UBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" A troubled market -- Sun, Dec 5, 2010       28 Kislev, 5771       --         Breaking News Diplomacy & Politics Defense National News Middle East International Iranian Threat Trade Sports Sci-Tech idea Columnists Editorials Op-Eds Letters Jewish World Jewish News Jewish Features Judaism Cafe Oleh Lifestyle Arts & Culture Food & Wine go Health Features Insights & Features Week in review Blogs In the news Judaism From the Middle East Lifestyle Aliyah Science and Technology Premium Zone The Jerusalem Report run 20 Questions e-paper Ivrit Magazine Metro In Jerusalem Christian Edition My JPost Subscription Center Newsletter RSS feeds News Ticker Facebook Twitter Classifieds Français More Services JPost Store JPost Games Israel Hotels Vacation Rentals Green Israel Car Rentals Learn Hebrew Israel Guide Links Perform Miracles JP daily e-paper לימוד אנגלית Astrology Sitemap      Breaking News     JPost.com Local Focus In Jerusalem   .large_body p, .large_body span { font-size: 18px; } .small_body p, .small_body span { font-size: 12px; } Photo by: Marc Israel Sellem A troubled market By PEGGY CIDOR  11/12/2010 16:41 Eight hundred buses a day? Mahaneh Yehuda merchants vow to fight a proposal to allow Rehov Agrippas to become a major transportation hub even after the light rail is operational.   Judging by the stormy atmosphere in the hall of the Lev Ha’ir population center last Wednesday, tough times are expected in the Mahaneh Yehuda and Nahlaot area very soon: Obstructed streets,big demonstrations, maybe even a few citizens lying in protest on the corner of Jaffa Road and Rehov Nordau, preventing any traffic from passing, not to mention a less dramatic yet perhaps no less efficient measure – a lawsuit against the Transportation Ministry and the CityPass consortium.“These people treat us like we are just air. In their eyes, the slave has done his job, now the slave can leave,” stated Tomer Kaufman, an elected member of the of Lev Ha’ir community council, accountable for the structural design of the neighborhood.Two representatives of the city center merchants organization said, “These people [the Jerusalem Transportation Master plot and the Transportation Ministry] have duped us. They deceived us for almost 10 years, and now they are selling us down the river for their own interests.”A young man with long, curly hair added, “With all due respect to the law and the civil code, this is a combat on our home turf. We should act as if someone were threatening to demolish our homes since that’s exactly what it is.”The threat experienced by the residents and the merchants is the decision to prohibit any cars on Rehov Agrippas and, instead, to open this narrow, crowded street that runs parallel to Jaffa Road through the market to 10 bus lines. Kaufman says this means a minimum of 800 buses per day. “That is a huge catastrophe in terms of noise and pollution,” he says.According to Kaufman and a few other members of the local council, that decision is in total contradiction to what was agreed upon between the Lev Ha’ir council and the Mass Transit Plan and CityPass at the beginning of the project.Kaufman says that nine years ago, the request to allow the preliminary work for the light rail project was presented to the residents of the neighborhood in a very convincing and friendly manner by the representatives of the Mass Transit Plan.“I was present then, together with other members of the Lev Ha’ir community council, when they asked for our support of this project. Everybody understood then, and to this day, that without the cooperation and the support of the council, nothing would have been done here: the hefty work on Jaffa Road for all the infrastructure before laying the tracks; compensation for the residents and the stores that had to be demolished to create room for widening the street; the willingness of the residents to live amid the dust, the noise, the excavations of the streets,” says Kaufman.“For us, unlike the rest of the residents of this city, it is not only difficult since of the traffic. For us it has been a daily nightmare for nine years! And the deal was that by the end of the work, Rehov Agrippas would be a street free of bus lines, to be used only for private cars with a few parking lots, to enable easy access to the market, the heart of this city. Now it turns out that they have been deceiving us. They are lying to us, they are breaking their own agreement.”Ro’i Bibi owns the small TevaNet supermarket on Rehov Agrippas. He is also an active member of the Mahaneh Yehuda merchants association and a member of the Lev Ha’ir community council. “Since the roadwork began, my life and the lives of my customers and neighbors have become a never-ending nightmare. Perhaps these people don’t realize it, however there is such a thing as quality of life for shopkeepers, as well as for their customers. There is no pleasure in shopping or serving clients in all that noise, dust and total lack of aesthetics in dug-up streets and sidewalks. It really upsets me so much, but nobody seems to judge about that aspect. As if shops in a market are doomed to exist amid dirt and noise.”Bibi says it isn’t accurate that the merchants’ interests are not the same as those of the residents. He says that is just another lie propagated by the Transportation Ministry to create animosity between the two parties and weaken their struggle.“There are rumors that real estate tycoons have their eye on this area and want to tear down the market in decree to build here. That’s nonsense. The value of this area is totally connected to the Mahaneh Yehuda market. Today it has become a valuable space not only for Jerusalem but for the whole state. I have customers and traveller groups that come from Tel Aviv and even from abroad because they heard about Mahaneh Yehuda, which now holds its own among the most well markets of the world. If this is demolished, who will want to purchase a house here? But in the meantime, they – the real estate tycoons, the ministry, the Mass Transit Plan – are demolishing our life here.”Eli Mizrahi, the deputy head of the market’s merchants commission, is perhaps the person most identified with the spectacular renewal of Mahaneh Yehuda. For him, there is no doubt: “This is conflict, so there will be fighting like in war. We will block all the streets around us; no one will be able to plod. They don’t realize who they’re dealing with.”Mizrahi, Bibi and Kaufman insist that there is an agreement from 2001 among the local council, the Mass Transit Plan and CityPass that buses would not be permitted to travel along Rehov Agrippas once the roadwork on Jaffa Road was completed. Mizrahi, who was also at a meeting in the mayor’s office last week (before the meeting at Lev Ha’ir on Wednesday), says he was so outraged by the number of lies told by the representatives of the Mass Transit Plan and CityPass that he walked out and slammed the door before the meeting ended – something he swears he had never done before.“I couldn’t stand all the lies told at the meeting, but the whole issue is not such-and-such a plan or another. The real issue is that the Mass Transit Plan and CityPass had promised Egged that in return for their agreement not to allow buses on Jaffa Road once the light rail began operating, they would have access to streets that had been closed to buses until now. That’s the issue that lies behind all this.”Kaufman says he refuses to get into these “troubled waters” as he calls it. He reiterates that all he asks, in the name of the residents and the merchants, is that the agreements be respected.Bibi adds, “If the light rail is such a noteworthy thing for the city, why do they need 10 bus lines at a distance of less than 40 meters from the light rail? What kind of great improvement is that?” The three men repeat that within a few days they will start to demonstrate “in such a way that there will be no choice but to listen to us.”They add that a petition to the High Court is also being submitted.Responds Shmulik Elgrabli, spokesman for the JTMP: “Since the first stages of the mass transportation plan, it was made clear to all parties that Rehov Agrippas would always be an essential public transportation artery.” He adds that along the street, apart from a small private parking lot, there are no parking spaces, and that this was an additional reason to open Agrippas to buses, while its eastern part, which leads to two large parking lots – Klal and Kiah – would be open to private cars. “We are continuing to seek, together with the municipality and the Transportation Ministry, an agreement with the residents and the merchants.” A municipality spokesperson illustrates that changes had to be made to the bus routes to accommodate the light rail. “The mayor has met with the residents the merchants of the market and those of the city center several times to find the best solution for all,” says the spokesperson. “This is the solution that seems to the most accommodating to to all the parties involved. It is clear that all other solutions would cause more hurt to the parties involved, and cause difficulties to residents who wish to do their shopping in the market.”   Subscribe to our Newsletter to receive news updates directly to your email     Tweet         Talkback Add a Talkback Report Abuse Read all Talkbacks   Send Large Small Print part   Tweet      Opinion and Features 1 2 3 Analysis: The impotent ‘If only’ of our northern infernoDAVID HOROVITZ Expressing gratitudeDANNY AYALON Who's fault is the continuing occupation of the Judea and samaria?A. M. DERSHOWITZ  My Word: Assange’s smoking gunLIAT COLLINS Out There: The homework helperHERB KEINON Column One: The WikiLeaks challengeCAROLINE B. GLICK  The fire we all saw comingJPOST EDITORIAL Coping with the curse of natural gasDAVID ROSENBERG Fundamentally Freund: A Hanukka giftMICHAEL FREUND      Your Choice Talkbacked Viewed Northern blaze delights many in ...Many Arabs also strongly condemned Egypt and Jordan for agreeing to help ...Talkbacks (26)12/05/2010 01:32Analysis: Time to cease waiting ...Israel can expect devastation, not only in its cities, but in its forests ...Talkbacks (15)12/04/2010 19:29Expressing gratitudeThis is Israel’s hour of need and nations across the world did not disappoint.Talkbacks (12)12/04/2010 23:41     Mahane Yehuda shuk market CityPass mass transit Egged Rehov Agrippas Jaffa Road           Israel Focus   The Dollar is DOWNPoverty is UP
Help Feed Israel's Poor   dull Sea Salt‬Shop Dead Sea Bath Salts online. Coupon "JPOST" for 10% off!   Jerusalem Post LiteLight Edition of the Jerusalem Post for English improvement   Web JPost.com     JPost sites: The Jerusalem Report Green Israel Jpost Edition Francaise Christian World America's Voices Our Magazines Jerusalem Post Lite Sites Of Interest: Car Rental Israel Jpost Store Israel Hotels KKL-JNF Learn hebrew Poalim Online Web Hosting Providers BreitBart.com Fundraising Ideas Prom dresses & gowns Prom dresses Israel travel Israel tours Jerusalem Hotels Our Friends Services: JPost Toolbar JPost News Ticker JPost RSS feeds JPost Archives JP Subscriptions JPostPedia Learn English JPost Guides: Israel Guide Tour Guides Israel Attractions Information: About Us Feedback Staff E-mails Privacy Statement Copyright Sitemap Terms of Use News Partners Media Kit Advertise with Us Work for us   About Us | Advertise with Us | Subscribe | Contact Us | RSS   © The Jerusalem Post 1995 - 2010 JPost Newsletter is Powered by Pulseem