A Solution, maybe...

something bad is happening in Jerusalem in the last couple of years. as mentioned in my previous post about the city, political inspirations are threatening to bring the city and the region on a verge of explosion.

some facts: in 2008 the population of the city was 774.000 inhabitants (the biggest in Israel). of which around 478.000 are Jews, 261.000 are Muslims and the rest are Christians or nonreligious 35.000.

by the end of the British Mandate in 1947, the UN Partition Plan recommended the creation of an international area that include Jerusalem and Bethlehem - corpus separatum under the administration of the UN. the 1948 war between Israel and the Arabs brought instead to the devision of the city between west (Israeli) and East (Jordanian). in 1967 Israel occupied the west bank and east Jerusalem declaring the reunification of the city. unlike the west bank, east Jerusalem was annexed to Israel, so it is actually under Israeli law. although it is officially the Capital City of Israel, it is not recognized as one by the rest of the world and there are no embassies in the city.

the urban development of the city under the Israeli law is different for the two populations, while the jewish population gets new construction of neighborhoods and infrastructure, in the west and in the east parts, the arab quarters of the city are lacking any urban planing and they have an 'organic' urban development with no infrastructure.

the political inspirations makes thing even more complicated. since 1967 the Israeli governments encouraged the construction of new jewish neighborhoods in the annexed area of the city in order to establish the reunification of the city. the separation between the populations however was kept and there is hardly no interaction. any try to apply the Israeli construction law in the arab quarters (mainly for demolition of buildings with no permits) gets a strong international protest, since the UN doesn't recognize the annexation of the east part of the city by Israel. in the last couple of years, right wing extremests in Israel, are trying to buy or get properties inside the arab quarters in order to fail any future talks on the devision of the city based on neighborhoods or quarters. their aim is to create a strong opposition in the Israeli society against any withdrawal in case of agreement.

based on these conditions, plus the fact that it is an economically poor city, the future is grim. as far as i and many others who hold a pragmatic political view can see, there is no escape from a peaceful division of the city between Jews and Arabs. the 'Holy Basin' which includes the Old City and the adjacent areas of common interest (Mt. Zion and Mt. of olives) should have a separate common administration (corpus separatum...) possibly with international supervision, which will guarantee a free access to everyone. the city will only earn from this challenging situation, it will allow a sane urban development, free of political influence and will enhance its cultural richness. due to the separated populations and the topography, the division is already there, someone just has to be brave enough to give it names before the Nothing begins to consume the Ivory tower (the never ending story)...

Dan Metro System

Dan Metro System (DMS) is a proposal for an underground train system for the metropolitan area of Tel Aviv - 'Gush Dan'. it is the largest metropolitan area in Israel and it is located in the centre of the country along the Mediterranean coastline. the population of 'Gush Dan' is estimated of more then 3.200.000 inhabitants. the cultural, social and financial centre of the area is the city of Tel Aviv but other small centres still exist in the heart of the satellite cities and new centres are created in the outskirts and the open areas between them.

a week ago (22.02.2010), the government announced that it will invest 7.270.000.000,00 USD between 2010 - 2020 in the traffic infrastructure of the country. the development plan consist of building new highways and train connection between the periphery and the centre that will, according to what they claim, reduce the traffic jams and allow an effective population distribution. the development of the train network (and not the highways) might reduce the traffic on the roads but, as far as i see, if the problem of the traffic in 'Gush Dan' will not be solved in the next years, all the investment in connecting the periphery is worthless. the traffic problems in the metropolitan area of Tel Aviv should be solved, as in any other big metropolitan area, with an efficient public transportation system that will reduce the need of the car use.

for the last 30 years many solutions were suggested but nothing really has been done. still today the public transportation in the area is based on buses and taxis which create traffic jams, mess and severe air pollution. the ideas for underground train system were raised by previous mayors and helped them to gain political popularity but somehow because of budget questions nobody really started to dig. the most current option is the "magical" light-train which consist of what we know from europe, Trams. the first line of the light-train (the red line) should connect Petah Tikva to Bat Yam and it is suppose to cross only the centre of Tel Aviv in an underground tunnel. some other lines are planed but still in a very early stage. the light-train is actually a very short term development solution. it has no vision for the future growth of the city. although some similar projects in the world work successfully, it is always because they have a good supporting infrastructure as very wide roads or tunnels. in other words, in most cases unless you have streets wide enough to create a differentiated lanes, the light-train solution is only an additional weight on the existing streets and infrastructure of the city.

the metropolitan area of Tel Aviv is big enough to have its own metropolitan train system. a net of lines that will cross the area in underground tunnels where subterranean tracks are not possible. it should be efficient and connect the centre of the populated areas and not the outskirts. it should provide connection to civil services, cultural and recreation points of interests. it should be built all at once and not in stages if we really want to have a change. it should work 24/7 and also on Saturdays if we want that people, like in every other big city in Europe, will have no need of a car. it should be electric and not on gas turbine. it should have a connection to the state train stations to allow an easy interchange.

for those of you who have a vision i drew this plan. something to dream about.

Europe 2020...

assuming that in the next 10 years, the European Union administration will become powerful enough to reduce the importance of the historic national countries within it, few regions with strong cultural identity and economic power will claim, according to ComingAnarchy, their own Independence.

Gotham city

one of the things i like about Batman is the location. Gotham city was always this dark, imaginary place, something between New York and Metropolis of Fritz Lang. that is why i was really exited to see that someone invented the map of it. i thought it was much bigger though...

Transit map of the world

part of a global underground/subway/metro/u-bahn map that shows all the cities which have or planning to have an urban rail system in the future.
the map was made to promote Mark Ovenden's book Transit Maps of the World.

that would be so easy to go and visit family and friends. from Berlin i wouldn't even have to change trains to go to Tel Aviv. to New York though, i will have to change in Newark, which is the american version of Kottbusser Tor or Piazzale Loreto.

thanks again to strange maps

Berlin-am-Hudson

a small part of a germanified New York. Neu York is a project made by Melissa Gould using an old plan of Manhattan as a base, replacing the street names by names taken from contemporary Berlin map. so my apartment in Berlin would be somewhere close to Chinatown. my former apartment in NY would be in the beautiful address: Heerstrasse and Kaiserin Augusta Strasse (36th St. and Lex. Ave.)
thanks again to strange maps

it's all greek to me!

another image, also found on the blog of riccardo (thanks to another great website strangemap), is a map that shows what is the common perception of an unknown language.
definitely the right thing to post before you start writing.