in North Philadelphia, Ed Ellis of Belgrade Gardens in Fishtown, Doris Gwaltney from Carroll Park in West Philadelphia, and hundreds of other featured individuals and organizations. They have embraced the powerful connection between people and the land for the betterment of their community. Their efforts, in partnership with organizations such as PHS, contribute mightily to the rebirth of Philadelphia's neighborhoods.
This documentary eloquently portrays Philadelphia and Philadelphians as both magical and very human. The film follows the paths of muralists, neighborhood organizers, artists and families who have transformed their little pieces of the planet and in doing so have been transformed. It gives us reasons to be proud of where we live, work and play. Can we ever have too many?
I would encourage everyone who cares about the city and its people to watch Philadelphia: The Holy Experiment. It is uplifting and a call to action as well. Get involved. Get excited. Support these efforts to improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods.
Midwest Review of Books
May 7, 2006
An inspiring collection of innovative, constructive project ideas for environmental and neighborhood improvement activists
The companion book to the PBS television program of the same name, Edens Lost And Found: How Ordinary Citizens Are Restoring Our Great American Cities is co-authored by Harry Wiland and Dale Bell with Joseph D'Angnese and is an inspirational and instructive guide to environmental restoration projects undertaken by ordinary cities in the cities of Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Chicago, as well as the remarkable work of many individual activists in their pursuit for a stronger, greener urban environment. Exploring the landscape and natural intervention of many smaller communities and neighborhoods, Edens Lost And Found carries its readers through the processes of remarkable transformations, and reshapings which these ordinary people in collaboration with one another help were able to achieve in a variety of circumstances and conditions. An invaluable addition to community library collections, Edens Lost And Found is particularly recommended reading as an inspiring collection of innovative, constructive project ideas for environmental and neighborhood improvement activists.
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