Creative solutions?

Has the municipality's plan to lure young people to the center city succeeded?

By PEGGY CIDOR
Casino de Paris bar (521) (photo credit: PEGGY CIDOR)
Casino de Paris bar (521)
(photo credit: PEGGY CIDOR)
The scene on Hillel Street two weeks ago, in the center of town, was definitely not a typical one for a Saturday afternoon in Jerusalem: hundreds of young (and less young) people dancing, hanging out with a glass of beer, listening or slowly moving to the sounds of popular singer Karolina, who stood on a small stage.
Not that outdoor events have been unusual in the city over the past three years, but a daytime party on Shabbat in the city center was, and still is, not the standard atmosphere. And indeed, the following day, the social media were full of photos from the event, accompanied by sounds of victory from the organizers and the participants.
“We can be proud of ourselves, it was a total success. We made a point here today, and there will be more of these soon,” wrote Ofer Berkovich, a former city council member for Hitorerut B’yerushalayim (Jerusalem Awakening) and one of the people behind the event, on his Facebook page.
However, others appreciated this “success” less.
The Shabbat party rang alarm bells in the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) camp at the city council, and culminated the following day in representatives of the United Torah Judaism list protesting to Mayor Nir Barkat that the event was a blatant infringement of the city’s status quo.
However, so far, plans by Berkovich and his associates are still being worked out, and another Saturday afternoon party is expected by mid-August in the same location.
SO WHAT has changed for the younger generation in this city, besides events like the one two weeks ago? “The atmosphere is not the same anymore,” Berkovich said a few weeks earlier in a casual conversation on the subject. “If in the past friends from Tel Aviv would look at us, the young residents of Jerusalem, with pity and condescension, now they show respect, and they even come here for the parties, the music – and the weather, of course.”
Berkovich is right – Jerusalem is slowly but surely becoming a popular spot for leisure-seeking students and young people. Bars, coffee shops and restaurants, outdoor parties (which involve closing off large parts of the city center, particularly on Fridays) and lively cultural events targeting youth have multiplied and become almost natural here.
Almost – because as Merav Cohen, Berkovich’s replacement on the city council, explains, the haredi representatives are a long way from accepting the situation, and there is always the fear that they might put a stop to these changes.
“But I would say ‘almost’ also,” she adds, “because despite the importance of the dynamic atmosphere we have managed to create here, young and productive people won’t stay in Jerusalem [just] because we can offer them good parties.”
In other words, even those who have been the most active in bringing about the changes here are the first to admit that it’s nice, but not enough.
“Young people who were born here or graduated here and want to stay in Jerusalem because they like the city, will nevertheless leave if they can’t afford a house or can’t get a decently paying and interesting job,” notes Cohen.
Although the city has succeeded in encouraging many more young residents to live in the city center, these are mostly students, with few incentives for young families to live in the focus area, which includes Rehavia, Nahlaot, King George Avenue, Mahaneh Yehuda, the Russian Compound, some of Jaffa Road and Musrara.
According to a municipal spokeswoman, more people have moved into the city center than moved out, with 1,500 young people moving there every year.
“With the rejuvenated city center, including the light rail, this trend is expected to increase,” the spokeswoman says.
“We know that there are many young residents – students and others – who, thanks to that [property tax reduction] have decided to rent apartments in the city center – the rent is more expensive” but they are closer to entertainment and leisure venues, she says. “But the problems comes back when they get married and want to purchase a decent apartment.”
Regarding affordable housing, there have been many successful initiatives such as purchasing groups, says Cohen, but in Kiryat Hayovel, Kiryat Menahem, Talpiot and Baka rather than in the city center.
BUT MANY young people who do live downtown say they wouldn’t live anywhere else in the city.
Hanan, aged 27, a law student, says he chose to live in Rehavia despite the high rental rates, “because that’s the only place where there is anywhere to go or sit with friends after study time.”
Hanan lives in a two-room apartment with a roommate, and each pays NIS 1,750 per month, not including property tax and utilities. He says that he never considered living somewhere like French Hill, for example, which is much closer to the Hebrew University’s Mount Scopus campus and also cheaper.
All of Hanan’s university friends have also chosen to live in Rehavia or Nahlaot.
Those who are really on a tight budget live in Jaffa Road of one of the small streets around Hillel and Shamai streets, or in the shuk, which are cheaper areas.
“I have everything I need within walking distance,” says Uriel, 26, who has recently moved from Nahlaot to Rehavia with his girlfriend, Merav, 25. “Why would I move far from here, and waste precious time on buses or the light rail to come here to find a decent bar or coffee shop and meet friends?” Their rent jumped from NIS 3,500 to NIS 4,300, yet they are satisfied with their decision.
“We wouldn’t want to live anywhere else,” they explain. “Firstly we love the city center – there are plenty of nice places to hang out – but also the public transportation here is deplorable, and we don’t have a car, so it’s the best solution. What would we do in Kiryat Hayovel or Katamonim?” Amir, 26, a student at the Open University, moved to Jerusalem three years ago. Until last month he lived in with a student at the Hebrew University, for which they paid NIS 4,000 altogether, before property tax and bills.
“Frankly, that place was not worth the high rent, but you know, Rehavia, you want to be where things happen, and there’s nothing to do [anywhere else] – the best places to hang around or meet a nice girl are there, not in one of the older neighborhood, where there are mostly families with children or older people.”
Since his landlord raised his rent, he is looking to move.
He says he is now looking to give Baka or Talpiot a try, “because it might be less expensive, and still not too far – I can walk from there to the city center when I want to meet my friends.”
THREE ORGANIZATIONS are working – together and separately – on the endeavor to bring the youth back to the city center: the municipality, the Students’ Association and New Spirit – an organization that Barkat created eight years ago, when he was head of the city council opposition, to address the interests of the younger generation.
The outlines of the new policy were simple: The municipality would encourage (including financially) anything that would bring students and youth to live, create and work in the city center. Facilitating this venture would be the municipality’s Youth and Social Administration, the Students’ Association and the neighborhood councils (particularly Lev Ha’ir), along with philanthropic support from the Jerusalem Foundation and others.
Officially the reason behind this new policy was that more young people in the city center would immediately mean more activities, more bars, more coffee shops, more restaurants, more culture – in short, more business, fewer young people leaving, and bottom line, more income for the city.
That is all true, of course, but there are other reasons.
For example, it is no secret that more than a few people at Safra Square see increasing the presence of young people in the downtown area as a strategy to stem the haredi community’s expansion into the city center and from there to the southern neighborhoods.
“Of course, no official personality would admit it publicly,” says a senior official at the municipality, “but it is clear that the [non-haredi] public has lost the north of the city to the haredim. We just want to prevent the same thing from occurring in the center and elsewhere.”
While the attempt to encourage young people to rent apartments in the city center through a substantial reduction in property taxes (arnona) was partially successful – partially, because some owners just raised the rent by the sum of the arnona discount – alternative solutions had to be found. Two separately coordinated ventures soon materialized. One was the completion of a project that had begun in former mayor Uri Lupolianski’s days – the transformation of the Nahlaot neighborhood’s Beit Mazia into a home for local theater companies. The second was the decision to move the Bezalel Art School from Mount Scopus to a new campus in the Russian Compound. With the return of the art school, the city center will also see the construction of the school’s new dorms, which has been approved and will start soon on the site of the former Architect House, near the planned (and still delayed) Museum of Tolerance.
This amounts to a few hundred students filling the streets and facilities downtown, and a proliferation of cultural and social activities within a relatively small radius, from behind the old Hamashbir building to the Russian Compound. The latter is close to the Musrara neighborhood, where there is another art school, the Musrara Photography School, with bars, coffee shops, restaurants and cultural venues along the way on Shlomzion Hamalka, Yanai, Du-Nuwas and King George streets.
MUSRARA IS also where the New Youth Center, another project that the municipality and the Lev Ha’ir neighborhood council have initiated, is located. The New Youth Center aims to change the status of the young generation completely in terms of their rights as well as what is expected from them in terms of initiatives and responsibilities to bring the necessary changes to society .
Sponsors of the project include the Joint Distribution Committee and the Jerusalem Foundation, as well as the municipality and the Prime Minister’s Office (via Likud MK Gila Gamliel, deputy minister for the advancement of young people, students and women). The first step of the project, which has a NIS 15 million budget, was to identify the best location possible, not only in terms of facilities, but also in terms of its social message.
“We chose Musrara as a means of expressing our deep confidence in the capacity of this city and its youth to change... the difficult past to a better present and future,” says Uri Amedi, director of the Lev Ha’ir council and president of the special committee for the New Youth Center.
The committee includes representatives from the municipality (City Councilman Yakir Segev and Youth Department director Yoram Braverman), a representative of the Jerusalem Foundation (Projects Department director Nadim Sheeban) and a representative of the JDC. The project’s director is Shlomo Levy, until recently the president of the Jerusalem Students’ Association.
The old community center of Musrara will be the site of the new center, but at present, it needs major renovations. The first story will Youth Center. Renovations are set to start shortly and will take about a year. Meanwhile, the center will offer its services from a rented location elsewhere.
Until now, the various authorities – schools, community centers and the like – have catered to young people only until adulthood, with services ending more or less when the youths reach the age of army service. This center, however, aims to address the needs of those in their 20s and 30s, who already think in terms of academic education, professional training and, further on, careers, housing and creating a family.
“This place will serve as a basis for the young generation to not only remain in Jerusalem, but even more importantly it will give them the tools to work toward a better society, a better city, a better life for them and all the residents. More engagement, more commitment, more clean and honest activities, whatever they choose – social, economics, politics – anything – we just want to see them [the young] taking up their responsibilities – we’re here to supply the tools,” says Nadim Sheeban, the Jerusalem Foundation representative for the project.
“Things have changed a lot in this city in the past few years,” acknowledges Cohen. “But too many important things took too much time, more than reasonably necessary, and we are paying a price for this.”
As an example, she cites the lack of rewarding job opportunities; something she sees as a critical flaw. She admits that this is not something a municipality or a mayor, however dedicated, can fix alone – that it should be a priority for a government, for a prime minister.
“However,” she insists, “we at the municipality could have done better also.”
For instance, she says, the municipality has not mapped the available plots in the city so it can find space to offer entrepreneurs. Also, she notes, efforts to bring in employers and companies should be much more serious: “We should just go out there and bring them here, seduce them to prefer Jerusalem over any other place in this country, and that works for small firms [all the way] up to the giants. If we can’t offer the younger generation decent jobs, they will go away, forever.”
Jerusalem has some 150,000 residents who fall into the “young people” category – a number that should not be disregarded. For the last few years, there have been serious attempts to meet the needs of this segment of the population. The Euro 2012 soccer games were screened for free at Menorah Park on King George Avenue. New Spirit’s “Shotetut” initiative offers students tours of local pubs and leisure spots. This past week, a series of art exhibitions provided a forum for local artists to present their works in dance, music, theater and painting. For the past year, New Spirit’s “Toolbox” project has aided young local artists in developing their art and creativity and presenting it at minimum to no cost, to help them remain in the city. Lately New Spirit has moved its offices to the center, too, and these now double as a venue for young people to meet and brainstorm.
“It all helps,” says Cohen. “With the new dorms, the Bezalel students soon here, the nice places to sit, drink or eat something, to listen to music and all the events and parties – [Jerusalem] has become a wonderful place to be. But now comes the next step – and we can’t mess it up. I am sure that this, and not the haredi-secular clashes, will be the major issue in the next elections, in about a year from now.”