Doron Sapir holds the No. 2 position in Mayor Ron Huldai's Tel Aviv 1 Party, and has been a prominent figure in Huldai's administration. He has held the key positions of chairman of the Local Committee for Planning and Construction and manager of Hiriya, a former garbage dump which is slated to become part of an enormous metropolitan park in the future. Tel Aviv's mass transit system has been stuck in the pipeline for years, and many blame Mayor Ron Huldai. Is one man holding up the entire project? When will Tel Aviv have a decent public transportation system? If the subject were under the authority of the city, I'm sure work would have been started on the system at least two years ago. The problem is that transportation issues are decided by the Transportation Ministry and the central government, along with government companies like NETA, which is planning the mass transit system for Metropolitan Tel Aviv. Currently, the Transportation Minister determines everything. I'm convinced that these authorities need to be in the hands of the cities themselves. And by the way, the transportation laws were passed during the British Mandate. It's time to give more authorities to the local governments, or at least the large ones like Tel Aviv that have proven themselves. What about the recent amendment to the Transportation Law, which gives local authorities more powers in transportation planning? I am not familiar with that amendment. The past 10 years have seen enormous investments in the city's roads, highways, interchanges and parking lots, despite significant public resistance. Isn't this kind of car-oriented urban development policy an anachronism? Not at all. In fact, quite the opposite. Even in the future, when we have a mass transit system, we will still need good roads, infrastructure and parking lots. Once the subway is built, though, we will be able to lower parking minimums in new buildings [the amount of new parking spots which developers are required to build]. Even in New York, which has an excellent subway system, the roads are still very significant. Tel Aviv is an attractive city, and a lot of traffic enters the city, including people who live here and people who come here just to work. The high demand for parking and roads are a result of the city's attractiveness. To what extent is public participation in decision-making a priority for Ron Huldai's administration? I am glad you ask. The agendas and protocols of all of our meetings are open to the public, and are published on the Internet. Anyone can come and attend our meetings. Three months ago, we approved a decision on new procedures for public participation in decision-making, which we drew up in cooperation with the green organizations in a two-year process. Right now we are preparing a Master Plan for the city, with the participation of the public. And all of this is being done according to the "City Vision" document, which we formulated three years ago with the participation of all kinds of stakeholders. Skyscraper construction has encountered fierce resistance among the city's residents, especially in places where the existing urban fabric consists of low-rise, historical buildings. Why hasn't the city drawn up a clear policy regarding the construction of tall buildings, defining where exactly they can be built? There is a policy that no additional skyscrapers will be built in the "White City," the historical part of the city between Arlosoroff and Allenby, which has been recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. However, we think that Tel Aviv, if it does not build up, will die. There is huge demand for housing and prices are going up all the time. When residential apartment towers are built, people move there from other places, which frees up those apartments. I believe that the more we build tall buildings in the city, the more we'll bring down housing prices and thus create affordable housing. Do you believe it is correct to build 40-story buildings in historic neighborhoods, such as Neveh Tzedek and Jaffa? No. We're not building very tall buildings in Neveh Tzedek. Historical mistakes were made in [former mayor] Roni Milo's era, before Ron Huldai was elected mayor, and the skyscraper that was recently built [just outside Neveh Tzedek] is one of these mistakes. The building is not appropriate for its surroundings, and it is quite ugly. The skyscrapers, or tall buildings, that are planned for the area of Eilat Street are going to go up closer to Allenby and Nahalat Binyamin, and will be more a part of the urban fabric of the Rothschild area, the city's central business district. Regarding these towers near Neveh Tzedek that were approved in the past, all we can do is to try to fix the mistakes of the past, and build in a way that is more appropriate to the architectural context. The city recently came out with a plan to build affordable housing for young people and families. However, most of the housing built during Mayor Huldai's term has been large, luxury apartments. How sincere is Huldai's commitment to providing affordable housing in the city? Our plan is to increase the supply of affordable housing in two ways: building taller buildings and requiring affordable apartments in new construction projects. Tall buildings free up older apartments. Some 60-65% of the people who buy apartments in new residential towers are coming from somewhere else in Tel Aviv, and their former apartments increase the supply of the housing market. We are also trying in new projects, especially in the south of the city, to build cheaper apartments. But we can't forget that Tel Aviv is really a well-off city, and the city cannot always regulate these things, nor does it have the authority to regulate rental prices. It can initiate projects with more apartments set aside for young couples and renters. I know what it is to take on a mortgage and have to pay it every month, it's not a simple thing. But the answer is to increase the supply by building taller buildings. We can either build low-rise buildings at the expense of open spaces, or we can build up. All claims to the contrary are cheap demagoguery. Hundreds of families in Jaffa and Kfar Shalem face eviction and demolition orders because the government defines them as "squatters." Why hasn't the city intervened on behalf of its residents with the central government? How can it intervene? I don't really know the story, I've never heard of anyone being thrown out of their home in Jaffa. What steps must be taken in Tel Aviv in light of the world economic and ecological crises? Which other world cities could serve as development models for the city? Tel Aviv can learn from Tel Aviv, and from what has been done here over the past eight or nine years, since the beginning of the crisis in the local authorities. Today, Tel Aviv has a solid financial standing. We have a AAA credit rating, thanks to responsible financial management. Tel Aviv 1's team, and Ron Huldai himself, have taken responsibility and taken a leadership role in putting order in the city's finances. And the ecological crisis? That question is too easy for me. I have been involved in reducing greenhouse emissions as part of my job as manager of Hiriya, where we prevent the emission of 60,000 tons of carbon a year. Until a few years ago, gas from the dump site was emitted into the atmosphere and contributed to global warming. Now that [same] methane is trapped, neutralized and transported by pipeline to a factory in Azur, where it is used to create the energy that powers the plant. We're also working on a project to capture the gas emitted from household waste and use it to fuel vehicles. An Israeli company, with support from abroad, is working on a plan for this, and is waiting for approval from the Interior Ministry. The plan is to power 800 cars owned by the local authorities in Gush Dan.
