When rain pours down on our city streets, it feels cleansing. It looks cleansing too as the water pounds into the pavement and strips oil from the roads, small bits of plastic and paper from the sewer grates, and ice cream stains from sidewalks. But urban rain is anything but clean and fresh, and it’s […]
I’ve not yet had kids, but when I do I might buy a Taga – a hybrid bicycle and baby carriage developed by Dutch and Israeli designers. The Taga is a bike, a stroller or a biking stroller. All 3. And it’s good for little kids (babies), bigger kids too, as well as twins and […]
Bicycles (as we learned when Tel Avivians got naked last month to protest local laws) are great for the environment, but you can’t arrive at work or school dripping with sweat. A new earth-friendly solution hitting the streets in New York and Tel Aviv this summer comes in the form of electric powered scooters. With […]
(Kiryat Sefer resident and activist Miri Kupermintz on the park site. All photos by Daniella Cheslow) A tour of Tel Aviv organized last week by the Cities of Tomorrow conference offered good news and bad news about the 100-year-old Hebrew city. The good news is that it looks like the decade-long citizens’ battle to get […]
Few building projects have received as much attention and fanfare as Dubai’s Burj Dubai 800 + meter skyscraper, that including its top tower will be the tallest building in the world. A few weeks ago, I posted an article about the Burj tower, which when completed will contain residential and business properties selling at $3,500 […]
If the city folk won’t come to the farm, then the farmers will come to the city. Unfortunately, though, many times when the farm comes to the city, it comes in a yuppie, elitist form such as the slow food farmer’s market in the Tel Aviv port. Or even the farmer’s market in Jaffa. While […]
After the recent Jerusalem elections Green Prophet hailed the new Mayor Barkat for placing an environmentalist so prominently on his list. Jerusalem Mayor Barkat not long ago presented his master plan for the city for the next two decades, and top on his list is to green the city. His plan focuses on environmentally friendly construction […]
If you’ve heard about the demise of the kibbutz movement, then you may also know that financially strapped communal farms have recently climbed out of debt by building suburban-style detached housing developments and selling them to upwardly mobile Israelis. Suburbanizing kibbutzim and moshavim (village settlements), along with several new suburban-style towns like Shoham (near Ben […]
(A blueprint for Park Holot, a sand dune park in the Israeli city of Holon) Sustainable designers take note. Next week, April 30, a hip urban planning conference will be taking place at the Israeli Design Center in Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv. Organizers of the conference say this conference will examine park planning […]
Byproducts from the electronics, fuel, chemical and defense industries can be far from benign. Toxic heavy metals like cadmium and lead can seep into our food chain and cause cancer. And if found in the soil, these dangerous materials can render parks off-limits and real estate worthless. For environmental, health and financial reasons, new solutions […]
Some green groups are criticizing the city of Tel Aviv for not being sustainable at all; they’re also criticizing the city for this new conference happening April 1-2, on urban sustainability. It is part of dozens of events to celebrate Tel Aviv’s 100 year birthday this year. For your reading pleasure, and interest, Green Prophet […]
There is little in the architecture of a city that is more beautifully designed than a tree.
I was in Grade 4, in Canada, and learning about all the secrets and marvels of life. There was the discovery of books like 1984, new information about sex and how our parents’ genes combine to make us who we are; we were taught how to make our own movies, and program computers – and one […]
“Rat tracks” made by rats in two city plans: Manhattan-style (left) and New Orleans or Jerusalem-style (right). In both plans rats cover the same distance, but rats in the “Manhattan” grid cover more territory. Rats Say: Manhattan Rules! Before “green” urban planners build that new sub-division, neighborhood, city street, or town, they might want some […]
The battle for the Jerusalem Municipality may be over (secular candidate Nir Barkat victorious over haredi rival Meir Porush or, in my view at least, a choice between dumb and dumber), but the struggle for the city’s environment is just beginning. Last week Green Prophet told you that Naomi Tsur, former head of Society of […]