From most roads you can't see the destination
One day in the summer I was walking around the German colony and saw a bride and groom taking pictures. They looked for a corner on the narrow sidewalks of the German colony, to take pictures against the background of the Bahá'í gardens. After a few minutes of filming, they got back in the car and drove off.
Bride and groom photos are the greatest compliment a place can receive for its beauty, but in order for them to actually take pictures with the view, the road had to be blocked. Even tourists who come to photograph the wonder of the Haifa landscape should stand on the small traffic island between the two lanes of the road, take a quick picture and run to the sidewalk.
Once a year the residents get full freedom of movement in the area
And indeed, every city has main roads through which you travel to your destination, but Sometimes by thinking too much about the road we ran over the destination. There is only one time that Ben Gurion Boulevard, the boulevard that crosses the German colony, becomes a central and important destination in the "holiday of holidays", when the vehicles are removed from it and returned to the residents. the rest of the year From most roads you can't see the destination.
Where is Haifa's piazza?
A city is an entity in itself. All European cities have a central square, the beating heart of the city where residents come to walk around and experience the city. New York has Times Square, Tel Aviv has Rabin and Dizingoff Square, London has Trafalgar Square, Florence has Piazza Duomo and Rome has so many piazzas that it is difficult to choose which is the most central.
The central squares in cities are characterized by sidewalks and huge pedestrian plazas, which allow the city to express itself. But, some of these squares weren't always so central.
Square planning
Rabin Square used to be a large parking lot. Although Dizengoff Square used to be the center of the "White City" of Tel Aviv, it was raised to make room for vehicle traffic, cut off from the street and thus its radiation decreased. In 2018, the square was reopened, as part of an investment by the Tel Aviv Municipality, with the connection of the square to the street level, the expansion of sidewalks, seating areas and bike paths. Today, Dizengoff Square is back to being one of the bustling centers and symbols of the city. A similar move happened in the Rail Park, which turned from a parking lot into one of the most beautiful parks in Gush Dan.
In 2009, on the other side of the globe, a similar case happened in New York. In the summer of 2009, one of the main roads in Times Square was temporarily blocked due to the number of injuries to pedestrians and became an experimental walking area for a year. The success of the temporary transition was so great that in 2010 Michael Bloomberg, the mayor at the time, stated that the municipality decided to block the road permanently and added 33,500 square meters for pedestrians!
The first part opened in 2014 and was finally completed in 2016. The business owners in Times Square were worried about the loss of revenue, because they thought that revenue depended on the roads, but in the end they became the biggest supporters of the move. It turns out that when there is space for pedestrians, businesses on the street will be more successful.
In Haifa, too, a road is closed to pedestrians once a year on the "Holiday of the Holidays" and it is precisely Ben Gurion Boulevard that crosses the German colony under the Baha'i Gardens. Suddenly, for a magical moment, one of the most beautiful places in Israel turns into a spectacular piazza full of people who come to celebrate the tolerance and diversity that is so special in Haifa. As the vehicles are taken out of the settlement, it becomes a human river, a place of life. But why shouldn't the colony belong to the city and its residents all year round?
A piazza for the residents at the foot of the Baha'i gardens overlooking the harbor and the sea could be one of the most beautiful piazzas in the Mediterranean basin. It is true that a solution needs to be found for supply trucks for the restaurants and shops and for residents in the area, but the world has succeeded in returning more complicated areas to the city and to pedestrians through parking lots, access roads and creative solutions. Haifa sacrificed its most beautiful area on the altar of the private car, but it is not too late to change. The German colony of Haifa simply looks like a "before" picture of the main squares in the world.
The festival of traffic jams
There are those who will immediately say "But what about the terrible traffic jams during the holiday of holidays?! It will only aggravate them even more!'
Although there is some truth in the words, the problem in Haifa in general and the lower city in particular is the difficulty of walking there. While in Tel Aviv (at least before the age of scooters) it is pleasant to wander from Florentin in the south to Yarkon Park on wide and pleasant sidewalks, in Haifa you can hardly walk from the Bat Galim neighborhood to the German colony because the sidewalk is not continuous. Therefore, everyone is pushed with their vehicles into the same small area instead of parking in parking lots and wandering around a bit on foot or in public transportation. In other words, the traffic jams are solved by accessibility for pedestrians, public transportation and entertainment all around and not by more roads.
Barcelona is not only a port, it is also piazzas and good urbanism
This week we were informed that the purchase transaction of the Port of Haifa is almost completed and the "Urban Sea Front" project of Haifa will be launched. The plan will open the port area to the public From Dagon to the Rambam Hospital for cafes, restaurants and entertainment. The program is also known as the "Barcelona Program", But to be Barcelona it is not enough just to have a port that is open to the public, you also need a beautiful central piazza to which all tourists who come can go instead of getting on a train to Tel Aviv.
Extra wide sidewalks were built on Ben Gurion Avenue.
However, the municipality preferred to rent them out to the business owners along the street in order to get a few pennies for the municipality's depleted coffers.
Millionaire retirees come to the colony only with the jeep. If they close the road, how will they get there? They will not walk more than 100 meters and their foot will not step on the bus. This means that every piazza in Haifa will fail without parking lots under the Jeeponers from the Carmel. Their Highnesses on Friday mornings create traffic jams from Harev to the French Carmel because walking is only possible if they go down with the Jeep or Cadillac to the beach. They will climb the pizza with the jeep, if there was no fence in the Bahá'ís they would walk into the gardens with the jeep inside.
All the cities we have given examples of are flat. Which allows easy construction of large squares.
Haifa is 80 percent Mt. Therefore there is not much space between the sea and the harbor and the mountain to build piazzas like in Rome with all due respect.
And the German colony is one of the only places in Haifa where the Arabs can get excited about their pressurized exhaust and drive 20 km/h back and forth on the street and burn 150 shekels of fuel.
If we take it from them then what will happen?? Will go elsewhere to do this intelligent hobby…. And that's really, really undesirable
Excellent idea, Haifa has amazing potential.
Just kick out the disgruntled residents and everything will work out.
With most of the current residents, you will get protests and hate for anything.
The only ones who use this to their advantage are the businessmen, our haters and the politicians.
In favor of keeping Ben Gurion as a pedestrian street all year round.
A piazza on Ben Gurion Boulevard? You just need a vision. A platform raised at a height of 10 meters above the Jaffa/Shad Ben Gurion intersection and a circular route accessible from the corners of the intersection - will allow the establishment of a wonderful piazza, including benches and options for viewing south and up the mountain. Just a little imagination and talent and raising capital in exchange for a sign - and there is a solution...
Please note - no tunnel and no plaster - an artificial square above the Jaffa/Shad Ben Gurion intersection, in the air above...
It is necessary that part of the road in front of the Baha'i gardens pass through a tunnel and then a beautiful square will be obtained from above.
Do you want a repeat of the mistakes of Dizengoff Square and Atari Square in Haifa? A car tunnel does not work and does not produce a roundabout above it.
Jonathan Hi. The German colony in Haifa is very impressive. Happy Hanukkah and have a good week.
Now let's talk in the language of planning: Haifa has a problem, there are only 3 main longitudinal axes that link to the Carmel in all of East Haifa until after Kiryat Yavlat: the one Rothschild St. in Kiryat Eliezer. The second is Ben Gurion St. in the colony. and the third, Zionist Ave. This means that Ben Gurion Blvd. cannot be given up as a connecting axis, hence the huge traffic jams every time it closes. What is needed? In urban renewal in Kiryat Eliyahu, the construction of Yitzhak Sade Road as a replacement for Ben Gurion Blvd. Closure of Ben Gurion Blvd. to vehicles, with the exception of Upper Hagafen St. New mixed-use construction along the new Yitzhak Sade Boulevard.
I don't know if Klish is an architect, or a landscape architect, one thing is certain from the moment she entered the mayor's office she completely neglected the issue of public transportation in Haifa, she neglected the home circles where she promised to encourage walking and bicycles, she began to deal with the benefit of the private car: a. "20 Minutes Move" encourages arrival by car. B. Talk about a plan to add parking lots in neighborhoods (where?) c. Destruction of sidewalks in order to provide parking - according to Zionism Ave., in total contempt. D. Does not enforce illegal parking inside the roads and on sidewalks to the point of blocking roads (Zionism Ave.-Herzliya, Stella Maris..) E. Continues the asphalting and narrowing of sidewalks in favor of Private car.
It's an absolute disaster. Haifa has squares, for example Plumer Square - used as a train parking lot. Ziv Square - became an intersection with narrow sidewalks and a parking lot. Oranim square - parking lot. Romema Hall Square - a parking lot rifle... and so on.
Fun article!
And as a landscape architect who functions as the mayor of the city, I would expect her to step out of the box a bit. Or even go out a little on the streets and see the people.
This is a wonderful idea. Haifa needs a downtown full of people. Full of activities. Full of pedestrians.