According to surveys, Petach Tikva is the number one destination for young couples purchasing apartments, with a population that is growing at an annual rate of 2.4 percent. As part of a public improvement campaign before the recent municipal elections, the city began two new traffic circles. One is near my home at a dangerous […]
If you were going to use one word to describe Israel, the word “construction” would be a definite possibility. Visitors who come to Israel within intervals of only a few years are often shocked at the rapid development in the country. At only 60 years old Israel is constantly building and developing, and sometimes it […]
Kids on bikes cruise past Azrieli towers. A couple of years ago I read a book called Carfree Cities, which put forward a very convincing case for reducing the use of private cars in the city, and set out a whole series of design alternatives which, according to author J.H. Crawford, would obviate the need […]
Tuesday, September 23 was Public Transportation Day in Israel, the local answer to European Mobility Week and World Carfree Day, an attempt to “remind the world that we don’t have to accept our car-dominated society.” In Europe, they managed to keep the cars off the streets for a few hours. In Israel, we will have […]
On of the most depressing bus rides I have ever taken in Israel was a late-night local from Kfar Saba to Tel Aviv. In addition to its sheer length (an hour and a half ride for a trip that should take 40 minutes), the bus went from suburb to suburb, revealing identical buildings and streetscapes […]
Sometimes it is necessary to confront our decision-makers with what has been called “the threat of a good example” – to bring them face to face with evidence that, despite their insistence to the contrary, it is possible to do things differently. That, in a nutshell, was the idea behind an event held last week […]
For most people, solar energy conjures up images of rectangular panels on roofs or lined up in rows somewhere in the middle of the desert. And indeed, this is what we can expect to see over the next few years, as Israel begins to develop its most significant natural (and renewable) resource – the sun. […]
Stay tuned for our future eco-tour of Dubai, but in the meantime let’s take a look at some green goings-on in Dubai. Because we’ve been pleasantly surprised to discover that very interesting things are happening over there. For starters, the Dubai government recently issued a requirement that all buildings in the emirate be constructed with […]
MK Dr. Dov Khenin announces his candidacy for the office of Mayor of Tel Aviv on Monday, flanked by members of the A City for All movement in Tel Aviv’s Gan Meir. (Photo by Yoav Lerman). What would happen if a dyed-in-the-wool environmentalist were to take charge of a polluted and traffic-clogged city like Tel […]
Notice anything strange about this scene? Said Leemor Chandally, who sent us these photos, “I was passing by Rabin Square, when I noticed this situation and had to laugh. A bunch of people were waiting for a bus, but nobody was waiting inside the bus stop, which was obviously brand new. Instead, everyone was crouching […]
We are enamoured by Yael Mer’s evacuation kayak skirt and slipper rocker inventions which first appeared here on Green Prophet. The slipper rocker is a take on a Waldorf education playboard made from wood. Yael’s version incorporates slippers but also limits the function of the board. And of course, the wildly popular StickyStains of Yael’s […]
The colorful sculpture that once graced Bialik Square in the center of Tel Aviv is no more. The sculpture, designed for the square by artist Nahum Gutman in the 1970’s, rose out of a circular fountain and recounted 4000 years of Tel Aviv-Jaffa history in tiled mosaics. Today, a pile of dirt sits in the […]