Helpful strangers

January 9, 2009 - 12:15 AM by Jessica · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness

Our stroller, even if you can't always see the babies

When you enter the baby business, you discover how much some people love babies. Particularly twins. There are those who see a double stroller and immediately light up, delighted at the thought of not one, but two infants in the same carriage. There are others who need to stick their head into the stroller and inspect said babies for themselves, and then there are those who have advice to offer, desired or not.

As it turns out, Jerusalem’s Malcha Mall is full of these people. I headed over there the other day with my sister and the boys for an afternoon adventure, because anywhere you go with three-month-old twins can be classified as exciting.

And along the way, as we do these days, we met many people who wanted to meet our guys. There was the saleswoman in the socks section of the Mashbir, who literally lifted the baby out of my sister’s arms, kissed him and ran off to show him to someone else. I had never met this person before in my life. There was the staff at Aroma, who exclaimed over our little guy’s size — he’s the one who spent six weeks in Hadassah’s NICU — and couldn’t believe he was for real. “Is he a doll?” they asked. There was the woman at the Originals shoestore, who took offense at the way I was holding one of the babies, sort of sitting him up on my leg in order to burp him. “What’s that going to do to his posture?” she barked at me.

When we bumped into the father-in-law of the woman who owns my local dry cleaning store [it's a small country, and Jerusalem is really a village], he glanced at the carriage, asked if they were both boys, and then pinched my cheek, saying, “You have to really know how to make boys!” Wink, wink.

And then there was the coexistence moment of the day, when I sat next to another mother, an Arab woman, as we nursed our babies in the local Shilav baby store. She admired my babies and I admired hers, and she wondered out loud how I was handling two infants. I shrugged and rolled my eyes, and we agreed that new motherhood is challenging no matter how you approach it. But thank goodness she didn’t offer any advice.

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Tags: babies, coexistence, malcha, Mashbir

A Sneak Peek at the Future of Jerusalem Mass Transit

November 28, 2008 - 12:11 PM by Brian Blum · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General, Israeliness, Politics

Stepping into one of the sleek and shiny new light rail vehicles set to zip through Jerusalem in the next year and a half, it’s hard to imagine the controversy the system’s roll out has engendered.

CityPass, the international corporation that is building and operating the Jerusalem light rail system, recently opened the doors to its hi-tech transit depot and we joined the tour. We learned more than we wanted to know about the facility’s electricity system and the minutiae of how the maintenance staff cleans dusty wheels.

The highlight for us, though, was getting a chance to wander through the train cars themselves. Despite seats still wrapped in plastic, the enormous vehicles – five times the size of a normal bus – were immensely impressive and a stark contrast with the desert landscape around them (the depot is located just west of the northern Jerusalem satellite community of Pisgat Ze’ev).

Each car consists of five articulated sections and can seat 64 (with a total capacity of 250). There are LCD screens to announce stops and magnetic card readers throughout. 24 cars out of a total of 46 have already been delivered so far.

The Jerusalem light rail has a few features not found in other locations, like France and Spain, where CityPass is operating. The vehicles have to contend with Jerusalem’s notorious hilly terrain. And all the windows have been reinforced to be resistant to stones and Molotov cocktails. A controversial security decision has meant that the light rail travels through the Arab neighborhood of Shuafat…but makes no stops.

Nevertheless, visiting the depot and seeing the cars all in one place gives one the feeling of being in a sci-fi flick: could these state-of-the-art contraptions ever roll through the historic but out of fashion center that represents Israel’s capital?

But that’s just the point.

Jerusalem used to have a more vibrant downtown. But in recent years, many of its more upscale shops have relocated to the Malcha Mall and tourists now flock to the Emek Refaim area. Much of the town center has been reduced to a sad medley of hole-in-the-wall shops selling cheap shmatas and rowdy teenagers who haunt the night hours.

That’s why I’m so enthusiastic about the light rail. Upon its completion, Jaffa Road will turn into a pedestrian-only walkway with the new fangled trolleys running down its center.

Freed from the narrow sidewalks and never-ending traffic, the street will experience a resurgence. Already you can see a row of new cafes in the space of a few blocks, flanked by my favorite The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (the only branch in Jerusalem). A European-style walker-friendly promenade is just the ticket for revitalizing Jerusalem’s core.

Getting there may not be so easy.

Jaffa Road is in the process of being dug up. Large swaths are currently blocked off entirely. Buses have been diverted to adjacent Nevi’im Street which is much too congested to handle the flow. Construction has been painfully slow, leading mayor-elect Nir Barkat to call for the entire project to be stopped and be replaced by high-speed buses.

I’ve already lived through this once. When I was growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, the City’s main artery, Market Street, was dug up for nearly a decade during the building of the BART subway. Businesses folded and Market Street was off-limits for private cars and buses alike.

Eventually, construction was completed and the street now boasts a range of trendy shopping and entertainment facilities. The subway brings in visitors from all over the Bay Area, conveniently and quickly. No one discounts BART’s effectiveness today.

The same will undoubtedly be true for Jerusalem.

A project as grand and complex as Jerusalem’s light rail system has never been attempted before in Israel (the high speed train between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv may eventually top it, if it doesn’t get derailed for the umpteenth time). After a peek at the vehicles that will, hopefully no later than 2010, rattle through town, I remain an enthusiastic supporter.

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