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Oct 6, 2010
Mazel Tov to Bet Shemesh
Mazel Tov to Bet Shemesh, r perhaps I should say to Moshe Abutbol and Moshe Montag.
While the city, under the leadership of Moshe Abutbol, has not found the money to improve most of the city services and provide the residents basic needs at an adequate level commensurate with the amount of arnona being paid, thinking in the area of street cleaning, parks, repairs of sidewalks and streets, parking congestion, and whatever else, they have had tremendous success in their efforts to solve a housing crisis at the national level.
The building committee for the region has just passed the approval for the next stage of RBS C, RBS C-2 and RBS C-3, approving another 2100 apartments, with the next stages being planned intensely for another 22,000 apartments in RBS D and E. This is in addition to the 2200 apartments already approved for RBS C-1.
Because the haredi demographic, for whom these new neighborhoods are being designated and therefore planned, have a higher birthrate than the national average, there is a problem with the amount of space allotted for public buildings -shuls, schools, matnas, and the like. The number of buildings allotted in planning will not create the needed amount of buildings for a haredi neighborhood of this size.
To resolve the problem, Ladaat explains, instead of removing a couple of buildings from the planning in favor of public buildings, they chose to remove 35 plots meant to be "Bnei Beischa" and converted those plots to public land. That means, I think, that while most of the neighborhood was being planned as a lower socio-economic neighborhood, with mostly small and cheaper apartments, it was being "sold" as diverse enough because of the bnei beischa plots. Now they are removing a serious percentage of Bnei Beischa plots, in favor of the cheaper housing. This is another move to avoid letting the neighborhood be diverse in any way and limiting the potential buyers to only the lower socio-economic level in the haredi community.
Mazel tov.
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bet shemesh,
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we r f.....ed.
ReplyDeleteSuccinctly put Mr Anonymous. Totally and in an ongoing fashion.
ReplyDeleteI dont know that that is the case. our neighborhood is what it is, and is not changing so quickly. The new area will be different, but you dont have to go there if you dont like it.
ReplyDeletequestion is when will the city start taking care of the current residents and not just the ones it is trying to attract to the city...
The big question now is whether there will be better access to the city. Rt. 38 can barely handle, if at all, the current population. Add another 20,000+ housing units, which is another 80,000-120,000 people (or more), and traffic on that road will never move.
ReplyDeleteRafi,
ReplyDeleteIn all due respect anon is on the mark. There is a trend all over to become more charedi and to cater to the more charedi. It permeates every aspect of our life whether you admit it or not.
Some people want to be more chareidi. In fact thats why a lot of people moved to RBS in the first place, and didnt live in Teaneck or Passaic.
ReplyDeleteRBS is not and will not be a RZ/DL/MO town. Its on the chareidi side, and the question is how chareidi. But everyone who moved here (in the last 8 years, at least) knew this is where it was headed, and bought here anyway. Why? because they wanted more chareidi than Efrat and Modiin etc
has just passed the approval
ReplyDeletePassed? As in final approval to start building?
If the answer to that is yes, then congratulations. Bet Shemesh is now on the path of becoming a completely Charedi City.
How many more seats on the city council do the Charedim need to completely control all decisions? How many Charedi teens will reach voting age by the next elections? And how many new Charedi voters will move in before the next elections? Do the math.
Anon of 6:10,
ReplyDeleteIn all respect you are INCORRECT!
When we moved here many years ago there were far more DL/MO/RZ and even non-observant. It was supposed to be a neighborhood for "everyone".
Table and chairs adorned the outside of Yaale.
There were no "Mehadrin" buses.
There were no "Nuremberg" signs in the Merkaz stores.
On Yom Hatzma'aut Israeli flags were visible on street lights in most parts of the neighborhood.
So those people who wanted more charedi could have moved to RBSB or Beitar or Kiryat Sefer and left Alef to be open for all.
Actually I believe that many of the people who moved also planned to live in an open community but the pressure placed upon them by rabbonim, school systems and neighbors caused them to go far more to the right than they invisioned.
Such drastic change focused mainly on outer trappings (shirt color, hat, stocking length, etc) creates an atmosphere of tension and confusion and lack of respect for those who aren't "like us".
And perhaps that's why our parks are full each and every night of the disillusioned and disenfranchised kids of these olim from the US who rather than living the aliyah dream have created a nightmare by forcing a mutilated form of the Torah and Its Values down their throats and the throats of the rest of us.
are there more at risk teens within RBS from the charedi leaning families than the dati leumi?
ReplyDeleteAnon of 9:53,
ReplyDeleteBetach...but many of those charedi leaning arrived here more DL/Chardal, etc and quickly swerved right.
so in other words you're suggesting that a significant component is charedi leaning families for whom fitting into that box is a newer squeeze.
ReplyDeletefor myself, we came from YU/Stern but lived in an agudas yisrael community in the US, so while it's even more restrictive/political here we already understood the general box motif.
do you think some families sent their kids to more officially tzioni/centrist/whatever schools in the US (i.e. not beis yaakov) but made an actual shift here?
to be clear - I am not protesting haredim moving to bet shemesh, nor haredi neighborhoods being built.
ReplyDeleteI have no problem with either, and the free market, mostly, will determine who moves here. I say mostly because there is government intervention in the form of grants and planning certain types of apartments, so it is not purely free market.
I do have a problem with the city planners being involved in attempts to harm the diversity of the city, and more importantly the lack of attention paid to current residents in favor of trying to attract new residents.
I believe that in many (if not most) cases the shift was amde here.
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be an unwritten rule that in order to "fit in" in Israel one must go right.
I was discussing this with a friend who said "although I don't agree to the hashkafa I want my children to have the most opportunity here in Israel".
Opportunity for what?
If one aspires to grow in Torah it is quite easy to be a gadol BaTorah and Tzioni/Centrist/Chardal.
It saddens me that the DL and Chardal world won't recognize their own gedolim as gedolim.
How can people who learned in YU, Alon Shvut, KBY or Shaalavim turn their back on their rabbeim and hashkafa?
Why does one equate growth in Avodas HaShem with hat color, kippa material and level of mehadrin kashrus?
There is something very wrong here.
Rafi in what way are you surprised? We all knew Abutbul's agenda when he was elected, and it hasn't changed at all. In many ways 'we' brought it on ourselves by not working properly together to prevent his election and must learn our lessons quickly if we want to get rid of him next time around.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Haredization of BS, the succot rock concert was down to 1 night again this year, instead of the usual 2. Meanwhile there was a growth in the number of city sponsored Smachot Beit Shueva (however you do that plural in ivrit).Is there a way to find out how the budgets were allocated?
for 3 days I walked by sewage leaking out of a manhole stinking up the street. When I got to a simchas beis hosheiva sponsored in part by the irya I mentioned to some people the irony that the city doesnt have money to fix the sewage problems in a timely fashion, but we have nice simchas beis hashoeivas!
ReplyDeleteBTW, the sewage has since been fixed..