Magazine names Huldai one of ‘10 smart mayors’

Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai has earned the praise of Monocle magazine as one of “Ten smart mayors” in its latest issue.

In an exuberant press statement, the Tel Aviv City Hall spoke of how the “luxury” global affairs magazine, “which is thought of as an opinion leader regarding everything dealing with subjects relating to the world daily agenda,” has chosen Huldai as one of its list of 10 smart mayors.

Monocle praises Huldai for making Tel Aviv a “magnet for young tech entrepreneurs,” and noted “his key words: equality and accessibility.”

Comparing Tel Aviv of the late ’90s to a hump of lead waiting to be turned into gold, the magazine said: “when Ron Huldai, a former fighter pilot, stepped into office in 1998, Tel Aviv was nearly bankrupt.

Inheriting a crumbling infrastructure with businesses packing up and moving out, Huldai’s three terms as mayor are the urban equivalent of alchemy.”

Huldai is joined on the list by Mohammed Yunus Nawandish – mayor of Kabul, whose “population has exploded” in the past decade, according to Monocle – as well as heads of other towns both large and small, including Kasim Reed of Atlanta, Georgia and Luke Strimbold of Burns Lake, a town of around 2,000 in British Columbia, Canada.

“Monocle is a supporter of mayors with big ideas and bold vision – civic leaders that put their homes on the map for all the right reasons,” the article stated.

Huldai isn’t the first Israeli mayor to be highlighted by the magazine. In August 2010, Monocle named Holon Mayor Moti Sasson one of the world’s top 10 mayors, and gave him credit for how he “miraculously put a midsize bedroom community on the world’s cultural map. The 63-year-old workaholic has brought five new museums to Holon, including Ron Arad’s groundbreaking 24 million euro Design Museum, generating an influx of youngsters while inventing a distinctive urban brand from scratch.”