Tel Aviv's 100th Anniversary Revitalization
April 2009 will mark the 100th anniversary of Tel Aviv, and the city is doing its best to spruce up. Having taken long, shin-splinting walks yesterday and today, I believe I better understand Tel Aviv's renewal and beautification program.
The Mediterranean beach front is a beehive of remodeling and rebuilding. Old hotels, small businesses, and residences are being replaced by new, modern buildings described as "in the Bauhaus tradition." The few results still look ungraceful—more bow-wow house than Bauhaus—but visiting businessmen and dignitaries won't be electrocuted when plugging in their shavers.
Walk a few blocks inland from the sea, and beautification and revitalization taper off to near oblivion. Most residents live, by North American standards, in substandard housing and are serviced by poorly maintained and controlled streets.
A member of the omnipresent septet of older men at the Schweitzer Café wasn't willing to discuss American politics, but shared that Israelis were more upset by corruption inside their own government than the leadership's lack of direction and imagination.
"A little corruption is to be expected, but…"
Apparently, the reason that large businesses and hotels are being rebuilt or remodeled with indifference to most of Tel Aviv's citizens is that elected officials are leaving office richer than the day they took office, something Harry Truman said was impossible unless a politician was corrupt.
Tel Aviv feels like a "Mini-Me" New York City or Detroit without the charm. Most buildings are an electrical and construction nightmare. If the graffiti aren't off-putting, the omnipresent aroma of feral cat urine wafting through the air is. Tel Aviv's city fathers should be hanged, and her citizens ashamed for tolerating the vandalism and filth.
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