A small neighborhood of two streets
Ramot Sapir is a small neighborhood located between Ramat Chen, Ramot Ramez and Givat Zemar, and is also very close to the Grand Canyon. The neighborhood has only two streets, and it is built in a circular shape. Gotal Levin Street starts at the entrance to the neighborhood and surrounds the whole area. The second street is Kaddish Luz.
Pinchas Sapir
Ramot Sapir is named after Pinchas Sapir, who was the third Minister of Finance of the State of Israel and died in 1975, when construction in the neighborhood began. Sapir was one of the most prominent in Israeli politics in the third quarter of the 20th century and is considered the father of the Israeli economy. Naming a neighborhood after him is quite unusual in Haifa, the other neighborhoods in the city are named after prime ministers (Naot Peres, Ramat Golda, Ramat Eshkol and more).
the great fire
In November 2016, when a fire raged throughout the city, the fire almost reaching the houses in the Ramat Alon neighborhood, the residents were evacuated from their homes. The thing that saved the situation then and prevented the fire from reaching, were the buffer zones that were established between the trees and the houses. If these buffer zones were not there, the fire could easily spread and burn the entire neighborhood. In neighborhoods where there were no buffer zones and the trees reached up to the walls of the houses, such as in Givat Oranim in the new Rommah, the houses burned down.
renew the green
After the fire, it was necessary to renew the vegetation around Ramot Sapir. Moreover, at the entrance to Ramat Sapir, in December 2016, the municipality brought trees that were planted there, to bring back the Haifa green to the eyes. After that we will do the same in other places around the city. Those who drove at the entrance to Ramat Sapir saw a real forest, standing and waiting to be planted in any place affected by the fire. Undoubtedly, what helped Haifa and the people of Haifa cope with the severe fire was the determined and quick work of the municipality and the tens of thousands of new trees that were planted everywhere and restored the familiar green appearance to Carmel.
Pupils
The students in the Ramot Sapir neighborhood usually attend the 'Havanim' school in the nearby Ramot Ramez neighborhood and from there continue to the six-year 'Alliance' school located in Emek HaShem. With a shuttle that picks them up from the neighborhood all the way to Alliance.
Guttel Levin
Gutel Levin Street was named in memory of Moshe Gutel Levin, who was an industrialist and one of the founders of the pharmaceutical company "Salomon, Levin & Elstein", later the foundation of the "Teva" company, and one of the leaders of the Jewish community in Haifa. Let's hope that he does not see from above what is happening with "Teva" company in the last decade and rips the hairs out of his head.
Gotal Levin Street, which many residents call 'Got Levin' is, as mentioned, a circular street that surrounds the entire neighborhood. In the afternoon and evening you can see many of the residents of the neighborhood walking or running along it.
The second street is Kadish Luz Street, named after a labor leader, Minister of Agriculture and Speaker of the Knesset. Luz also served a short period as the country's president, when the second president, Yitzhak Ben Zvi, passed away in 1963. He served in the position until the third president, Zalman Shazer, took office.
Gene cluster
In the heart of the neighborhood is a large cluster of kindergartens and a community center. Many of the children in the neighborhood begin their journey in the education system at the Namat residence and continue to the cluster of kindergartens in the neighborhood, which they finish at the age of 6, ready for first grade. Many friendships are formed in the garden in Ramot Sapir when mothers of toddlers of the same age, come together to pick up the children and take them out of the gardens.
The Carmel disaster
At the beginning of December 2010, a terrible disaster struck Haifa, when a fire broke out in the Carmel forests, near Beit Oren, and a bus of cadets on its way to the nearby Damon prison caught fire with the cadets inside. Also killed in the disaster were two police officers - Ahuva Tomer and former Knesset member Nava Boker's husband - Lior Boker, as well as the two firefighters Major Danny Hayit and Fire Chief Uri Samandaev.
The late Elad Rivan
Elad Rivan was a student of the Reali school who volunteered in the fire department and lived in Ramot Sapir with his parents. When the fire broke out, Riven received a message in the WhatsApp group he was a member of, calling for all volunteers to come. Of course, the message was not meant for him, but he convinced his mother to take him to the fire so that he could help put it out. Elad perished in the disaster. It was a terrible tragedy, when such a young boy ends his life, there is no need to explain how difficult it is, certainly when he was the only child of his parents, as was Elad.
After his death, Elad's parents gave birth to twins. He is commemorated in the neighborhood where he lived in an ecological garden, near the cluster of gardens.
A neighborhood without a synagogue
For years the residents of Ramot Sapir have been protesting that there is no synagogue in the neighborhood. The residents collected donations and applied countless times to the municipality in order to have a permanent building for a synagogue. A resident of the neighborhood who wants to come to pray in a synagogue in a nearby neighborhood will have to walk quite a bit, which becomes especially difficult on Yom Kippur during the fast. For years, prayers were held in an ad hoc structure, with the residents of the neighborhood waiting for the day when a synagogue would be built for them like in any other neighborhood in the city.
A famous resident
The most well-known resident of the neighborhood is of course the mayor Dr. Einat Kalish Rotem. The previous mayor Yona Yahav lives in the Dania neighborhood and one gets the impression that living in the Ramot Sapir neighborhood is evidence of Einat, who is more "one of us". At the same time, the past years have taught that Yahav is very " A man of the people", cordial and approachable, and still, even after his tenure ended, shows interest in the city, in the residents, sympathy and is always smiling and empathetic in meetings with them "on the road".
Cityscape and pollution
Many residents of the neighborhood see the city laid out before them from their balcony or window. Along with the scenery, there is also the pollution. The Ramat Sapir neighborhood is relatively close to the polluting factories in the Gulf. The state declared its intention in the next decade to evacuate the factories. It is still unclear whether the intentions will become a reality on the ground and whether it will actually happen. time will tell.
Givat Zemar
A few years ago they started building the Givat Zemar neighborhood out of Ramot Sapir. The neighborhood will replace the grove that was there before. I would see the demonstrations against the establishment of the neighborhood from the house where I lived at the time in Givat Oranim. It is unbelievable how it is possible to build such a concrete monster in 5 years. The war in Haifa was over the roads to the neighborhood and as of now Ramot Sapir has lost and the new Romema has won, because the road on Martin Buber Street in the new Romema neighborhood, which is currently a dead end road and is supposed to be connected to the neighborhood, has not been built. This means that in order to get to Givat Zemar you will have to get to the entrance to Ramot Sapir, and the excess traffic will not benefit the residents of the neighborhood.
Established in the 80s
The neighborhood was established in the early 80s, so it is right at the seam in terms of eviction. Currently, there are no urban renewal projects in the neighborhood, nor does it seem that there is a need. The only change that the residents of the neighborhood make is the addition of balconies, since many of the houses do not have balconies.
As far as the schools in the neighborhood are concerned, the students from grades 1 to 12 must leave the neighborhood. In elementary school, they mostly study in Remez at the Bonim school.
The first apartment
The first apartment I bought after my marriage was in Ramot Sapir on Gut Levin Street. We saw 40 apartments, I really wanted to live on Palmach Street in the old Romema or in Ramat Alon, but nothing was suitable. In the end we ended up in Ramat Sapir, the fourth floor without an elevator, and we bought the apartment. During the Second Lebanon War, when I had to go down 4 floors with my daughter to the shelter at every alarm, I always arrived before the neighbor from the first floor.
Ramot Sapir was a great neighborhood as a first neighborhood. An ideal place to raise our daughters. There were very successful gardens, and the neighbor from the first floor was the kindergarten teacher. What more could you ask for? It is a young neighborhood with many families with children and we were very satisfied.
Guys on the grass
At the entrance to our residential building there was a large lawn, there was a balcony and it was very pleasant. On our last Yom Kippur in the neighborhood, when we had already sold the apartment and bought our next apartment in the Givat Oranim neighborhood, we sat with many other parents and children in the playground at the entrance to the neighborhood and said to each other that every Yom Kippur, even when we already live in Givat Oranim, we will come to Ramot Sapir to sit with our friends our.
Plans…
In Yiddish there is a phrase that says that man plans and God laughs, indeed, plans are separate and actions are separate. We never came back to the Ramot Sapir neighborhood, not on Yom Kippur or in general and we really enjoyed our new neighborhood and the new couples we met there. One way or another, it doesn't change the fact that Ramot Sapir is a great neighborhood to live in and raise children in.
How much does it cost?
A 4-room apartment (92 square meters) in a relatively new building at 5 Gut Levin St., was sold for 1,630,000 NIS. In contrast, a 3-room apartment (63 square meters) in one of the old buildings on the same street was sold for NIS 1,050,000.
How come there are so many parking lots at the end of Gut Levin and no one parks there? Are the buildings empty of tenants? Does anyone know about what shadow program?
Since the article was not written by a real estate agent, there is no point in just throwing out words,
1. Ramot Sapir is not close to the Grand Canyon (unless you specify otherwise over a 30 minute walk if from Hankin or Romema, or 10-15 minutes by car which is not a small intra-city distance who knows what)
2. Most Ramot Sapir students go to Urban C, not Alliance. You got the socioeconomic cross-section confused.
The name of the reluctant and delusional professor then and now is: Yossi Ben Artzi, and even now it is not too late to change International Street to Yitzhak Rabin Boulevard!!!!!!!!
Why is there no street or neighborhood in Haifa named after Yitzhak Rabin???
It's a municipal disgrace for many years, after I proposed immediately after the murder to turn International Street into Rabin Boulevard and the professor on the naming committee opposed it!
Scandal!!!
A species worthy of commemorating Elad Rivan who lived in Ramot Sapir by naming a street after him. When streets are named after singers who contributed nothing to the nation except for their pockets, it is fitting to name a street after a boy who perished on his way to help others in need.
In the past we built urban streets. Such was Trumpeldor and Chonkin in the Ziv center. That is why the Ziv center is a living place, a place of a city, a place where something happens.
Ramat Sapir characterizes the construction of residential neighborhoods with "exits" without a city interface. The planning puts in each neighborhood a small commercial center at the entrance, separated from the rest of the neighborhood. The commercial center turns its back to the street and the entrance to the neighborhood is made by a bridge instead of a signposted intersection. This is how they created a freeway instead of a city street. This is how they created an anti-city. This is how private car traffic jams were created in a place where it would be fun to walk, for example from Ramat Sapir to Hall Rumma. The walk is next to the highway, there is no bike lane. The highway was cut off with a bridge and a tunnel from the center of Ziv. When they built Ramat Chen, they didn't even bother to connect them to pedestrian paths through Huadi. Everything is disconnected from everything. The neighborhood looks like a closed fortress. There is no interest in the shopping center. A few shops, everyone comes by car. It is not pleasant to walk in the neighborhood. In most of the sidewalks there is no shade. The towers in the center are a citadel within a citadel. Like a layer cake of disconnection and disconnection. The garden walls next to the towers make walls. Here, instead of 6-meter high stone walls, the commercial center should have been built, with a square that allows meeting and creates a bit of interest in the center of the desolate neighborhood. From it, a residential axis had to be created above a central avenue for pedestrians and bicycles with shops and public buildings. And from there, a wide sidewalk, a bicycle lane... to the center of Ziv. To have a pleasant connection on foot. At the end of that central commercial boulevard, a pedestrian bridge had to be built between this hill and Rumma Hall. This way we would have the possibility to move isolated from the busy traffic, between the center of Ziv, the center of Ramat Sapir, and Rommah.
Can it be fixed? Maybe, but who will have the courage and resources to fix it? Move the commercial center, perhaps in its place create student residences with additional shops and a neighborhood synagogue as a task for the developer who will build the dormitories. You can repair, you can build a bridge, you can add a bike lane, you can take care of the busy road and create a city. A real living city, not one of fortified neighborhoods surrounded by car parks. But that's not on the agenda of this city engineer, or anyone else. Maybe a day will come, and the token will fall, and they will start to make a little city and interest
Instead of having to travel to other cities to get some city.