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The Media & Policy Center has received a significant grant to begin work on America's Family Farmers.

Harry Wiland and Dale Bell have received California Greenworks' Environmental Leaders Award for their "...outstanding work in raising awareness for environmental sustainability through the PBS series Edens Lost & Found."

The first in a series of Edens Lost & Found Town Hall Meetings was held in Philadelphia early in 2008, and was broadcast by WHYY (Philadelphia PBS) in April. More details and excerpts from the broadcast are available here.

Harry Wiland and Dale Bell have been elected Ashoka Fellows and Purpose Prize Fellows.

Harry Wiland and Dale Bell win First and Third Prizes in NAAEE Environmental Film Festival.

Media & Policy Center: Transportation Envy

In Development

In 21st century America, where over 85% of the population lives in metropolitan areas, you are not truly free if you do not have accessibility to safe, clean, affordable rapid mass transportation. The bi-partisan federal transportation commission, in their most recent report to Congress and the President, stated that upgrading and expanding US transportation systems to world standards would not come cheaply – they estimated $225 billion annually for the next 50 years. The challenge is formidable. But a failure to act will be even costlier.

We are developing a project — Transportation Envy — that will introduce us to what is already working in many other cities throughout the world. It will inform us what is possible and what can be achieved if we work together. Rather than a dry didactic report or "white paper," we will tell our story through the prism of how accessible mass transit changes real people's lives. Some of our stories might involve a graduate student making her way through Paris on the Metro, a business man's dash to an appointment in Tokyo, a handicapped person on the way to work on the Zurich underground, or a first date using the Beijing subway. These real-life stories will provide an emotional connection with our viewers, and will encourage all of us to accept nothing else than a world class transportation system. Experts will provide the economic underpinning for the proposed expansion and what it will mean to the region.

We envision Transportation Envy being complete media package for this important topic, one that would be built around a one or two hour film to be broadcast on PBS. This film could be edited into three to five minutes video portraits suitable for streaming from our partners' web sites. We would also produce a series of 20-minute films that would highlight some of the salient points and be available online and for select screenings, community action guides, a video resource library, and an academic curriculum.

Convincing the electorate that comprehensive world-class mass transit expansion is vital to the future wellbeing of not only Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles, but to the rest of the country. As media professionals committed to the presentation of public policy issues, we face this kind of challenge on a daily basis. The goal becomes leveraging media for maximum results. What is the good of working years on a project if the same results occur and nothing really changes? Led by Chicago and Illinois's first stage initiative, nothing less than a national system of safe, clean, and affordable public mass transit systems must be our ultimate goal.

Other resources for Transportation Envy: