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Saving the City: Remaking the American Metropolis


  • Ron Blatman, Producer
  • Lisa Landers, Producer
  • Blair Gershkow, Producer
  • Stacy Waters, Producer
  • Joan Saffa, Producer
  • Rob Weiss, Producer

Title of the film above a view of city buildings.

About the Project

Saving the City is a multi-part documentary series with related educational material highlighting successful and unsuccessful examples of urban development throughout the US and Canada so that we can learn to create better places.


With the pandemic, economic gyrations and continued concerns about equity and climate change, how do we ensure a better future for our cities? Following decades of decline, most urban cores were celebrating almost 20 years of improvement, a transformation now at risk. How did we get here and what comes next?


Programs are arranged by theme, not city, so we can compare and contrast what works and doesn’t work in different places. Telling stories about individuals and small groups making a difference, our goal is to empower citizens to more actively participate in their local communities and to demand better results.


After watching Saving the City, you will never look at cities the same way again!