Unluckily for them, they picked on the wrong woman. Hila Ben-Baruch has been using the same parking spot on Yehuda Halevi street for well over a year, so on the day in question, when municipal workers eventually had her vehicle towed and charged her over $350 for the privilege, she got herself some evidence,  The Jerusalem Post reports. See below for the video.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV_28z876z4[/youtube]

Ben-Baruch told the paper she was astounded to come out on a Sunday evening to find her car, which she had parked in a legal blue spot earlier that day, gone!

Even more shocking was the city’s insistence that she pay a total of $350 for parking in a handicap spot and for the towing fees.

This story shares socio-psychological elements of Clint Eastwood’s movie Changeling starring Angelina Jolie, whose character’s son goes missing.

After reporting his disappearance to the police, she is presented with another boy. When she insists that the new boy doesn’t belong to her, she is treated like a delusional madwoman. Incidentally, the movie was based on a true story that took place in Los Angeles in 1920.

In present day Tel Aviv, that’s 2013, the victim was 100 percent certain that she had parked in a valid spot and proceeded to search for evidence to support her claim.

She managed to unearth a surveillance camera from across the street which first shows city workers nonchalantly creating a new handicap space around Ben-Baruch’s vehicle and then a tow truck appears to cart her vehicle away.

Armed with this tape, Ben-Baruch was able to escape the fine and elicit a soft apology from officials, but some Jerusalem Post readers felt that the city had not done enough to compensate her for the trouble she endured when her car was impounded.

Even more worrisome, another reader claims this kind of thing happens all the time. Sounds like another compelling reason to join 14 percent of urbanites who have chosen two wheels over four.

The post Tel Aviv City Workers Busted for Fake Handicap Sign and Fine (VIDEO) appeared first on Green Prophet.

My nephews are fortunate. They live on a verdant property called Hungrytown Hollow among enormous trees and bucolic rolling hills outside Charlottesville, Virginia. In the summertime the two boys splash around in a lake near their property and go on long hikes with their father. They chase chickens and plant seeds and are called upon to help harvest crops, make jam, and even bake bread.

Sadly, and I know they would feel the same way, they represent a very small minority of young boys in the world blessed with such an environment. But that’s not the only way to live. How to ensure that children can still thrive in dense third world cities is a topic of concern for LPU – a Rome-based organization that strives to encourage traditional children’s play to integrate different communities around the world.

The group recently teamed up with Tareeq in Jordan to address just this, with some very exciting results.

What the children want

Tareeq is an open studio that provides a platform for cross-disciplinary intellectual exchange both online and in real physical space. Eager to help LPU provide an engaging space for youth to play among Amman’s decidedly ungreen spaces, Tareeq asked the children what they want and need from their city.

After heeding their concerns and recommendations, the group consulted with city officials and local residents to map out a plan to create a carefully-designed and stimulating enclave within the city. This space enables the young revelers to play, unfettered, without the constraints of security concerns.

Contrary to popular myth, according to Tareeq, children don’t need massive green parks to live a vibrant life.

Play space doesn’t have to be especially green

“According to our method, we build up empty urban spaces that are currently used as de facto walkways and shortcuts. We mold them into areas that invite pause. The spaces we design are both created and maintained by those who use them,” the group reported on Smart Urban Stage.

They have sourced a small u-shaped space huddled among a series of two-story buildings on which to place their new play area, which will be unveiled some time in the near future.

LPU notes that “congested public spaces, long distances and a lack of security that this produces rob children of their potential.” And if we want children to really flourish in urban environments, it may well help to involve them in the playground design process.

This kind of democratic involvement will be a new experience for Jordan’s children, but Tareeq reports that the parents have encouraged them to express themselves as openly as possible.

::Smart Urban Stage

The post Creative Urban Planning for Play Time in Jordan appeared first on Green Prophet.

A German company has just secured the contract for a mega project in Mecca which will house around 160,000 inhabitants

Despite reassurances that Mecca would take a more considered approach to construction, a new mega-scheme for the city has just been given the green light. Following the horrendous Mecca Clocktower and the growing sprawl surrounding the city, another huge project seems like the last things the city needs. The new project, which is being led by Germany-based White Sky Group and Riyadh-based Al Fayadh Consultants, is a mixed-use development covering three million square meters in Mecca.

The partnership apparently beat off strong competition from Foster + Partners and will include “middle and high-rise buildings, utilising new technologies in mobility and sustainability.” The development will include things like hotels, residential homes, technical and medical infrastructure as well as parks, open spaces and spacious prayer areas.

As the Hajj pilgrimage attracts up to 3 million people annually, land in and around Mecca is highly sought after and there seems to be no way of holding back development.

Indeed, Hajj itself is slowly becoming more upscale and luxurious by the year. According to a recent report by Bloomberg, rising wealth is contributing to a demand for high standards of accommodation during Hajj and that’s contributing to a surge in hotel investment:

“Hilton Worldwide Inc., owned by Blackstone Group LP, plans to more than double the number of hotels it operates in the country to 14, including six in Mecca. It currently runs six in Saudi Arabia. U.K.-based InterContinental will increase its room numbers by about 50 percent to 7,300 in the next three to five years. Hyatt, whose only Saudi hotel opened in 2009, expects to have eight more in five years.”

Whether this luxury-style travel and accommodation contradicts the egalitarian spirit of Hajj is something which I have asked before. Personally, I don’t think private jets, exclusive airports and luxury hotels help foster the spirit of equality. What do you think?

For more construction news from Mecca see:

Mecca signals a move away from Las Vegas-style Architecture

Saudi’s Mecca Is Becoming a Holy Sprawl

Luxury Architecture in Mecca: Has Hajj lost its Egalitarian Spirit?

The post New Mecca Mega-Scheme On The Way appeared first on Green Prophet.

We speak to Muslim green campaigner Sofiah Jamil about the environmental threats facing Southeast Asia and why climate justice alone isn’t enough

Sofiah Jamil is a Singapore-based campaigner who has been working hard to help Muslims living in Southeast Asia connect their faith with environmental issues. As well as setting up ‘Project ME: Muslims + Environment‘ and running The Green Bush blog, her research at Nanyang Technological University focuses on environmental security. Spurred on by her undergraduate studies in Australia where she experienced a higher level of environmental awareness (compared to her concrete and urban home of Singapore), she has studied the implications of forest fires on Indonesia and Malaysia.

In 2009, Sofiah took part in a 6-week programme by the Study of the United States Institute for the Environment to help increase her knowledge and hopes to start her PhD next year at the Australian National University focusing on the topic of Muslim environmental initiatives. Green Prophet spoke to her about the unique environmental risks that the Southeast region faces and the role women can play in dealing with these.

Green Prophet: What the main environmental threats that Southeast Asia faces?

Sofiah Jamil: The Southeast Asian region is a highly complex and diverse region, and the intensity of environmental threats and the capacity available to address them, varies depending where you are. Several countries in the region sit along the Pacific Rim of Fire, and are thus prone to earthquakes, volcano eruptions and tsunamis. Indonesia is a case in point.

Several Southeast Asian countries are also prone to typhoons, such as the Philippines and Vietnam, who on average experience at least 12 typhoons a year. Most countries in the region also experience high levels of rainfall during the monsoon seasons. In addition to this, studies have demonstrated that climate change has in fact increased the intensity and frequency of these weather-related disasters.

The risks you mention above are part and parcel of the environmental context of the region. In what ways have these been aggravated by human factors?

Urbanisation has brought about various environmental issues such groundwater extraction which has resulted in cities sinking (even before we take into account rising sea levels) and the loss of important natural habitats. For example, mangroves that are important natural defences against typhoons and tsunamis have been affected.

This is further exacerbated by trends of population growth. The region is home to at least 3 of the world’s megacities – Bangkok, Manila, Jakarta – and Ho Chi Min City in Vietnam is likely to be a 4th. The question here is whether these cities are able to accommodate the increasing population, which requires more resources as well as more fortified social infrastructure.

There is also increasing rural to urban migration in various parts of Southeast Asia. Informal slums by migrants from rural areas are often situated in areas that are most vulnerable to environmental threats, such as along river banks which overflow during a flood. While there have been attempts to relocate slum dwellers to designated public housing areas, these areas are often far from their sources of economic livelihood, and hence many leave the public housing (and rent it out) while returning back to the slums.

Flooding in megacities is also due to ineffective drainage systems, which are often clogged by thrash either from the slums or from other urban residents. As such, environmental threats in urban areas need to look at the issue holistically by including issues related to urban planning and economic activity. Given the above issues, a main challenge for many countries in the region is figuring out how to address these multiple concerns which can at times happen simultaneously. This was the case for Indonesia last year which experienced an earthquake, tsunami and volcano eruption at the same time.

What are the specific risks facing Singapore and do you get a sense that there is increasing environmental awareness of these risks?

In Singapore, like many other island countries, we are threatened by sea-level rise. More threatening is the fact that more than 90% of our food is imported. Staple items such as rice and vegetables come from neighbouring countries. As such our food security is, to a certain extent, dependent on our neighbours and their ability to address their environmental threats.

What’s more worrying is the fact that most Singaporeans are not aware of these environmental threats. Very few are in touch with nature as more than 90% of our natural habitat has been lost as a result of urban development. Most are happy as long as the supermarket shelves are stocked with the necessary food items, even though prices of food has been increasing lately.

Women are most likely to affected by environmental disasters- does the issue of climate justice motivate you work?

It does to a certain extent, but in some ways I find the concept of climate justice limiting. Climate justice must also demonstrate how it is significant to other existing issues. Not all of the environmental disasters that we experience in this region are climate related. Moreover, it must show how it relates to other forms of justice – such as social justice, which women are still fighting a hard battle for.

For example, when the tsunami happened in Aceh in 2004, it was sad that some sections of society blamed the disaster on women. That the tsunami was a result of vice in Aceh, and that immoral women were part of the problem. Such sort of mentalities, I think, limit societies’ abilities to fully appreciate the resourcefulness of individuals. In fact, many Acehnese women who lost their fishermen husbands at sea during the tsunami had to become the sole breadwinners of their families. Here we see how women play important roles in getting their families back on their feet after environmental disasters.

What really motivates me is the fact that women are not the problem, but rather have the potential to provide solutions to address environmental disasters and more importantly address other socio-economic issues. We just need more women out there to come forward to tell us their stories.

For more interviews with inspiring green Muslims see:

Interview with America’s Leading Green Muslim- Ibrahim Abdul Matin

Naqa’a: Saudi Women For The Environment

Meet The Mexican Muslim Tree Huggers 

The post INTERVIEW: Sofiah Jamil Talks Faith, Women & Climate Justice appeared first on Green Prophet.

I judge a country by its public transportation, and Sandra Rashini, an architect who held a magnifying glass over Lebanon’s colossal urban problem for Mashallah, will tell you that it’s not looking so good in Lebanon. The consequences are enormous: everything – from agriculture to human health – is affected in the absence of good planning. Absolutely everything.

Alongside maybe Cairo (someone ought to do a comparison), Beirut in particular offers the best example of what can go wrong when cars and roads are allowed to overtake every inch of nature – both wild and fertile. The Gulf countries are working on a major overhaul of their public transportation systems. Jordan just shelved their good plans. What will Lebanon do?

Fantasizing about a sweeter Beirut

Sandra sent us a link to her blog Beirut the Fantastic, in which she explores a traffic problem that causes her and thousands of other normal, sentient people in Beirut to cuss and go mad. They can’t be blamed.

Between 1974 and 1998, there was a 538% increase in the number of cars on the road. Who knows how many cars there are now, but we get the sense that Sandra will find out. Meanwhile, during that same time frame, use of public transportation decreased from 9% of the population to a mere 1.3%.

Sudden, malignant, uncontrolled growth

That number is worse than it originally sounds since population density has exploded exponentially, and it hasn’t been orderly. Sandra explains in another blog post about urban agriculture that during the revolution, any attempt at urban planning completely fell by the wayside and violations of local regulations became a regular thing to do. As a result, all kinds of land that might otherwise have been used for agriculture or parks or more sustainable transportation routes was usurped by sudden, malignant, uncontrolled growth.

Today, roughly 35% of Lebanon lives in this crowded, polluted, loud, brown space.

A whole pile of money

The former Fulbright scholar notes that the average Lebanese family spends a whopping 13.85% of their income on cars – buying, fixing, and fueling them, amounting to 15% of the country’s GDP in 1997 (see what Arwa has to say about a green GDP in the Middle East) and a whole pile of money that would be better spent developing greener transportation alternatives ends up being used to treat the health by-products of this urban disaster – such as unhealthy levels of lead in the blood.

Rashini claims that light rail offers the best possible solution. An infographic published on Treehugger last week shows that in some situations, the electric car is a better option, but that’s not the case in the Middle East where that market is still the size of a single grain of sand in the middle of the Sahara, whereas the old-fashioned bus shows itself to be a consistently great alternative across the board.

Taking cars out of Beiru

Taking cars out of Beirut and making way for buses could quieten the city down, cut down on pollution, and allow urban planners to convert some of the city’s grey concrete into green spaces that also promote social cohesion. It’s not necessary to have a giant Central Park, according to Rashini. A series of small parks would be equally effective.

Will the Ministry of Transport take matters into their own hands? Do they have the funding? Will richer Arab countries step in to help, as the UAE did in Morocco, for instance, by helping to fund the revival of Asillah – a beautiful city that had been terribly neglected – into a world-renowned arts location? We certainly hope so.

:: Mashallah

Public Transportation Stories in the Middle East:

Jordan’s Ambitious Bus Plans Get Shelved

Middle East Joins Worldwide Campaign for Greener Transport

Beirut Activists Try to “Green the Grey” of their Urban Environment

The post Car Use in Lebanon Increased by 538% in 24 Years appeared first on Green Prophet.

A leading Muslim group denies the Cairo municipality’s request to relocate graves in the crowded city.

Following the success of Al-Azhar park in Cairo, also known as the city’s lungs, the municipality looked to cemeteries as possible venues to develop more community parks in Egypt’s crowded capital. But Dar Al-Ifta, the research institute tasked with making decisions that accord with Islamic law, gave the thumbs down.

Even if families grant permission to have their deceased relocated, historical and religious leaders will have to stay put. Given Cairo’s dreadful pollution and dearth of anything green enough to suck it up, it could use a few more carbon sinks, but the municipality will have to set their green sights somewhere else.

Gamal Abd Al-Gawad, director of the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, told The Media Line that the issue has more cultural than political roots. Grave owners and relatives are more concerned to prevent relocation than religious leaders.

An urban planner with Ein-Shams University in Cairo, Muhammad Ibrahim worries that real-estate moguls will usurp the territory for themselves and develop even more crippling infrastructure.

But Dar Al-Ifta, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Justice, ruled that preserving graves of historical figures must take precedence. The paper reports:

Muslims have safeguarded the graves and remains of the pharaohs and never attempted to obliterate or remove them even though they were not Muslim, a statement by Dar Al-Ifta read. All the more so we should safeguard the graves of our nation’s glorious figures.

Al-Azhar park is the only genuine “green” reprieve for the city’s 17 million residents, who otherwise cope with the kind of noise, pollution, and rubbish that defies imagination. Developed by the Aga Khan Foundation and a former refuse dump, the 74 acre “green space” also generates income and jobs.

:: The Media Line

More on Cairo’s pollution, smog, and urban parks:

Cairo’s Green Lung – Al Azhar Park

A Black Smog-Craft Chokes Cairo’s Skies

Mekano Designs Renewable Energy Skyscraper for Cairo’s Filthy Garbage City

image via yoohoojuju

The post Egypt’s Buried Dignitaries Won’t Be Moving Anytime Soon appeared first on Green Prophet.

Israeli-born architect Moshe Safdie is famous for his “Habitat 67” design created for that year’s Montreal World Fair. And though his “Safdie Plan” for Jerusalem was somewhat controversial, his talent has since gathered in strength and now features throughout the world. The most recent commission – a pixelated residential complex – will be built in Qinhuangdao, China and will include a host of friendly green design components.

Designed as either a primary or second home, Golden Dream Bay makes dense urban life feel like a breeze. Literally. Straddling the Qinguangdao beach, each of the 2200 condominiums comes complete with a small garden and a spectacular view.

Instead of plonking it directly on the beachfront like so many other structural eyesores, the building is specifically arranged around a north/south beach boardwalk and an east/west bazaar or “spine” – which creates a feeling of interconnectedness within itself but also with the greater community.

Each of the four towers are angled towards the beach and are connected via a series of sky bridges.

In addition to the private gardens, Safdie has incorporated public space on the 15th and 30th floors. There residents can enjoy more green space and swimming pools.

Recent evidence suggests that urban life will be more viable in the long-term than a series of spread out communities if the infrastructure is built sustainably. Once again, Safdie takes an important step in that direction.

:: evolo

More on Moshe Safdie:

Bring Moshe Safdie’s Green Building To The Middle East

Is Moshe Safdie’s Habitat ’67 A Viable Model For Middle Eastern Urban Architecture?

The post Moshe Safdie Goes To China appeared first on Green Prophet.