How did he do?

As Nir Barkat nears the end of his term, "In Jerusalem" assesses his performance.

By PEGGY CIDOR
Nir Barkat thumbs up 521 (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
Nir Barkat thumbs up 521
(photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem)
It is less than three weeks to the municipal elections, and the mechanism of a well-organized electoral campaign of current mayor and candidate Nir Barkat is reaching its peak. In keeping with Barkat’s background as a hi-tech man, his campaign has been a model of the genre, with a plethora of graphics, photos, interaction on the Web and the like. One could say it is almost a futuristic-style campaign which, while very impressive, may not be accessible to some residents who have more than 20 or 25 summers behind them. But it is not a gimmick. Barkat is totally part of the Internet world as are his assistants and staff members – all young, talented and hungry for success.
Barkat was the first candidate to start preparing for the campaign. He officially opened his headquarters (a five-minute walk from his office at Safra Square) in June, and his investment in technological apparatus, as well as the number of volunteers and staff working on his campaign, is very impressive. Every move he makes conveys the message that the man is focused on one objective – to win the election and be the mayor of Jerusalem for another five years.
That was the aura that surrounded him even when there was no challenger on the horizon, long before Moshe Lion began to consider running for mayor.
Asked at the inauguration of his HQ if he was not investing too much in what seemed like the most secure election campaign for him, Barkat answered, “I am always careful to be prepared and never let myself be caught by surprise.”
One of the main tasks of Barkat’s staff was to put together a list of all his accomplishments and disseminate it to the residents and the media as widely as possible. The list is exhaustive. However, according to some people who are closely involved with the work done within the municipality, some of the reports might be slightly exaggerated. As one high-ranking official put it, “There has been some Photoshop work done on some of the facts here and there.”
Nevertheless, the mayor has done a lot of work for the city, and although there have been a few failures and some goals are far from being achieved, there is no doubt that many things in the city have changed over the past five years, quite a few of which are for the better.
Barkat’s achievements notwithstanding, most agree that the major obstacle facing young, educated adults who want to remain in the city is the lack of interesting and well-paying job opportunities.
“Housing is not less expensive in Tel Aviv,” Deputy Mayor Kobi Kahlon and president of the Planning and Construction Committee on the city council said on one occasion in response to the claim that too many young people are still leaving the city. He pointed this out by saying that what is driving young Jerusalemites away is not the fact that affordable housing is still more a rumor than a reality but that the lack of attractive jobs and the high cost of housing are turning the city into a fading dream for too many young adults.
Barkat has made some improvements in the realm of employment, but is it enough? According to figures provided by the municipality (compiled by the Central Bureau of Statistics), the past five years have shown certain improvements in some spheres.
Employment opportunities
In regard to employment, the figures have doubled compared to former mayor Uri Lupolianski’s tenure – from 5,000 jobs added per year to 10,000. Altogether, that comes to 50,000 more employment solutions for local residents between 2008 and 2013.
Barkat has promised to add 100,000 more job opportunities in the next five years. But what remains to be seen is if these opportunities fit the kinds of jobs that educated young adults are looking for when determining whether or not to remain here.
In one case, Barkat’s administration has provided a significant answer with the establishment of the Mazia Theater, which offers steady employment for graduates of the actors’ studios. At least these people have a choice and are not automatically forced to move to the center of the country when they graduate. However, the theater provides answers for only 50 people at most (including producers and directors).
As for the hi-tech domain, while there has been an increase in the number of hi-tech companies located here (mostly in Har Hotzvim), the big firms are still not moving to Jerusalem in large numbers. Here again, Barkat has announced that he will put more emphasis on that.
In one case, the need to increase employment has garnered at least one success. The news sector of TV’s Channel 10 has moved here, probably providing some job opportunities. In that vein, the number of films shot in the city, through the facility provided by a special staff sponsored by the municipality and the Jerusalem Development Authority, has produced some significant results. The NIS 28 million budget has been raised to NIS 110m., and the number of films featuring Jerusalem has increased fourfold.
But despite all these efforts, many people complain about the excessive bureaucracy involved in attempting to launch a small or medium-sized private company or enterprise. According to the municipality’s figures, the number of businesses has increased from 33,451 until 2008 to 35,223 by the end of 2011. This is not enough, says a high-ranking municipal official who works on issues connected to business development. Despite the mayor’s attempts to streamline the process, such as installing the one-stop-business service at the municipality’s business license bureau and appointing a director, people still complain that the process is too long and too inefficient. All too often, this deters entrepreneurs from attempting to open a small or medium-sized business.
Meirav Cohen, the driving force behind Hitorerut, the youth organization that surfaced in the 2008 elections, is leaving the political arena after five years on the city council. Cohen, who has achieved the rare claim to fame of being respected by all the parties (including the haredim), has not, however, found a significant sphere of activity in local politics and has announced her decision not to continue. But her achievements and experience enable her to give an honest assessment of what Barkat has and has not accomplished.
“The employment figures come from the Central Bureau of Statistics, so there is no disputing them,” says Cohen. “But the question is: What kind of jobs are they? My understanding is that they are mainly lowtech and low-income jobs. These are important, too, but they do not provide a solution for educated young adults who are looking for interesting, rewarding and well-paid jobs, and that’s a problem.”
Asked if that should be part of a mayor’s task, Cohen says, “Without question, no mayor could achieve that without massive support and commitment from the government and, in Jerusalem’s case, the strong involvement of the JDA.”
Cohen adds that for people of her generation (late 20s, early 30s) with a master’s degree, finding suitable employment in Jerusalem is almost impossible.
“I am crazy about this city, so I am ready to work in a place that is an hour’s distance away, but how many people can afford to do that?” she says.
“Something significant must be done here in the next five years; otherwise, there will be no future for my generation. It can be done. Large firms and enterprises have to be brought here, benefits must be provided at the national level, like in the 1970s when, within less than a year, [former mayor] Teddy Kollek brought in 70 companies and established the basis of the hi-tech industry here.”
Education
Another significant area of interest is the education system. It is so important to the mayor that right after being elected in 2008, he decided to keep the education portfolio in his hands. In that regard, one must keep in mind that it has two aspects: level of education and the number of pupils in the public streams.
A steady increase in the number of religious and secular students in the state school system has been monitored by the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies. The institute’s chief statistician, Maya Choshen, and her team were the first to remark the change in the figures – more pupils in the state and state-religious streams. But she was cautious to wait for the third year of that upward direction to declare that the figures indicated a genuine new trend.
“We could say that during the first year after Barkat’s election, young parents simply sat on the fence, waiting to see how far his policy would go,” said Choshen some time ago. “Then, slowly but surely, we could see the changes.
People who would have already packed up and left the city decided to remain here for another year and give it a chance, keeping their children in the state education system. By the end of the third year, the new direction was clear,” she said.
In numbers, there has been an increase of 6% in the number of pupils in the religious and secular state-school streams and an increase of 4% in the number of graduates in the state streams eligible for matriculation (bagrut).
On this issue, it is important to note that the national figures, which put Jerusalem’s achievement in 134th place (out of 154), are not conclusive, as they include haredi students and Arabs in east Jerusalem, who do not take the tests.
To this one can add Barkat’s extensive computerization operation: a laptop for every teacher (including an increasing number of teachers in the Arab sector), as well as massive computerization of the classrooms.
Barkat, a prominent hi-tech businessman in his recent past, was true to himself and could not imagine any serious improvement in the education system that would not include computers. The numbers increased from 99 computerized classes in 2009 to 550 this year.
Another aspect of the changes in the city’s education system is the 25% increase in the number of high-school graduates who go into significant service for their army duty (mostly combat units), as well as the increase in the number of children and teens who participate in Zionist youth movement activities, whose budgets (sponsored by the municipality) have increased by 5%.
Esti Kirmayer, a resident of Kiryat Hayovel and secretary of the Jerusalem district Labor Party, says that her neighborhood is the perfect locale to see the changes.
“We have the highest number of kindergartens and preschools [for non-haredim] opened during the last years. Whether they are private or state venues, they all have the municipality’s support. Of course, this would not have happened if we didn’t have a bunch of people who were determined to hold on and promote the rights and needs of the secular community, but the fact is that this mayor understood it and instructed his administration to work with us."
Culture and leisure time
The cultural life of the city has undergone tremendous improvement in both quantity and quality, albeit in regard to quality there are more and more voices that criticize the artistic level of the events. Nevertheless, here again, the figures speak for themselves. The number of cultural events has increased more than threefold over the past five years compared to Lupolianski’s period. The municipality has invested NIS 225m. in cultural institutions in the city in the past year, four times more than in the previous year (2010-11).
As culture also includes sports and entertainment, there have been many improvements in that sphere. These include the Arena (soon to be completed); the enlargement of Teddy Stadium; the five metropolitan parks surrounding the city (including Ein Tzurim Park, which is on disputed land in east Jerusalem); Mesila Park along the old railway tracks, with its walking and bicycle paths; and a total of 49 km. of other bicycle paths in various locations in the city.
“This is an area in which Barkat has unquestionably made a significant change for the better,” says Cohen. “Many venues are open on Shabbat – forget for the moment the Cinema City issue – and he has learned to promote it without arousing too much opposition from the haredi sector, unlike what happened with the opening of the Karta parking lot three years ago.”
Again, Kiryat Hayovel could be the place to see some of the most significant changes.
“We can see how, through the projects for the young generation, many things have improved, and they all have a made a positive impact on the neighborhood’s quality of life,” says Kirmayer. “For example, we have Young City (groups of students who establish communities in several neighborhoods). And the Center for the Young Generation project launched by the mayor three years ago has a branch in this neighborhood.”
In the framework of these projects for the young generation, Kirmayer adds that significant funding was available to enhance the changes, adding more cultural and community activities, which have made Kiryat Hayovel and nearby Kiryat Menahem attractive neighborhoods for young families.
Affordable housing
Housing is still far from being affordable for many Jerusalemites.
During the past five years, Barkat has tried to promote a few projects, such as raze and build (pinui-binui) in Kiryat Hayovel and the Katamonim and the 20/20/20 project (20% discount on 20% of the housing units built, entitling the developers to 20% more construction terrain). Some others simply didn’t work, mainly due to lack of support from the government.
“Most of the plots of land in the city belong to the state,” says Cohen. “It means that most of this issue is in the hands of the government, through the housing and construction minister. As long as it was in the hands of minister Ariel Attias [Shas], we had no chance. Attias was interested in only one aspect: affordable housing for his constituency. We, the young generation who work and do military service, had no chance of having any construction project that suited our needs. But let’s hope that with the changes in the government, that will change as well. In any case, Barkat had a few plans and had good intentions, but he was stopped and could hardly achieve anything.”
Cohen adds that any plan that does not include a significant reduction in the cost of land (at the state’s expense) will not allow for a serious solution.
Cleaning and maintenance
One of the improvements that Barkat is particularly proud of is the large investment in the overhaul of streets and roads, which has increased from NIS 20m. during Lupolianski’s time to NIS 295m. since 2009 up to this year. This goes as well for renovating the sidewalks and the public parks – from NIS 20m. until 2008 to NIS 956m during Barkat’s tenure. Street lighting has increased from NIS 30m during Lupolianski’s term to NIS 69m. during Barkat’s time.
However, this has no bearing on the major failure in Barkat’s term – the cleaning of the city. The city is dirty, there is no other way to say it, and everyone agrees.
“There is no question that on this issue we are deeply disappointed. Barkat must find a way to improve it. Things cannot go on this way; it is unacceptable,” says Cohen.
Haredi-secular relations
Both Kirmayer and Cohen admit that haredi-secular relations is a very serious issue which, in order to find a solution, requires more than one mayor dedicated to improving things.
“Since the days when we demonstrated against the haredim at the Karta parking lot, things have changed,” says Cohen.
“The fact is that many venues are now open on Shabbat on a regular basis, and nothing is happening to prevent it.”
Kirmayer adds that, once again, Kiryat Hayovel is a test case that could illustrate to what degree things have changed.
“The tension we had here with the arrival of many young haredi families a few years ago has been replaced by something close to a modus vivendi. The secular are not going to leave, and that makes a difference,” she says.
Kirmayer explains that while that was the result of an adamant position of the secular community, who organized and “fought back,” she adds that “without the support of the mayor, this couldn’t have succeeded. It took time, but today, when we call the municipality to stop or prevent any attempt to set up an illegal private kindergarten in a residential building, the reaction and action are immediate. In fact, such attempts are happening less and less.”