Recently, a fascinating discussion has been developing on social media about Renewable urbanism – Or simply put: How do we make our cities a truly good place to live?
Instead of towers, parking lots, and congested roads – cities with shady streets, trees, cafes, shops, life. A place where children can walk to school alone, ride bikes, and people can simply walk around on a shady, pleasant street without cars blocking the way.
At the center of this discussion is the prominent YouTube channel in the field. "A city to live in" by Ilya Kogan, one of the central and influential voices in Israel on the subject of urban planning. Ilya grew up in Haifa, and often deals on his channel with the urban revolution taking place in Tel Aviv and the central cities – but now he is returning to his childhood city, Haifa, or "The ex" as he calls her.
In the first video from a new and intriguing series about Haifa, Ilya raises a fundamental question: What is Haifa's city center? And how this question affects the planning of the city and life in it. Ilya also deals with the essential questions: what makes a city a good city to live in and analyzes different areas in Haifa. The video is thought-provoking, accompanied by clever analyses, gentle sarcasm and a deep love for the city. And it is only the first of three.
Is it possible to build a good city on a steep slope? ► Watch
Can Haifa become a livable city again? (Video report by Ilya Kogan)
Unfortunately, if we continue to absorb from the nearby villages, Haifa will be completely destroyed. This is the painful truth.
Anyone who walks along Ben Gurion Boulevard and sees the noisy, vulgar restaurants that are similar to each other, full of shacks and hookahs, and on the street, deliberately noisy vehicles speeding down the roads, immediately understands Haifa's problem.
Continue to believe your stupidity. Apart from the word "ignite," there is no chance of coexistence with a people who worship death.
Are you talking about Jewish Hamas members, you Kahani fascist?
The question of whether it is possible to succeed in living in Israel is more fundamental right now.
The problem in Haifa is low rent that brings in a lot
Very weak population for the city
Many apartment owners from Tel Aviv are renting out 2000-room apartments for 3 shekels! The situation is becoming catastrophic.
The problem in Haifa is the dirt and neglect of what already exists. Hadar has a lot of potential but it's so disgusting and depressing. And I don't mean *only* the fact that the municipality doesn't clean, but mainly the fact that the municipality doesn't enforce the city's cleaning laws and forces the residents (whose parents messed up) to stop this disrespectful behavior - of throwing everything on the floor in public areas.
A marginal problem, not to mention mind engineering and diverting the most difficult and complex topic to Haifa, a city that is more involved every year.
The trash, the road, and the sidewalk can be tidied up, and it's reversible.
The influx into the city from the northern villages is an hourglass for the city to be Zionist and Hebrew. And the legislator and the municipality must find solutions through legislation to this sensitive issue that they are ashamed to deal with on a daily basis.
The problem is not "where is the center of Haifa" but why is every center in Haifa declining.
The answer to all of them is one and only: preference for private vehicles over pedestrians and car-oriented development and shopping malls instead of pedestrians and sidewalks.
You really don't need Ilya Kogan on his repeat videos to understand this because every time he says the same conclusion in different forms and it is clear today to the entire planning world – except perhaps for the city engineer and planners in Haifa. A city is created by active streets. Active streets are created by pedestrians who can easily reach them and move around them easily.
That's the bottom line. That's the message. That's the whole Torah.
In Haifa, they always do the opposite. Make private cars as comfortable as possible. Even in the Carmel Center, where they built wide and beautiful sidewalks, cars are already using them. They are allowed 20 minutes to get around, which is a preference for private cars over walking and buses. They are not building a Carmelite Line 2 on the ridge axis, but are only talking about a metro. But a metro would be slow and everyone would prefer to get stuck in traffic jams by car again. We need to invest in bus-only lanes between the neighborhoods and the main roads so that buses are the preferred means of transportation and not private cars. But the Haifa Municipality gives in to residents who own cars and allows them to block sidewalks and creates huge parking lots for them instead of promenades (in Baddo, for example).
The promenades are small and the parking lots are huge. It's a city without a city. It's a city of parking lots and people in a bubble between the parking lot at the mall and the parking lot at home. If tomorrow morning they blocked all the roads to cars in Haifa and only allowed buses, this whole city would come to life. This is the truth. Hadar ended and was destroyed when it turned into only streets for vehicles to cross to the Carmel and from the Carmel to the malls at Check Post.
Haifa's difficult problem is that it is becoming more and more mixed, and if until 20 years ago there was mutual respect and each people lived in more or less their own neighborhood, now (both because of population growth and because there is no legal prohibition and the legislature neglects the issue) the influx is constantly into our neighborhoods. And everyone is silent and the situation is deteriorating year by year.
Why doesn't the media put the issue on a high agenda, write about it every day, and stimulate public discourse, especially mayors and members of Knesset, to create solutions for all populations to live in separate neighborhoods and cities, and stop the situation in which we have de facto no way to pass through settlements and cities, and on the other hand, everything is allowed and accessible to everyone, and the legislature does not protect the homogeneity of cities through legislation?
We are dealing here with the insipid and not primarily, and it is the next generation that is at risk, as we are turning a blind eye to their future in Haifa and in the mixed cities in general.
And also the fact that Arabs and Jews study together in elementary and high schools, everything mixes, and intermarriage is the next step, because why not, really??
Entire neighborhoods have changed their character...worryingly
Everything is planned by them to get inside us and numb us and slowly throw us out because we are unable to get along with them and their barbaric culture.
Reminds me of Nazi words just before the Holocaust... to the glory of the fascists... shame and disgrace
The malls have ruined the city, especially the Grand Canyon.
Gural's egg chatter,
The entire discussion is the result of legislation during the Bennett era to shadow the state in order to create 15-d cities. No one really cares about our well-being, but only to narrow our path, in closed complexes, the fruit of the feverish minds of those who signed the 2030 Agenda and the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Cigarettes cause cancer! All cigarette companies should be sued and bankrupted! A letter should be written to the World Health Organization about medical malpractice
interesting
Interesting indeed.
Very interesting.
How special Haifa is...full of character and beauty
An exciting video.
The residents of Haifa chose the wrong person. Einat Kalisch saw the future in Haifa, which probably some residents now understand the mistake they made in not letting her continue with the vision that is now being announced. It's not too late yet. Einat is honest with values for the benefit of the residents. This is an opportunity to make a change for the city to be the leader in the country. Bring Einat back to finish the mission for us, the residents of the city.
Excellent article, thank you Jonathan, all your articles are informed, well-written and to the point. We have been in Haifa since 1981 and love it and any innovation in it is welcome. Thank you!