No. 3 on Mayor-elect Nir Barkat’s winning list, Naomi Tsur is going to be spearheading any changes the city makes to beautify the city in the near future. Formal head of SPNI’s Jerusalem office and founder of the Sustainable Jerusalem, a coalition of 60 environmental groups is now going to tackle those same issues but this time from the inside.
Tzur wants to get the community caring and involved: “What is really lacking is public participation in planning processes. We need a process to get wisdom from neighborhood residents, so we can solve problems, but in a way that makes sense [for local residents]. There hasn’t been enough done in the last two decades.”
After our previous posts on the biking culture of Jerusalem we’re happy to hear that among her planned projects Tzur explained that “There are plans for bike paths – they just haven’t been implemented. Being able to get to work on a bike or [by] walking is crucial. You should be allowed to take your bike onto the light rail and heavy rail so that you can get to work.”
Naomi Tsur
Her other projects includes stopping the depletion of Jerusalem’s forest, creating continuous parks along the railway line from Emek Refaim to Malha and providing better open spaces for all residents of the city. We at Green Prophet hope her much success and look forward to seeing a greener, healthier Jerusalem.
Author: Jack Reichert
As far back as he can remember Jack Reichert has been interested in the environment. In the second grade, he rallied all of his classmates to donate one recess a week to cleaning up litter from the schoolyard. That was the same year that a city councilman asked him to help with his campaign because of the letter Jack had written asking him to clean up Boston Harbor. Ever since Jack has followed the development of the international green conscience with anticipation and hope that one day we will treat Mother Earth with the respect she deserves and not turn her into another Giving Tree. For tips, feedback and prophet sightings, Jack can be reached at jack (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
now that is more like it. when environmentalists stand together and support each other, we have a better chance of succeeding. i am so pleased to hear about the plan for parks along the railroad tracks. my father wanted that to happen. tsur is with an ‘s’ though.