Jerusalem - even modern Jerusalem - is an old city.  Many neighborhoods date back to the horse-and-buggy era, and the street layout is, to put it gently, more "organic" than "thought-out." All of this conspires to create quite the crush of traffic in Jerusalem's more venerable neighborhoods, and with no space to build more roads (all those priceless vintage houses in the way), it seems an intractable problem.

Unless, of course, as Ha'aretz notes, you build a tunnel.

Getting from Sacher Park to Independence Park in Jerusalem today requires a slow crawl through the crowded arteries of the upscale Rehavia neighborhood. A new municipal plan, which includes a tunnel connecting the two parks, could spell an end to the heavy traffic flowing through the neighborhood's Rambam [sic] Street, which connects the city center to the government quarter and the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway.

The traffic in what was once a quiet garden quarter is disturbing the residents and some claim it has impeded Rehavia's development. The new plan, long in preparation by architect Nahum Meltzer, was filed yesterday at the municipality so the public can register objections or comments.

After the public comment period, the plan will be hashed over by city hall and assuming passage, will become an binding document for the next decades. The plan does not detail the tunnel but only offers it as one option to alleviate Rehavia's traffic troubles.

That's such a good idea, it's a wonder nobody seems to have thought about it before (well, except for that one under Jaffa Gate, pictured above, which has actually worked wonderfully). It's an exciting time for Jerusalem urban planning these days, what with the Bridge of Strings' walking path, the much-needed initiative for better cinemas in town, and an ambitious plan to better integrate Jerusalem's government infrastructure with the rest of the city. Now, if they could just do something about that light rail....

Photo of Jaffa Gate tunnel courtesy of EagleXDV from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

It's easy to recycle plastic in Jerusalem. Massive, modern-looking cages brimming with discarded Neviot water bottles (pictured above) are spread throughout the city, but options for paper recycling are more limited and less attractive - unsightly, ancient-looking horizontal barrels, inconveniently located for lugging armloads of newspapers or broken-down cardboard boxes.

Fortunately, that's all changing: one by one, Jerusalem neighborhoods are getting brand new paper recyling bins for curbside pickup.

Currently the bins have been installed in outlying neighborhoods Ramat Beit HaKerem, Ramot, Arnona and Ramat Rachel, but more neighborhoods are slated to receive the bins shortly.

The bins can accept just about any paper waste you care to throw at them: white paper, newspaper, colored paper, envelopes and mail, used books and cardboard packaging. No sorting necessary.

Happily, this is yet another addition to the recent parade of green-friendly news coming out of the Holy City - from the Jerusalem Green Map and the new SPNI Jerusalem nature tours to planned electric car infrastructure and urban eco-housing initiatives.

Bottle cage image courtesy of emilie raguso from Flickr under a Creative Commons license; blue bin image courtesy of the Municipality of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is a great city for pedestrians, but it's cruel for the motorist. First-time visitors to Jerusalem who think renting a car might be a great way to breeze through all the sites and landmarks are in for a bit of a surprise - the Old City is not car-friendly, and parking ain't easy.

Fortunately, the city government has actually implemented a plan to address that. The Old City has been closed off to all non-residential vehicular traffic, and to compensate, parking rates have been slashed at three lots within walking distance of the Old City, and a retooled local bus line, the 38, has been inaugurated to take tourists from the lots straight into the Old City's heart.

To see the new route map and find out about deals at city parking lots, read on.

Finally, the children are learning a useful trade

Yeah, it's true: we've been talking a lot about Gazelle Valley lately. But this time, we don't have anything to report about the mad machinations of our local robber barons. This is good news.

You see, Jerusalem (as well as the rest of the country) suffers from a terrible litter problem. Despite the love for the Land of Israel drilled into every Israeli kid as part of the public curriculum, not to mention built into the Jewish religion, far too few people make the seemingly obvious mental association between loving the Land of Israel and not throwing Coke cans and falafel wrappers all over it. Sometimes it's the people's fault: many older generations of Israelis hail from countries (or eras) where nobody ever considered the longterm ramifications of tossing trash out the window, and thus transmitted those values (or lack thereof) to their offspring; other times, it's the government's fault, both for not encouraging a green consciousness and for failing to install enough public waste receptacles.

But things are changing. Younger Israelis are increasingly aware of the effects of littering. And the government is throwing its support behind programs like Clean Up the World Day - which brings us back to Gazelle Valley.

Last week, dozens of local schoolchildren descended on the garbage-strewn valley, and under the watchful eyes of representatives from the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and the Jewish National Fund, removed 100 large trash bags full of refuse. Not only is it a nice thing to do for the residents of Jerusalem and the resident gazelles, it sends a symbolic message to the hungry developers hovering around the valley's periphery. It's ours! We cleaned it!

So good on you, children, and try to take the lesson to heart: every time you toss that Bissli bag onto the ground, a baby gazelle probably dies.

Image courtesy of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel.

If you can't beat them, advertise to them. That's the attitude the city is taking toward drivers who insist on driving into and parking in the city's center, apparently oblivious to the fact that it’s more congested and messed up than Amy Winehouse with a cold. The Jerusalem Tourism Authority, which apparently thinks the tourists came to see the traffic jams, wants them to know that the city fought over by a multitude of peoples has more to offer. From a press release:

If until now the words "city center" caused you to shudder, to think of pressure, traffic jams and noise, the Tourism Authority and the Eden Company would like to remind you that there is so much more: tourist attractions, galleries, museums, sculptures, city murals and many other attractions.

For those lucky enough to find a place to put their cars and actually get out, the Authority will offer a free brochure - ahem, booklet - listing a number of places of interest for them to visit during their foray. Although the new initative is called Naim B'Yerushalayim in Hebrew, a double-meaning play on words ("Naim" means both "moving" and "pleasant"), planners have translated it simply as "A Stroll through Jerusalem," perhaps a lesson learned from overzealously literal translations.

Presentation of the booklet will give users 10 to 33 percent discounts at many of the city's attractions, such as the Tower of David (15 percent discount during the day), the Museum on the Seam (10 percent discount), the Time Elevator (10 percent discount), the Rav Kook Museum (25 percent discount) and more. Other items in the booklet are advertised for the special price of free, though in reality we doubt you would be charged admission for walking into Machane Yehuda or looking at street art without the booklet.

Still, the fact that the booklet itself is free makes it that much more attractive than the city's previous marketing scheme, HolyPass, which we discovered is not such a deal. Plus, it comes with a handy dandy map, and the entire content is printed in both English and Hebrew. Take that, Frenchies.

The booklet, which features a love-polluting little lion (see picture above) that looks suspiciously like some of Don Hertzfeld's more disturbing characters, will be given out to cars parked at the Karta, Safra, Independence Park, City Tower and Machane Yehuda lots.

Image of the new booklet guide courtesy of the Jerusalem Tourism Authority.

The arrival of the Queen of Sheba, projected on the Tower of David. That's right.

Or, uh, at least the next three weekends.

Hamshush is a bit of acronym-tastic army slang, short for "Hamishi, shishi v'Shabbat" ("Thursday, Friday and Saturday"), that refers to a rare prize in an Israeli's army service: getting released from base on Thursday to enjoy two and a half whole days of leave. And with uncharacteristic pithiness, the Municipality has tacked "hamshush" onto "Yerushalayim" to give us Hamshushalaim, an annual city-wide festival taking place over three consecutive long weekends. And it's starting this Thursday.

So what can a Jerusalem resident or visitor expect from these three hamshushim for the price of one? A pretty good deal: free or reduced-price admission to museums and tourist sites; extended venue and museum hours; reduced hotel fares as thousands upon thousands of both domestic and foreign tourists descend on the city; and cheap food from some of the city's finest restaurants.

That leaves you with a lot of choices:

• Seize the opportunity to visit the Israel Museum, the Bloomfield Science Museum, the Bible Lands Museum, the Museum of Italian Jewry, the Museum of Islamic Art, the Tower of David Museum, the City of David, the Jerusalem Archaeological Park or the Ramparts Walk free of charge.

• Dig a choral concert in the Shrine of the Book or a wacky Tower of David light and sound show (pictured above), or the dozens of other events.

• Eat a 62 NIS or 92 NIS prix fixe meal at Pera e Mela, Okhlim BaShuk, El Gaucho, Ima, Emil, Angelica, Buffalo Steakhouse, Between the Arches, Black Bar 'n' Burger, Gabriel, Darna, Hess, ZaZa, La Boca, La Guta, Link, Montefiore, Sofia, Focaccia, Polly, Pituim, Canela or Shipudei HaGefen.

Of course, Jerusalemite is your one-stop shop for Hamshushalaim event information. Most of the events taking place at Jerusalem's major venues over the three weekends of Hamshushalaim were already scheduled and will simply be receiving a price cut, so check out our listings for the first, second and third weekends - and keep in mind that new events are being added all the time, so keep checking back. You can also get a full listing in English on the Municipality's website, although be prepared to contend with the same terrible organizational skills that brought you the light rail.

And if you'll be visiting from out of town, don't forget to check out the lengthy list of hotels offering special discounts.

We'll have more special Hamshushalaim content in the days to come. Have fun, eat well, and tip your hat towards city hall for their one yearly good idea.

Light show image courtesy of Amit Geron for the Tower of David; Hamshushalaim banner image courtesy of the Jerusalem Municipality's sopkesperson's office.

Don't let the green grass fool you: this is actually in the middle of Jerusalem

Jerusalemite likes things that are green. We like our falafel green. We like our voodoo juices green. We like our East Jerusalem garbage bins green. We even like our not-pagan-at-all religious ceremonial waving branches green. And our open spaces? Yeah we like those green too.

Though the Safdie Plan has bought the farming co-operative, concerns still remain on how to guard the patchwork of forests that ring the city, as well the creation and protection of green and open spaces inside the city. The election of Nir Barkat as mayor gives hope to many that the grass on this side may be getting greener.

Firstly, he split the construction and planning portfolio in two, giving the green planning half to Naomi Tsur, who founded the Sustainable Jerusalem environmental coalition and has headed the Jerusalem branch of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel. The choice of Tsur will probably mean the creation of a number of new initiatives inside the city aimed at making it more friendly to both mother nature and its recreation and nature seeking residents.

One project she has already singled out is the proposal to create parkland out of the unused train tracks running from Emek Refaim to Malcha (see picture above). The strip of land has drawn much attention from neighborhood residents who want to turn it into an urban park and biking path, even spawning a blog (in Hebrew) to push their agenda. Last month, Bezalel students began putting up historical markers along the path telling of the neighborhood's history. The city has been mulling plans to use the tracks for roads and/or the light rail project, which itself is being "reconsidered" by Barkat. But Tsur, who has long championed getting Jerusalem to take off its training wheels and build a place for the iron lunged to ride their bikes, will likely be a solid advocate for bike riders in the city. The city still has a long way to go before it looks like Portland, though.

Whatever does happen with sustainable development in Jerusalem, Tsur told The Jerusalem Post that building needs to be in concert with the little people who actually voted her and Barkat into Safra Square's ivory tower.

One immediate change, however, came through clearly - the municipality could not rule from on high, but rather in a "synergy" with the city's residents and civil society.

"What is really lacking is public participation in planning processes. We need a process to get wisdom from neighborhood residents, so we can solve problems, but in a way that makes sense [for local residents]. There hasn't been enough done in the last two decades," Tsur told The Jerusalem Post.

While democracy and alternative modes of transportation are nice, Jerusalemite environmentanista Karin Kloosterman, who blogs for treehugger and greenprophet.com, believes that guarding Jerusalem's remaining green oases, including the embattled Gazelle Valley, should be among the top priorities of the Barkat administration, telling Jerusalemite:

"It's the open spaces within and around Jerusalem that worry me most. Jerusalem has existed for thousands of years as a religious and administrative center, and we can see that in the buildings and the archeological remains we find here today. I am most worried, though, that the beautiful pine forests on the outskirts of Jerusalem will be consumed by development in the not so far future. This is the natural treasure of Jerusalem. And I know that everyone who visits Jerusalem goes to the Old City, the Kotel, the churches, mosques, the museums. But it's in the Jerusalem forests where you can actually smell Jerusalem, and in its pine needles hear the faint whisper of King David. Wild animals, like small delicate foxes, still live there. These characteristics of Jerusalem can never be lost. I know that Naomi has made it a passion to protect Jerusalem's open spaces, and her involvement in the city's 'green' politics gives me more reason to believe that there's a God in the sky."

Image courtesy of RahelSharon from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

Gazelles versus land developers: the timeless battle rages on.

The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) and a host of well-intentioned artists have been struggling for years to save the titular four-legged ruminant residents of Gazelle Valley, 260 dunams of green space in the shadow of the city's most monstrous apartments, from a host of mustache-twirling robber barons who would like to turn the entire valley into a Zol Po supermarket, or something. And it seemed like they had achieved success when the city government agreed to halt all development plans and turn the Valley into a municipal park. But minor distractions like the law don't matter to the sorts of developers who look at a forest of trees and see a forest of high-rise, mid-income apartments (see under: Plan, Safdie):

The Israel Lands Administration yesterday issued a warning against renting land from a private contractor who illegally took possession of lands in Jerusalem's Gazelle Valley.

The contractor, Zacharia Kahalani, advertised the land in the media. "The advertiser does not hold any right to the land and the Administration has even filed to evict the people who claim to have rights on the land," the Administration's statement reads. In a telephone conversation with Channel 2's Oded Ben Ami, Kahalani said the property belonged to him. He explained that he had received permission to dig there from the kibbutzim that own the land.

Not only should you not rent Kahalani's land, we also recommend you avoid any barbecues he may invite you to. With only seventeen left in the herd, we can't spare the gazelles.

Also - call Jerusalemite crazy - isn't the illegal seizure of private (or public) land grounds for...like...police intervention? Not that we're getting any - but, encouragingly, the Magistrate Court has blocked Kahalani's construction in the valley, and that court will hear a case against the developer this week brought by SPNI.

Image courtesy of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel.

Good times and green rooms at Hadassah College today

Bit by bit, downtown Jerusalem has been getting treated to a low-key makeover, undergoing pedestrianization (and much-needed sandblasting) in preparation for the panacea for all municipal ills, the light rail. First HaHistradrut Street was turned into a pedestrian mall. There there was all that unpleasantness with the torn-up Jaffa Road. And now, it's HaChavatzelet Street getting some long overdue attention.

The short street connects Jaffa Road, the main artery of central Jerusalem, with HaNeviim Street, the main road of the Russian Compound and also the seam line between downtown Jerusalem and the ultra-Orthodox quadrant of the city. In recent years, Chavatzelet has, in the wake of the Russian Compound nightlife district's downfall, become a nexus for two distinct Jerusalem minority communities: Ethiopian-Israelis, whose pocket of the neighborhood revolves around tasty restaurant Ethio-Israel; and young secular Jerusalemites, an endangered breed who cluster together in Uganda, HaTaklit, Sideways, distinctly non-kosher restaurant Chavatzelet and an oh-so-countercultural tattoo parlor. But now that the street has been given the Municipal spitshine, all those cool indie kids may scurry away from the light to find a new, seedier part of town (Musrara is hot these days...).

But now is not the time to consider ramifications - now is the time to dance! With renovations to the street complete, Neviim Street institute of higher education Hadassah College threw a commemorative celebration on Friday. Live music and African dancers from the Machol Shalem Dance Festival entertained the masses, and the youth shimmied their way towards a shinier, cleaner Jerusalem.

But just because that the musicians and dancers have gone home, doesn't mean you have to - you can always walk a block and take in the many attractions of HaRav Kook and HaNeviim Streets nearby as well.

Image courtesy of Shay Shenkman.

Filing TPS reports alone, together

While the café has become the de-facto Dunder-Mifflin for many a freelancer, work-from-home-nik and business traveler, those who take their coffee with a generous serving of Wifi must deal with their own problems, such as the dreaded laptop dillema, and the constant drama of trying to nurse that NIS 18 cafe hafuch for as long as possible until it becomes painfully obvious that it isn’t the resturant's fine brew that brought you to their confines.

Enter PresenTense, the group devoted to fostering Jewish social entrepnuership. Instead of letting you wallow at Aroma, they have set up a coworking space at 64 Emek Rafaim, a veritable office for those with none. For a fee, workers, or the unemployed who want to feel like they still have jobs, can rent out a space in their building, whether it be a desk or a conference room, and have access to printers, fax, internet, coffee and of course, each other.

"The real key to having a coworking space is you're no longer alone. You don't need to ask a stranger to watch your laptop, or pay NIS 12 for a cup of coffee," Co-founder Ariel Beery said.

The space isn't just for loners looking for a desk, though.

"A lot of the troubles that are affecting non profits are that they simply don't have the money to pay rent, so what we do is we give them a storefront on Emek Refaim, a respectable aplce for them to meet with people," he said.

Just like a café, working at PresenTense's Jerusalem Hub ain't free. Fees range from NIS 30 for the basic chair and desk to NIS 750 a month for what amounts to a personal office, complete with lockable storage space and dedicated desk.

PresenTense, which places a premium on innovation, are the first to bring the coworking concept to Israel, though it has been a widely used idea throughout the western world since 2007 as office spaces with witty names like Independents Hall in Philadelphia and Manhattans Nutopia workspace have popped up.

So far the space has attracted 12-15 nomadic workers a day, both collaborating on projects and working on their own.

"We really felt Jerusalem could be a world leader in social innovation," co-founder Aharon Horwitz said. "All it needed was a hub."

Image of non Mike Judge related office space courtesy of PresenTense.