The green space around Jerusalem skews decidedly toward the western edge of the city, where pine covered hilltops create a shaded parkland much more suited to recreation than the arid desertscape that extends from the city’s eastern end. Hidden among the rolling hills between Ein Kerem and the Sorek valley sits the Beit Zayit reservoir, a body of water that seems invitingly out of place near the normally dry (save for a few springs) Jerusalem. But don’t let the pond’s beauty fool you, says the tourism authority’s Jerusalem Mosaic magazine.

The Municipality, with the help of the Mevasseret and Yehuda regional councils, has voted to go ahead with a plan to create a second lake next to the reservoir, this one just for recreation. Boats will be docked on the lake, and swimmers will presumably be able to swim without being sucked into it murky depths. Ancient agricultural artifacts found in the area will also be incorporated into the park, which will be one of four new parks planned to ring the city’s western edge. A 60 kilometer bike track is also planned to cover the four new parks.

The announcement to create the parks comes at a time when many of the country’s environmental organizations are expecting significant drops in donations - a byproduct of the slumping world economy. Even if the government is forced to welch, or postpone, on at least part of its plan, though, Jerusalemites can take comfort in the municipality's claim that the city boasts 85 square meters of green space per resident, making it already one of the greenest cities around.

Close your eyes, Jerusalemites, and imagine what civic improvement you'd most like to see in Jerusalem.

A light rail finished before 2050? Affordable housing? More reliable services? New and expanded roads? More parking? More sensible zoning? Increased cleanliness?

No, you're not getting any of that. But if you answered "replacing bus stops, public bulletin boards, public maps, streetlights, bike racks, trash cans, benches and various billboard and sign installations," well, you're in luck. Maybe.

The Municipality has embarked on a vaguely ambitious plan to upgrade those ever so vital aspects of the city infrastructure, at least according to a press release - the only actual progress so far has been the installation of new benches and trees on Ben Yehuda Street, and the Municipality was less than forthcoming when Jerusalemite asked for more details on plans, drawings and timetables. They did mention that the project's aesthetics were similar to an unrelated installation of benches earlier this year in the Katamonim neighborhood, pictured above.

So what do you think - will new trash cans and streetlights (should they actually be installed) distract you from that gaping light rail-shaped hole in the landscape and budget?

Photo courtesy of Bosmat Ibi.

For us here at Jerusalemite, the city's light rail project simultaneously represents everything exciting and everything wrong with Jerusalem. The light rail is the promise of a shiny, rebuilt capital, one with quiet, pleasant streets and efficient public transportation. But the light rail is also the specter of never-ending bureaucratic quagmires, community leaders pushed to their limits and horrible, horrible growing-pain gridlock.

Some conspiracy theorists have gone so far as to question the project's existence. After all, what better way to convince the public to endure endless construction? What better way to convince the federal government and the private sector to invest enormous sums in the future of Jerusalem?

Well, we finally have evidence to support the idea that despite the delays, coordination troubles and other nuisances, the light rail is for real. And it's getting closer every day. On Tuesday, on his drive in, Yaakov from The Aliyah Blog saw and photographed a huge flatbed truck hauling a light rail trolley towards Jerusalem. So now we've got the commuters, the bridge and the electric trolley cars - if only they'd finish laying the tracks already.

Photo of a light rail trolley car on its way to Jerusalem courtesy The Aliyah Blog.

 One way ticket to Heaven and back?

Back in 2006, the Jerusalem municipality proposed the building of a cable car spanning from Mt. Zion to the Western Wall. The Western Wall, by far Jerusalem’s (and Israel’s) most popular tourist attraction, is also one of its least accessible. The few streets of the Old City open to motor vehicles are almost always congested with traffic and parking spaces are few and far between, with public parking completely nonexistent. Folks currently have to rely on the all too inconvenient public transportation, a taxi or their feet to get to the Western Wall plaza.

The Municipality's proposal was for a 70 person capacity cable car to run every five minutes from Mt. Zion, over the Hinnom Valley and end at the Dung Gate of the Old City next to the Western Wall. Jerusalemite praises the city for coming up with such an unconventionally awesome solution to a serious problem, but is slightly disappointed that it proceeded to chuck it out the window - all chatter concerning this ambitious (and probably not too expensive) plan has subsided.  

Jerusalem Transportation official Shmuel Elgrably told The Jerusalem Post back in 2006 that "engineers and city officials studying among other things its economic feasibility, could get off the ground within three years of approval." Needless to say, almost three years have passed and nothing has come of it.  With the enormous projected number of tourists set to visit in the next few years, a solution is needed - and Jerusalemite appreciated that this one found its inspiration in a small, yet important, piece of Israeli history most people aren't even aware of.

Located on Hebron road not far from the Cinematheque lies the Mt. Zion Cable Car Museum. This small (and free!) museum tells the story of the cable car set up by the Hagana during the War of Independence that was used to transport materials to the Harel Brigade on Mt. Zion. The small cable car was only used for six months, but the Israel Defense Forces claim that it was in working order up until 1967. It was used only at night and taken down before sunrise as not to be detected by Jordanian forces. The cable car is on display at the museum as well as details of its uses.

Alas, the museum will be all that we have because last week YNET reported that the Jerusalem Municipality held an uber-secret meeting discussing the extension of the light rail system to the Western Wall:

The proposal for the train's new path was offered as a solution to the Old City's chronic traffic congestion, specifically near the Western Wall. Jerusalem Municipality's transportation department prepared a plan for the limitation of traffic within the Old City, in addition to a plan for the improvement of public transport in the area.

However it didn't take long to rule out all options other than the train, which would circle the city's walls until reaching the Dung Gate, which is just one minute's walk from the Western Wall. Architects have planned for the train to pass through Mt. Zion, and an underground tunnel has been planned for this purpose.

Construction on the new plan, which is to extend the route of the already approved tracks, may last two to three years, and some of the residents living close to the route may have to evacuate the area in return for compensation.

Yes, that's right. More construction ahead but this time it will actually displace people from their homes. And a tunnel will be built through Mt. Zion. So if simply building an infrastructure for the light rail was so problematic what can we expect when they actually have to build a tunnel?

 

Extreme Makeover: Binyanei HaUma Edition

The International Convention Center (Binyanei HaUma) is Jerusalem's largest convention center, but as the city lurches fitfully toward its goal of becoming an international business and pleasure destination, a European-style metropolis where worldly sophistication meets old-world charm, the 50-year-old complex of buildings has increasingly proven itself not up to the task. The blah architecture, which could be charitably described as "functionalist," dates back to Israel's early era of socialist austerity, and doesn't meld well with whatever visual statement the Municipality is attempting to make with the Chords Bridge. The interior is not spacious enough to host industry conventions requiring the display of large machinery. Unlike other international conventional centers, the ICC lacks on-site hotel facilities. And it's located smack in the middle of the hot mess that is the road system around the city entrance - easy to see, but hard to actually get to.

Fortunately, that all is slated to change:

The ICC will be enlarged by 30,000 square meters, which will include the doubling of the parking space and three 33-story buildings housing office and commercial space and a hotel of the highest standards - the latter to be built by a private developer at a cost of $100 million. The buildings will also house theaters and cinemas.

"We are planning for the next 25 years," explains architect Arthur Spector. "Our goal is to build a place that will compete with the largest convention centers in Europe. Instead of the current entrance lobby and wide corridors, which have often been used as exhibition space, a specially designed 24-story building will be erected, with large exhibition halls with 12-meter ceilings.

"Every self-respecting convention center needs appropriate exhibition space," he continues. "At present, anyone who wants to hold a car or construction equipment exhibition, for example, cannot use the existing corridor space, so the center must be expanded to meet potential exhibitors' needs."

"A subway station will be built beneath the ICC, to make the center accessible to all forms of transportation, just like other such centers around the world. The plaza between the ICC and the Central Bus Station will be redesigned to include cafes and restaurants, creating a continuum of the center's open space," adds Spector.

To be honest, though, when the architect says "for the next 25 years," Jerusalemite gets a little nervous. Sure, he means an ambitious 25-year plan, but given the glacial progress on the light rail, one can easily envision a 25-year construction process instead.

After watching too many friends pack their bags and slink off for the shimmering promise of Tel Aviv or other, more foreign, ports, Shahar Fisher decided that the time had come to do something. A fourth generation Jerusalemite and a philosophy major at the Open University, Fisher helped form Hitorerut B'yerushalayim (Wake Up Jerusalem), a political movement designed to fight for Jerusalem's future, and to keep the future in Jerusalem. When he's not busy tending to his cause through planning stunts and maintaining its website's content, Fisher works for the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel.

Your organization is concerned with keeping Jerusalem's youth in the city Where does your passion come from, and what made you decide to stay? I think all Jerusalemites are very patriotic about their city. This passion is not mine alone. Wake Up Jerusalem started with a group of seven, and as we began to hold events and our work got publicized in the media, our organization grew, and we now we have 70 people working for us (on a volunteer basis) and 500 more who are interested. There are 5,000 people on our mailing list. This is in only two months of operation. The situation in Jerusalem - housing, jobs, culture, education - is causing the youth to leave, and no one is giving them a good enough answer to their needs. If there are no young people in Jerusalem, there is no future in Jerusalem, so a group of us decided to do something, to start a movement.

One of the factors affecting youth flight is Jerusalem's soaring housing prices, a large part of which can be attributed to foreign absentee investors. I know that London has a "ghost apartment" tax which is being batted around as a model for Jerusalem. How can Jerusalem strike a balance between measures like these and the important influx of foreign cash? I don't think anyone wants to see Jerusalem closed off to outsiders. Jerusalem is a universal city, a city for everyone - even if you're living out in Wisconsin, Jerusalem is still your city. On the other hand, the problem of "ghost apartments" is really serious. The only apartments being built here these days are luxury apartments, and it's driving prices up to ridiculous highs. We don’t want to kick the foreign owners out; we just want to create solutions where the apartments won't be empty.

There are a number of possible solutions. We can promote the rental of empty apartments to students who will live there and be responsible for the apartment's maintenance. The London tax would help do this by giving owners an incentive not to leave their apartments empty. The municipality can also help by creating affordable housing. In every new complex built, a number of apartments should be earmarked for young couples or other Jerusalemites who can't afford the soaring foreign prices. These are solutions that cities.... (click here for the full interview).

Downtown's main thoroughfare is officially a big balagan. The most central stretch of Jaffa Rd. has been narrowed by dividers to only accommodate one lane of traffic. In the past few days, a makeshift sidewalk in what used to be the middle of the street has been erected, in order to allow commuters to wait for their buses while intense digging takes place behind their backs.

The Jerusalem municipality and the transportation ministry's actual carrying out of a plan to build a light rail through the heart of Jerusalem has apparently blindsided Jaffa Rd. merchants, who last week found their shops located not in one of the busiest shopping areas of Jerusalem, but instead on a narrow one-way street where nobody would want to be.

Yes, it seems the construction of the Jerusalem light rail has hit the "all hell break loose" phase. Preparations for laying tracks are moving ahead full steam on Jaffa Rd., annoying commuters and angering merchants along the once bustling way, who say the construction will kill their livelihood, according to The Jerusalem Post.

"This morning they destroyed us," city store owner Shimon Malka said on Israel Radio. "There is nothing left for us to do here but pack up and go," he said, demanding that the city relocate businesses adversely affected by the construction for the next year and a half.

"This is ruining our business," concurred merchant Nissan Zuckerman. "We have no work because people are not coming to the city center. It is a catastrophe," he said.

An emergency meeting of city merchants Monday discussed possible legal measures against the city, including asking a court to issue a stop-work order or holding a district-wide strike, participants said.

In June, municipal opposition leader and mayoral candidate Nir Barkat confronted Mayor Uri Lupolianski about the merchants at least getting some just compensation, in the form of tax credits, for having to endure the near closure of their road. Lupolianski responded that the merchants did not even want compensation, an argument that probably doesn’t hold much water in light of their loud protestations last week.

In fact, the rift between Lupolianski and the downtown business owners only seems to be widening, not unlike holes in the asphalt, a meeting two days ago between the two parties descending into nasty shouting, finger-pointing, calls made to security forces and even fainting. It was almost as heated as a Knesset floor debate.

Merchants can rest easy knowing the Barkat stands a decent chance of taking over the mayorship in November. Getting a politician to keep to pre-election platitudes may be another story. Hopefully, the 2010 date set for the completion of the tracks will be kept, so long as they plan for where to put the dirt. Getting the rail lines complete will be an important step in untangling Jerusalem's clogged streets and making them more pedestrian- and neighborhood-friendly. Shoppers might flock to Talpiot or Malcha Mall instead of Jaffa Rd. for now, but for many merchants, the once-glorious thoroughfare is all they've got.

Photo of digging in downtown Jerusalem's Jaffa Rd. by Ben Jacobson for Jerusalemite.

Originally from London, Jacqueline Rose made aliyah ten years ago after receiving a Master's Degree in Environmental Studies from London University. Initially a volunteer with the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), Jacqueline went on to a storied career in the environmental field, including stints with the Judaism and Environment Think Tank at Machon Lev and the Ministry of Environment, before returning to SPNI as the Green Map Coordinator.

What is the story behind the Green Map? How did it come to be and how did it come to Jerusalem? The Green Map is an international concept. It began in New York - the current Green Map headquarters - around 1995 and has since expanded so that today there are nearly 450 officially recognized Green Maps throughout the world. The Green Map is an attempt to map all social, environmental and cultural sites that cannot be found on a regular tourist map.

The Jerusalem Green Map began in about 2002, after SPNI heard about the Toronto Green Map and thought the concept would work well in Israel. We began collecting data in 2003 and launched the website in 2006. The Jerusalem Green Map is the first Green Map in Israel. In fact, it’s the first Green Map in the entire Middle East. There are currently plans to create Green Maps for Rishon LeTzion and Tel Aviv, but right now we are still the only Israeli Green Map.

Who is the Green Map aimed at? What is it trying to do? The Green Map is for both residents and tourists, for people who want to learn how to enjoy the city in an environmentally friendly way and for people who come to the city often and are looking to do something a little different. There are sites on the Green Map that you won't find elsewhere. For example, the Green Map lists bicycle routes in city, cultural fairs and community gardens. We're trying to emphasize local activities that people might not be aware of. There are over 850 different sites listed on the map – and because it's an internet map, it's very dynamic and is constantly being updated by numerous volunteers. If somebody notices that a site has closed down or a new one has opened up, we can update the map without having to wait for the next printing.

This interview is being published on Tisha B'Av, a time when the Jewish people remember the past destructions of our ancient Jerusalem-based regimes. What are your thoughts about Jerusalem's sustainable and viable long-term growth in this context? I think that it's important to note, especially on Tisha B'Av, the connection between Judaism and environment, and that the historical or ancient Jewish texts that many people think are highly irrelevant in today's modern world actually hold a wealth of knowledge - information, principles, and ethics - that relate to the environment today. At this time of year, when we take the time to remember events that.... (click here for the full interview).

 
Jerusalem is divided into so many neighborhoods - neighborhoods whose names, boundaries and even existence often depend largely on point of view - that even veteran residents can become a bit geographically confused. And if veterans are confused, tourists are absolutely stymied, lost and hungry in "Ge'ulim" while trying to find Baka, so stricken with worry about the difference (if any) between "Ein Kerem" and "Ein Karem" that they, out of fear, never leave the comfortingly Anglophone environs of Ben Yehuda.

And so in keeping with its inimitable and time-honored tradition of sensing a problem and spending a lot of money to make it worse, the Jerusalem Municipality rode in with an armful of signs meant to clearly delineate neighborhoods. Unfortunately, the task of deciding what would actually appear on the signs was apparently delegated, in another inimitable and time-honored Municipality tradition, to morons.

...the English on the new signs is littered with misspellings and Hebrew transliterations which are likely to prove of dubious help to English speakers looking for the German Colony, rather than "HaMoshava HaGermanit," as one sign shows.

Even Israel's founding prime minister, it appears, gets short-changed, with a city sign reading "Ben Guryon Qtr."

The city's scenic Ein Kerem neighborhood, home to some of the nicest walking trails in the city and various churches, has been relegated to "En Kerem."

Some neighborhoods fared slightly better. The residential Beit Hakerem lost an "i" to become "Bet Hakerem," and the upscale Rehavia district gained a "y" to become "Rehavya."

In response, the city claimed that there were no errors in their signs, and the fault was that of guidebooks overlooking the rules established by the Academy of the Hebrew Language.

According to the Academy's rules for transliteration from Hebrew to English, the Hebrew letter, "yod," in Ein Kerem and Beit Hakerem is silent and so is not written in English as an "i," said Jerusalem Municipal spokesman Gidi Schmerling in a written statement Monday. The same argument was used to defend the misspelling of Ben-Gurion.

Jerusalemite's resident language geek smells a whole rotating spit of BS shawarma. Most English speakers would pronounce the vowel in the first syllable of "En Kerem" as an open-mid monophthong ("eh"), as opposed to the diphthong ("ey") implied by the normal spelling "Ein Kerem," which is somewhat closer to the Modern Hebrew pronunciation - although this apparently never occured to the Academy of the Hebrew Language, which is more concerned with creating official Hebrew words nobody uses or knows for concepts like "Internet" or "telenovela." And by tossing out sensible transliteration, the Academy also blurs the important distinction between the Hebrew vowels tzeire (the "ey" in "Ein") and segol (the "eh" in "Kerem"). And furthermore, were the Municipality really concerned with following extremely nitpicky rules of Hebrew transliteration or, uh, being at all consistent, "En" should be written with an apostrophe at the beginning to indicate the guttural pronunciation of the letter ayin (like in the new "Giv'at Ram" neighborhood sign) - but they're not. They are, however, lazy.

But Jerusalemite almost hesitates to criticize the Municipality any further. If it's pointed out to them that "HaMoshava HaGermanit" or "HaGiv'ah HaTsarfatit" make no sense to anyone who doesn't speak Hebrew (i.e. most tourists) and should be rendered as "German Colony" and "French Hill," they might decide with characteristic dimness to replace all transliterated-Hebrew neighborhood signs with literal English translations. "Machane Yehuda" would become "Judah's Camp," "Nachlaot" would become "Estates," "Ein Kerem" would become "Vineyard Spring" and
"Meah Shearim" would become "One Hundred Gates" - and it would all be Jerusalemite's fault.

Or maybe that's not such a relevant concern, because it's not as if the Municipality pays attention to complaints:

"If mistakes were made in tourism book guides, that is not the responsibility of the municipality, and it is fair to assume that in future years, the authors of these books will change the spellings in accordance with the signs which are transliterated correctly," the city's response concluded.

It is also fair to assume that up is down, and that in future years, the orientation of experiential reality will change in accordance to that fundamental truth.

Have a great weekend - but try not to get lost in the process!

Photo courtesy of josh.ev9 from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

Zion Square has long been the estuary in which the different streams of Jerusalem's population swirled around - and crashed into - one another, a place shared by addled Breslover missionaries and glazed-over hilltop youth djembe enthusiasts, preening acid-washed arsim and bubbly Anglo seminary girls, earnest protesters of public policy and strident prophets of doom; Jews and Arabs, residents and tourists, bankers and street kids, police and thieves, all idling in the space between Banks HaPoalim and Leumi.

A few years ago the Square centered around an elevated platform often used by musicians for performances and by idlers for, you know, idling, until without warning the city knocked it down and carted it away, apparently in an effort to keep unsavory elements from congregating there. In that regard, the city was not entirely successful (the banks, after all, are still there), but it did leave a lot of empty space aching to be filled someday with one of the damned fool ideas to which the Municipality seems to have devoted a special department.

That day has arrived.

You see, a major Jewish philanthropist from Waco, Texas has chucked enough money (2 million dollars, to be precise) over to the Jerusalem Foundation and the Municipality that they agreed to let him rename Zion Square to Rapoport Plaza (after himself) and attach that same name to a massive art installation that would grace the square - an art installation whose design has been kept a strict secret from the public. The name change was thwarted last year due to an outcry by grassroots public interest group called "Lemallah" ("Upwards"), and now the very same group has somehow obtained an image of London sculptor Ron Arad's design for the new square sculpture. It turns out it was kept a secret for good reason.

2 million simoleons can buy you the right to restructure major city landmarks as you see fit, but as for good taste, well...her value is far above rubies.

Lemallah has not been taking the proposed construction of this mighty monument to hubris lying down, dubbing it, in an apparent mix-up with the nearby Mike's Place, a "haven for beer drinking and urination." They've organized an online petition against it, but included in the anti-Arad initiative is a counter-initiative to drop an enormous curlicued Star of David over what seems to be the greater part of downtown Jerusalem.

The Jungle Gym of Og, anyone?

Lemallah's cause - to bring an end to the Municipality's closed-door policy of urban planning - is noble and admirable, and some of its ideas to improve the Square, like replacing the banks and moneychangers with the cafes and theaters that were once its main businesses, are excellent. But its proposed Peace Dome is a move sideways rather than upwards, and so Jerusalemite finds it difficult to fully support the group's petition.

But then how does a civic-minded individual express their opposition? There's always letter-writing and organized protests, but if that fails and they succeed in building the thing, Jerusalemite can only recommend one course of action: crack a Goldstar beneath its oxidized heights, yank down your YKK and let fly the golden shower of civic aesthetics. Do it for Jerusalem.

Images courtesy of Lemallah.