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Urban Renewal – Roundtables at Haifa Municipality: What is the urban planning that will make residents happier?

(live here) – Yesterday, Thursday, 22/05/2025, a unique meeting was held at the Haifa Municipality, which placed residents at the center of the planning discourse. Roundtables, lectures, and open discussions created a platform for a renewed look at the essence of urban planning – not just as a row of towers or transportation infrastructure, but as a tool for building happy communities. The meeting was led by Deputy Mayor, Attorney Sarit Golan Steinberg, while Mayor Yona Yahav, who was expected to participate, was forced to be absent. The event opened with inspiring lectures that raised a simple but profound question: What truly makes us happy – and how can urban planning help with this?

Deputy Mayor leads first-of-its-kind meeting in Haifa

The participants were welcomed by Deputy Mayor Sarit Golan Steinberg, who initiated and led the event. At its center was the understanding that urban planning is not just about construction – but mainly about the people who live in the city. This is a relatively innovative approach to local government, aimed at creating urban spaces that will increase the residents' sense of happiness, belonging and community. Golan Steinberg emphasized that this is the beginning of a long-term process, in which the municipality will actively listen to residents and integrate their positions into the urban planning processes.

An inspiring lecture on happiness and paying attention to the little moments

Dr. Keren Or Chen (Photo: Michal Grover)
Dr. Keren Or Chen (Photo: Michal Grover)

The lectures were opened by Dr. Keren Or Chen, an expert in positive psychology and happiness sciences from the University of Haifa. In a lecture titled "The Path to Happiness," she invited the audience to reexamine the definitions of happiness in everyday life – not just as an elusive ideal, but as a series of small actions and habits that can be implemented.

“We miss out on small moments of happiness,” said Dr. Or Chen. “The strategies are simple: expressing gratitude, choosing a supportive environment, being flexible in decision-making, and understanding that failure is also just feedback on the path to improvement.” She shared with the audience practical techniques such as writing down daily moments of gratitude, creating boundaries with “energy drainers,” and maintaining balance in life – including nutrition, exercise, contact, and sleep.

Among other things, Dr. Or Chen revealed her dream of opening the "Happiness Sciences Unit" within the clinical center at the University of Haifa, which focuses on helping people with communication disabilities, hoarseness, and post-trauma - including reservists and people who have been evacuated from their homes.

Urban planning that promotes community, not just buildings

City Engineer Orit Mertz (Photo: Orit Mertz)
City Engineer Orit Mertz (Photo: Orit Mertz)

Immediately after, City Engineer Orit Mertz, who took office at the beginning of the year, took the stage. Mertz emphasized that urban planning in Haifa is undergoing a profound change – from infrastructure-focused to community-focused. According to her, good planning includes not only public transportation and accessible housing, but also thinking about public spaces, population diversity, and building maintenance.

“We have to make sure that in the new towers we build as part of urban renewal – people don’t remain strangers to each other,” Mertz said. She emphasized bike paths, a variety of housing types and ongoing maintenance of buildings – all of which are the basis for a balanced, healthy and happy urban community.

Residents are partners in city planning – not just a target audience

The meeting was not limited to lectures. Its main focus was a roundtable discussion, held with the participation of residents from various sectors of the city. Each participant chose the topic closest to his heart, and joined a table where an open dialogue took place with representatives from the municipality. Among the topics discussed: public transportation, preservation of old neighborhoods, educational institutions, environmental planning and community.

Concrete proposals were raised at some of the tables, and residents emphasized that the meeting allowed them to express a significant voice and meet decision-makers at eye level.

Urban renewal: thousands of housing units and countless cranes

During the meeting, it was also presented Director of Urban Renewal, a body founded to coordinate the renewal processes in the various complexes in the city. As of today, a number of evacuation-construction complexes have been approved in the city, and there are more complexes that are awaiting approval, so more are expected to be added. Dozens Thousands of new housing units In the coming years. The practical meaning: Haifa's skyline is about to change, with a proliferation of projects, cranes, and new apartments.

The administration is designed to accompany all parties – developers, residents, apartment buyers and the city itself – and ensure that the process is carried out in a transparent, fast and responsible manner. Its mission is to reduce bureaucratic barriers, prevent delays, and ensure social and environmental considerations alongside physical development.

A happy city is created by listening and involvement.

The connecting line between all parts of the event – ​​from lectures to tables – was the emphasis on Listening to residentsMore than master plans and diagrams, the speakers sought to put the person at the center – what they need, what their experience of life in the city is, and what will help them feel like they belong and are satisfied.

“Urban happiness” may be a relatively new term, but it is likely to become the next standard in urban planning. Haifa, at the initiative of the deputy mayor, is already taking its first steps in this direction – with a vision that breaks down the boundaries between physical planning and everyday life. Last night’s event proved that it is possible to build not only beautiful cities – but communities that are good to live in.

contact: At watsapBy email

Michal Grover
Michal Grover
Michal Grover Education reporter • Real estate • Company Contact: 054-4423911 Mail to the container: [email protected]

Articles related to this topic

19 תגובות

  1. 2015 Yona Yahav held a kick-off conference for the evacuation of construction in Kiryat Eliezer, and to this day there is not a single crane. There were PowerPoint presentations. And cookies and refreshments.

  2. Why isn't the road from Kabbir to the slopes of Carmel being finished? Everything is ready, but they're not paving it. Why? There's talk that the road will open in the first half of 2025. It doesn't seem like it's happening. They dug into the mountain, the length of the road is about one kilometer or less. What's going on?

  3. In my opinion, no more than 2% success in urban renewal in Haifa's coastal neighborhoods
    It's worth checking that of the projects that have the majority of signatures from tenants and a contract with a developer for over 5 years, how many have already received a building permit...
    In my opinion, about 98% did not receive a building permit from the municipality.
    Certificate of failure for the Haifa Municipality.

  4. Public participation is not roundtables, where no relevant information is brought to them, and no information is collected from the public regarding a particular project. Participation that occurs at the end of a process is "public information," meaning, as Ilan Bornstein wrote here, these events are something between gaslighting and a communist regime that heralds that there will be renewal soon and that you will be happy with the small moments in life.

    Public participation is a tool. A tool that needs to be in place before we even begin discussing specific plans, and that means coming to the neighborhood to offer to listen to the needs of the residents so that future planning and decision-making in the council or local committee is not ignored and, God forbid, contrary to the interests of the residents.

    For example, in Bat Galim, residents are deeply concerned about a row of 30-story towers that will create a huge wall of dense construction along Second Aliya Street. No private or public transportation solutions have been presented on one small two-lane street that is already too narrow to accommodate the growth of the neighborhood and the addition of hundreds of vehicles from additional apartments in TAMA 38, even before the thousands of apartments and vehicles expected in the towers.
    Did someone ask the residents if they agree to 30-story towers? What would they like to see in terms of public transportation throughout the neighborhood? In terms of population growth, what public institutions are missing?
    No one on the local committee in Haifa asks such questions, and does not demand to ask the residents in the neighborhoods their opinion. Sarit Golan, who was elected on the ticket of representing the residents of the ridge against the rampant construction of TAMA 38, which is harming the neighborhoods with completely disproportionate construction, and density without appropriate infrastructure in the neighborhoods, and now as the chairwoman of the local committee, all she has to do is brag about how many levies and how many additional plans were ramped up locally and approved during her term, in other words, with an interest completely opposite to her promises to her voters!!
    This is not a process of collaboration or a process of hearing. The ability to adapt planning to the needs of the city is critical to the quality of life in Haifa or any other city. Adapting future construction to existing residents is not a luxury, it is the basis of urban planning. There are existing residents who are not transparent and are not second-class compared to future residents. And the Haifa Municipality has never done this, and that is why there have been resident struggles – successful ones – like the one with the casino. Because the municipality does not act in collaboration with the wishes of the residents as a representative of their interests, but above their heads.

  5. It's a shame that they boast about the participation of residents when in the municipality they do whatever they want without considering the public's objections and freely sell building permits to us. A prominent example is the scandal in the Bayh Carmel area, where illegal construction is taking place and they continue to approve more and more buildings in a problematic and crowded area without considering the quality of life of the residents and contrary to requests to consider the problems of the area.

  6. Where did my detailed and reasoned response "disappear"?????!!!!!@@@@@
    This doesn't make sense-ni-ni-ni-ni…!!!@@@😘

  7. All the "respondents" spoke from the "blood of their hearts"... and they logically justified the issue of "renewal" in the building... and it is very important that the responsible parties in the "beautiful Haifa" municipality give this some thought... after all, these are future plans, which are supposed to serve residents for the "well-being of the community" in the long term... and one should not think only from the "perspective" of the "economic entrepreneur" in essence, literally...!!!@@@ No one does a "construction project" for the sake of God, because he is a "Rothschild the philanthropist"...!!!@@@😭

  8. What does the municipality have to boast about?
    A tiny percentage of all complexes have been renewed to date and nothing seems to be changing.
    Besides, approving developers 6 times the multiples of housing units in Pinuy Binui (after prices have already tripled in most neighborhoods of the city since 2007) shows how much the developers underestimate the quality of life of the residents, while in the central cities it is about half with an average multiple of about 3.
    Part of this also stems from the poor understanding of tenants who are fighting for every extra meter in the expected apartments, rather than for a quality neighborhood with as few apartments as possible, which is quickly turning into slums of huge buildings with 6 apartments per floor and sometimes more.

  9. The demands of the local committee – the Haifa Municipality – are to create very large areas for commerce in the buildings in the evacuation plans, building on the ground floor – this is very important for the municipality, which wants to make a handsome profit from the high property tax revenues from commerce (it is important to know that the Haifa Municipality employs thousands of unnecessary workers who are employed because the municipality is managed inefficiently and with a horrific bureaucracy that seriously harms citizens who do not employ a squatter – and this creates a shortage of money) – by way of very serious harm to the project – this harms the value of the apartments and the quality of life – and creates a huge surplus of commercial areas, most of which will remain unused – but will continue to generate funds to finance a municipality that is managed in a reckless manner. The addition of unnecessary commercial areas increases overcrowding and further increases the transformation of neighborhoods into slums that harm residents.

  10. The Haifa Municipality must take care, first and foremost, of the personal safety of all city residents!!!
    Establish police checkpoints all over the city, we don't need monstrous police stations,
    The residents do not feel safe at all in the city!!!
    Mobile patrols, patrols by inspectors, and not just by mobile means! You can do it on motorcycles or on foot, it won't harm their health either.
    Crime is rampant in the city, many residents are abandoning it, it is full of drug addicts, especially in the "Hadar" neighborhood, and the residents are completely frustrated...

  11. Why make it difficult for residents and why hide from residents the information that allows them to submit objections - hiding information about the plans - preventing the possibility of residents to intervene in the planning, have their say, and improve the planning - as stipulated by law - anyone who is well acquainted with planning in Haifa, those outline plans in general, and the urban renewal plans (evacuation and construction) in particular - knows very well why the information is being hidden - the reasons are simple and clear - a significant portion of the plans are expected to create catastrophic slum neighborhoods, as Einat Kalish said - and she is certainly right - the appalling overcrowding produces apartments of extremely poor quality - apartments that in the era we are in are unfit for human habitation - 'trapped' apartments with one air direction and even in some cases one air direction with recessed niches - apartments without external ventilation of the bathrooms - apartments whose construction cost is cheap and are intended mainly for the weaker sections of society, are intended mainly for the owners of existing apartments - those who are tempted to join For an urban renewal initiative – through ‘wonderful’ developers and a promiscuous planning committee. And all this while creating traffic chaos and the promiscuity of life in construction monsters that include very many residents, with a loss of intimacy – and all for the benefit of the big beneficiaries of the projects – the developers and the string pullers who know how to approve the planning (in the planning committees) for the right developer and thus the money reaches the right pockets, and the quality of life of the residents disappears and evaporates as part of the city’s disintegration and elimination.

  12. The publication of planning notices on outline plans is supposed to include information that clarifies and details the nature of the proposed changes in the plans and information that details the location of the plans – in the past, the local committee acted to conceal a significant portion of the information, so that this partly prevented and partly made it difficult to submit objections. For example, in the King Solomon evacuation and construction plan, in the Neve David neighborhood, 1,212 apartments, the house numbers in the neighborhood that are included in the plan were not published – blocks and plots were published – and a significant portion of the residents of the Neve David neighborhood did not know exactly where the plan was located and whether they had any interest in submitting an objection to it, or not.

  13. The combination of concealing information regarding the possibility of submitting objections to master plans in Haifa, including evacuation and construction plans, is not only expressed in a covert advertisement in the Maariv newspaper this morning that is not distributed - a newspaper is a tool that allows the public to read news and other information - except for a significant portion of the planning and construction notices that deal with revealing the possibility of submitting an objection or generally knowing about the existence of a new master plan - there, there are usually notices in small, tiny print that does not allow the notices to be read - this is a unique area in the newspaper, that part of the newspaper that includes illegible advertising - this is the case in a significant portion of notices published in newspapers, for example, in the Kolvo newspaper, for example, in the Israel Hayom newspaper, for example, in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper - so that if the citizen is nevertheless exposed to an advertisement in the newspaper, then he does not read a significant portion of the notices due to the small font size that prevents or makes reading difficult. There is a guideline from the Planning Bureau that requires advertising in font size – 8 in relation to the marginal part of the ad and 10 in relation to the important and central part of the ad – such advertising, which is readable, does not exist in most cases of newspaper ads regarding information on submitted plans – the actual advertising is done in tiny letters, as mentioned, which are not readable – this is how the local committee works to hide the information from residents, prevent objections from being filed and prevent the planning benefit – as stipulated by law.

  14. According to the Planning and Building Law, it is necessary to publish notices of outline plans in order to allow for the submission of objections. The law explicitly defines the manner in which the publication is carried out: Among other things, there is an obligation to publish the notice of the deposit of the plan in one of the three daily newspapers widely distributed in the country in the Hebrew language – this list of the three newspapers is supposed to be published by the Minister of the Interior every year – and this has not been done – the planning authorities in Israel rely on the publication of a list of 3 newspapers from 2014, namely: Israel Hayom, Yedioth Ahronoth and Israel Post. The Israel Post newspaper has not existed since 2016 and the one that supposedly replaces it, according to the Government Planning Bureau, is a free newspaper called “Maariv Al-Hakar”. Do residents know the Maariv Al-Hakar newspaper, consume it, and still use it as one of the three newspapers widely distributed in the country? – The answer is no!!! The vast majority of Israeli residents are not familiar with the Maariv newspaper this morning – it is not a widespread and well-known newspaper – the reason for all this is simple – the Maariv newspaper this morning was distributed to the public for free, but for at least five years it has not been distributed, it is not printed and cannot be obtained like any other newspaper – it is used as an internet bulletin board and not a printed newspaper – it is not well-known – and as mentioned, it is not widespread – so it is clear that its use as advertising according to the law is in huge doubt!!!! This matter is well known to the local committee since I have been emphasizing this matter for about two years in repeated e-mails and written messages. In practice, the vast majority of the local committee's publications are published in the Maariv newspaper this morning and not in Yedioth Ahronoth and Yisrael Hayom - the reason is clear, advertising in a non-printed newspaper is cheaper and no less important - the public is not exposed to this advertising and does not know about it - this is how the public is prevented from submitting objections, this is how information about the submission of plans is hidden from the public - this is how they act exactly opposite to what is required by law - so calling it 'transparency' or 'listening to residents' - is exactly the opposite of the truth and exactly the opposite of fulfilling the requirements of the law - and with the clear knowledge of all those concerned, at least for the last two years.

  15. "Listening to residents" and "ensuring that the process is carried out transparently" - are two terms used in the article!!! Is this how the municipality actually operates??? - In terms of statements in the media - yes, in reality - no!!!! It is important to understand that there is a legal way to involve the public in planning in order to improve the planning - this way is to submit objections to master plans, including urban renewal plans (the vernacular, Pahnoi Binui plans) - does the Haifa Local Planning and Building Committee (members of the Haifa City Council) indeed legally fulfill its obligation to allow transparency, involve the residents and listen to the residents regarding the planning of the new neighborhoods - the answer is no!!!!! The local committee does not fulfill its duties according to the law and in practice works to prevent the submission of objections, the hearing of objections and the prevention of the benefit of the planning - and these things or more precisely the "combination" will be detailed below.

  16. a few questions:
    1. What is the connection between a lecture on happiness and public participation in plans? When I want to hear a lecture by the doctor, I will know where to find it. Does it have a role related to city planning? If not, then how and why is it related to the event? Not to mention the feeling of gaslighting that it evokes. The municipality is supposed to work for the residents, not educate them. In communist regimes, they tell citizens – here is what we are planning for you, but be happy with small things.
    2. What will we do to make sure that as many residents as possible know about this meeting? Where was it distributed? Because I'm on the internet all the time and I didn't know about it.
    3. There is no way to do public sharing in meetings, because you can't talk to that many people. Where are the documents containing information you want to share?

    • The point is to let off steam - they are creating construction monsters within the framework of projects with severe density - slum neighborhoods with the aim of enriching those who do it (developers and, according to suspicion, the "loyal" employees and public representatives who seem to be receiving compensation, according to suspicion, for sweeping approvals for projects with a lot of apartments and a lot of money - talking about supposed improvement and creating chaos and urban lawlessness.

  17. What happens when residents are happy when the city isn't going through a So-Cold "regeneration" binge that destroys entire quiet and peaceful neighborhoods? What happens when residents were happy to keep the neighborhood small, quiet, without adding hundreds of vehicles and thousands of additional residents to a neighborhood that wasn't designed for such an addition?
    What hypocrisy is this to talk about the happiness of "small moments" in an event of brainwashing residents when all plans are already closed and ready to destroy the city's neighborhoods with massive, disproportionate construction to fill the pockets of contractors and the pockets of the municipality that needs construction levies - and to hell with the residents or their desires.

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