Feb 27, 2011

Your Arnona At Work






3 weeks ago, Bezeq came to my street, in front of my building, and tore up the sidewalk. They dug down, dealt with the cables, and installed this communications box you see in the images above.

They replaced a few of the bricks they had ripped out, and then abandoned the site. Three weeks later, they have not yet returned to fix the sidewalk.

The sidewalk is dirty, unkempt, dangerous as people have to go into the street or kids who play with the bricks, muddy in the rain, an annoyance to pedestrians who have to walk by especially those with strollers.

Today I called the city municipal line for residents to report problems. I described the problem. Their response was that I need to call Bezeq, as Bezeq has dug up 60 different sites around the city and are conducting the work.

To which I asked, does the city not supervise the work and require them to fix the sidewalks? Their response: yes, we supervise, and have even issued a couple warnings, but you have to call Bezeq.

Of course, it is impossible to call Bezeq, as you easily spend 20 minutes getting transferred around, as no specific desk is the one that deals with such issues...

I wonder how much longer it will take for the sidewalk work to be completed..

Your arnona at work.

9 comments:

  1. I was wondering what was going on with that. Do you think it will help for others to call the irya?

    Did you already try calling Bezeq?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rafi - don't you live in the same buliding as Montag. Surely you only need to speak to him?? it is right outside his house also??

    ReplyDelete
  3. Eliezer - I tried bezeq but gave up after being on hold a lot and then being transferred a couple times.

    anon - he doesnt help with anything. He just says to call the irya, he has nothing to do with it, blah blah blah. I didnt ask abut this, but people have asked for other assistance at times (garbage collection problems, etc)

    ReplyDelete
  4. What's arnona?

    Why don't you know how to communicate in English?

    ReplyDelete
  5. arnona is the annual property tax collected by city hall

    ReplyDelete
  6. Aronoa is the Hebrew word for the Municipal tax assessed each property.

    Essentially property taxes.

    Irya (wow is that a bad transliteration) Eer-e-yah is the Hebrew word for Municipality or City Hall.

    Some Anglo's living in Israel develop the lazy habit of not learning to translate what they've learned in Hebrew.

    So they don't really know the meaning or translation of the Hebrew word and use it while speaking English. Frequently they use it incorrectly too. So, in effect they become unintelligible in 2 languages.

    It's too bad because it makes blogs like this a real pain to read.

    ReplyDelete
  7. you can never satisfy everybody.

    sometimes I write city hall or "municipality" and some people complain why make us crazy, just write iryah... some prefer the common hebrew words, and some prefer the english.

    I will continue to write what I find more appropriate for each post.

    ReplyDelete
  8. lo and behold, just this afternoon a new pile of bricks was dropped off at the site. I dont know when they are going to lay the new bricks, but I would guess it would be soon.

    either:
    1. someone in city hall reads the blog
    2. my phone call, and maybe other people called, helped encourage them to remind Bezeq
    3. purely coincidence and good timing.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Bezeq is an arrogant company.

    Doesn't the Irya have email, like in Yerushlayim?

    ReplyDelete