I never lived in the Carmel center and I didn't spend long periods of my life there like in other neighborhoods in the city, but still, I've been a Haifa resident for 46 years, a few things still happened to me in the section between the auditorium and the zoo.
"How do you build a 20-story tower without an elevator?"
The most exciting thing that happened to me in the Carmel center is of course the stair race. 1500 steps and 3 km, from the lower city to the 20th floor of Dan Panorama, definitely leave a deep impression on the person.
During one of the runs, when we finally reached the end of the stairs, one of the runners next to me asked: "How do you build a 20-story hotel without an elevator...?" In another case I ran after someone who didn't stop on the 20th floor and kept going up, until the moment I noticed I was going in the wrong direction...
what will i say When you reach the brink of falling behind on the 20th floor in Dan Panorama, it's a great feeling.
When I run, I often think of a friend I once had, who passed away when we were 35 years old. When we were in middle school, we ran 2 km field races. I came in 12th place and she came in 10th place. When they read the names of the top 14 runners, they mistakenly read the Her name is in the place of my name. Since mine is waiting for a lifetime of achievements, I am happy that at least at the age of XNUMX she had a happy moment thanks to me. The name of Yahav and Nishalis were of course written on the stair race that has been stopped in the meantime, but I strongly believe in Einat Klish and her good will to return to us in April The stair race.
Dan Carmel
Several years ago, in 2014, I came to cover the renovation of the Dan Carmel Hotel, when I was still working for another media organization. It was a Shimshi day and there were many journalists and also the photographer and journalist Yoav Itiel. We went up to the tenth floor and Yoav took a picture of me and the person who today owns this website, Nega Karmi, while we were sitting in the hotel room, both in black dresses, still not knowing each other, not yet working together. Then we went out to the balcony of the room and Yoav took a picture of me with Haifa spread out in all its beauty behind me. This is my favorite picture, and even though 7 years have passed, it is still the picture I use the most. the freedom
the mother garden
Today's kindergarten is not tonight's kindergarten... There is a note written by the mythical mayor of Haifa, Abba Khushi, and in this note there are several tasks that Abba Khushi wrote to himself that he must complete, among them - a kindergarten for parents and children. He did establish the mother garden, and if he is looking down on us, he must want to scream at what we will become from his innocent garden...
Simple, because there is nothing innocent in the Kindergarten at night. All the children and teenagers who are looking for a little trouble, come there, from Haifa and also from nearby cities, and what goes on there should keep the parents of these children awake. First of all, 13-year-old children, who just started middle school, drink and smoke there (and shamelessly upload the photos to social networks). Many cases of violence between the children take place there, boys, girls... Unfortunately, I saw with my own eyes boys there who practice terrible violence towards boys younger than them. Of course, children don't learn a lesson, don't stay away and continue to come to kindergarten.
Some parents put an icon on the children's cell phones, and that's how they know when the children are in Kindergarten. Some parents raise their hands and hope for the best. Not infrequently, there are thefts of mobile phones in the Ham garden and in the adjacent Mania garden. On the one hand, the Carmel center, 25,000 NIS per square meter, on the other - alcohol, violence, soft drugs, thefts. The only consolation is that even if children do nonsense at the age of 14-15, many times, a decade later, they are settled and already excellent students at the Technion or university.
Sderot Hanasi and the Sandwich Bar
We got married 21 years ago. When I was at the hair salon on the wedding day, our photographer called and asked us to come to Akhziv. I will confess and say that I had no idea where it was, and as I should, I didn't check and told him we would arrive. Later it became clear to me that it was near Nahariya, and we barely made it in time for the wedding. But before we got to the wedding, we stopped, when I was already in my wedding dress, to eat at a sandwich bar, because Ra'anan wanted to eat before the wedding...
3 years after that we would go to the doctor every month, to monitor the pregnancy with Honeysuckle, and each such visit would end at a sandwich bar. I really don't know what Ra'anan finds in this sandwich, but he remains loyal to it, and to this day he and the girls occasionally order a sandwich bar home. Maybe it's the sandwich, maybe it's the coleslaw and dressings, but they go crazy for it.
Hanasi Boulevard has a row of cafes and restaurants. In my opinion, the best breakfast in the city and by a wide margin is at Gal's Cafe. Every now and then I see an unfavorable review of the cafe on social media, but all the times I sat there I received both great service and excellent food. Next to the cafe is a restaurant that I really, really like, The Giraffe. My daughters and I really like to eat there, watching the cooks prepare the food in the open kitchen. Further on there is also the Mandarin Cafe, in the center of Carmel, right in the heart of Horsha. I also really like a restaurant called Ruben that has sausages and chips. When my daughters were little we used to go a lot to eat ice cream and yogurt at Legenda. Yara really likes to eat in Sudoch, which is also in the same passage, I have never eaten there.
Of all the cafes in Haifa, Brussels is my favorite cafe. It is located at Moriah 11, almost the center of Carmel. In my eyes, Brussels is the perfect cafe (except that there is no parking). I really like the way the cafe is designed, the food and drinks and also the service. Since the corona virus, they have challenging operating hours, but there is still no competition.
Sderot Zvi
For many years I thought that Sderot Zvi was the most beautiful street in Haifa. When you go down at the beginning of the street and see the trees and the beautiful houses and in the distance the glimpse of the sea, it has a special charm. Today I am no longer sure that it is the most beautiful street in the city, but it is still charming in my eyes.
These very days the municipality is renovating the road, which really was already a danger to drivers. My grandparents lived at 32 Sderot Zvi. I hardly remember any dreams, but sometimes my grandparents' house comes to me in my dreams. My grandmother had a bachelor's degree in economics (which is quite impressive, if you were born in 1922) and my grandfather had a printing house, first in Germany, then in Brazil and finally in Israel. My grandmother used to protest with the women in black and believed that every Jew must know Arabic. She herself knew exactly 5 words, by the way.
David Pinsky
In Neve Shanan there is Pinsker Street, the similarity in names is often confusing. When we sold the house in Romma, I really wanted to make a change and move from a mansion to the old Carmel, and I even found an apartment before the evacuation of a building on Pinsky Street. If it were up to me, we would probably live there today, with a balcony into the woods, but since I'm not the only one who decides, we found ourselves in Ramat Eshkol.
David Pinsky was a Haifa playwright and Yiddish writer. He grew up in Russia and is considered one of the greatest Yiddish playwrights of the 20th century.
Mintz Library
It is impossible to write about the Carmel Center and not refer to the Mintz Library. To me, this library represents everything that is problematic in this city. The library building burned down a few years ago and since then the elderly in the Carmel center are supposed to go to another library to exchange books, which may be less complicated for the majority of the population, but it is very difficult for the elderly who were used to walking to this library and now have to go to the library in Beit Yad Labanim. I have already done several articles about the Mainz library and received responses from the municipality, but I really don't understand why it is so difficult, after a few years, to repair one unhappy library. More than that - a municipality that is unable to repair one library, how will it take control of bigger problems?
the auditorium
It is impossible to finish a review of the Carmel Center without talking about the auditorium. The most important and big shows come here and are presented to the people of Haifa. In September, the film festival was held here, and after the closed corona period, people from all over the country came to Haifa again to watch foreign and Israeli films and talk about them.
In the entrance plaza to the auditorium are the stars, each of them dedicated to an important Israeli actor or actress. During Sukkot, performances and exhibitions are held in the auditorium, and in general, events in the Haifa auditorium are a positive thing in general, except that the auditorium has one problem - a parking problem. It is very difficult to find free parking in the center of Carmel, and those who put their car in the auditorium's parking lot will part with 20 NIS for every hour that passes.
through the sea
Derech Hayam got its name from the fact that it connects the center of Carmel to the seashore. At the beginning of the Sea Road is the Reali Matos school.
Bekurim Street
The name of the street comes from the firstfruits, the first fruits of the year, which in the past were commanded to be brought to the temple. On Bikhurim Street is the six-year urban school of the Lord and next to it is the swimming pool of Maccabi Haifa. Urban H showed high eligibility percentages in the matriculation exams and a very high recruitment percentage for the IDF in general and combat units in particular.
A beautiful street with a view
The meaning of the name is an epithet of affection for Zion, the joy of the whole world, and the seat of God - which the poet longs for no matter how far he is from it. Yaffe Nof Street is a very long street, it starts in the French Carmel and reaches almost to Yair Katz Street. The houses have a view of the bay, and you can see Haifa from the Carmel, Hadar, Lower City and the bay. The apartments are very expensive and rightly so. On the street is the Crowne Plaza Hotel, established over 20 years ago.
How much does it cost?
On the Madeleine website you can see that a 3-room apartment, 78 square meters, was sold on Bekurim Street for 1.6 million NIS. On Yair Katz Street, a 3-room apartment, 50 square meters, was sold for 1.22 million NIS. The most expensive apartments in the center of Carmel are on Hanasi Boulevard in the new towers, where a square meter can reach 30,000 NIS.
I drove again on Yaffe Nof Street. A white dividing line under the boardwalk. Drivers drive like in car races. Crossed a white dividing line, walked around with crazy squeals in the middle of the street (near the new building at the entrance to the parking lot), overtook wildly, a motorcycle drove there with a terrible noise, upgraded
Clearly illegally, and I also wrote down his number. At 20:17 he passed from Shaar HaLevanon Street through the Carmel Center and Moriah. Crazy noise license number 53-705-64. Many vehicles there simply drive back and forth in a disorderly manner on the Lui Promenade section. We must stop what is happening there, there is a permanent undercover traffic vehicle in place. Crossing a white line there in dangerous detours every few minutes with almost an accident of oncoming vehicles.
Thank you, dear Michal, I joined your impressive "trip" in the center of Carmel, since I arrived in Haifa in 1965, all my residences were in the center of Carmel, and I am still loyal to this place.
Today, the Carmel Center can be called the Harakat Center.
Every 5 minutes a car passes by with an illegal improved engine that makes noise and davinis.
The police can catch 10-12 of them an hour. We walked around for two hours this evening and there was not one policeman.
Dozens of vehicles fly at 200 km in Panorama, no car. There is no policing. Nothing, you just don't see any policemen.
I said in the past that there is a committee in the Haifa municipality that decides on the naming of names. This is what the mayor of Haifa, Dr. Einat Kalish Rotem, decided. Thank you, Michal, for this report on the Hai Pa website of Mrs. Nega and Yaron Karmi. Peace be upon you.
As soon as the mayor realizes that she is the mayor, we will be on the right track. Doubt it will ever happen.
I have a dream about the kindergarten. The zoo moves from there to the Carmel Park near the university and gets a large space with a view and open air for animals to walk around.
In its place, the area of the kindergarten is doubled. Add lawns and a terrace with more flat area, take down some bushes and trees and open the garden towards Wadi Lotem and the view of the sea and the sky.
The shell is moved to the new terrace further away from the nearby houses and rows of chairs are added for a real amphitheater.
In the mother garden, instead of the shell, they cultivate with new lighting, a large fountain and benches like in the new Dizengoff Square.
Ham's garden can be the most beautiful garden in Israel. Opposite Huadi, the landscape, the prestigious Panorama Center. Bakery smells, people with ice cream next to a big fountain. Children on a giant climbing wall behind Gan Ham station. So many things are possible there.
I'm dreaming We all dream. And in other cities there are promotions. Get up, change, renovate, move, expand... when at our Kindergarten?
My memory as a high school student.
The most popular boys in the class went from Ironi H. and Reali to Kindergarten.. There was a gym there. Not for yorams, nerds. After the karate classes there, they would train. In the evening they would impress the girls in the half-dark Kindergarten in hidden corners. The next day they were absent from school due to illness. According to the missing couple we knew who was with whom. That's why the garden had another dubious and rude name that I won't mention and many probably remember now and smile. The joke was that a few might come out as mothers. Behind the shell there was no beat but there was nightlife. And the rumor said that besides the gym there is an apartment there that can be rented for the night. I was not acceptable enough to test the rumor. One day I was curious with a friend. We went to see if there were .. we were in the division in Ironi H. and there were already full of couples. We saw a couple on the way down to Lotem and looked excitedly at "the real thing". We must have stepped on leaves and the guy who was a 13 meter athletic basketball player in the city team lifted his pants there from Mount Gofia and started chasing us. We managed to escape to the Lebanon Gate. Action has always been there and will always be there. The age of XNUMX is excessive, but the high school students were and will be at the Thousand Stars Hotel.
Turn Margou St. into Pinsky St. Exactly Salah Shabti's method. However, with this method, the name of a public garden in the center of Carmel that was established by A is also mentioned, however, on the city signs it says that it was established by B.
Either you are innocent or you pretend to be. I believe that the lady will resume the stair race and wonder how much. It takes time for the municipality to renovate a cafeteria that serves an elderly population. I can't believe that neither this nor that will happen...