City neglects building while making demands on others

The report pointed out that when private owners leave their buildings in a state of disrepair, the city is quick to step in.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
The city of Tel Aviv has demanded that many private owners renovate their buildings or risk having them requisitioned, but at the same time it is seriously neglecting one of its own, reports Yediot Tel Aviv. The municipal building at Rehov Dov Hoz 16, formerly a girls' boarding school, has been abandoned and deteriorating for the past eight years, and has become a den for drug addicts and homeless people. According to the report, ever since the school vacated the building in the year 2000, neighbors have been complaining that squatters and undesirable elements have moved in. The building has been vandalized and dirtied, with piles of garbage left inside and outside it. Suggestions to convert it to a hostel or to a retirement home have come to nothing. The report pointed out that when private owners leave their buildings in a state of disrepair, the city is quick to step in and order them to carry out renovations, even taking court action to ensure this is done. Most recently, at the request of the municipality, a court ordered the repair of an abandoned building on Rehov Hayarkon that once housed the well-known Terminal pub. The court gave the owners six months to do the work or lose the building to the city. "Is there one law for individuals and another law for the municipality?" asked a resident living near the Dov Hoz building. A municipal spokesman responded that the city "is planning to repair" the building.