Jerusalem is not the city we knew as recently as a decade ago. We see changes taking place before our eyes on a daily basis. Some are welcome, such as the gentrification of the commercial areas in the neighborhoods of Mea She’arim and Geula. While others, such as the overabundance of high-rise apartment blocks, have changed the character of the city.
In some cases, change has become so rapid that it is difficult when passing an empty storefront to remember what merchandise was sold from there as recently as a week ago.
Construction sites are prevalent almost anywhere one goes in Jerusalem these days. The horizon in any direction is dominated by cranes, and long sections of streets are fenced off for extensive periods of time, while new residential complexes, retirement homes, office blocks, commercial centers, leisure facilities, sports centers, hotels, and hospitals are being built.
Many of these projects are attractive when completed – some are not. Most are approved as a means of increasing the contents of the municipal coffers.
In round figures, the population of Jerusalem is 997,000, which is approximately double that of Tel Aviv and triple that of Haifa. Jerusalem is already overcrowded and will become more so if all the new multistory towers become occupied.
But the tens of thousands of additional residents and proprietors of commercial enterprises will increase municipal revenues to unprecedented levels, hopefully to be used for educational, cultural, and social welfare projects, some of which will help to reduce poverty.
Malha misadventure
Last week, I went on a shopping trip to the Malha Mall, where I hadn’t been for the best part of a year. I have been shopping there since the mall opened in 1993 and used to know my way around with ease, though the first big shock came around 15 years ago when the cinemabank closed to make way for H&M.
The store that was my target and had been there for as long as I could remember was gone, and so was its next-door neighbor. Both had been replaced by a store that had been there previously but now expanded in size and in the variety of its merchandise.
The fruitless search for the store that had been the reason for my trip from Talbiyeh to Malha left me somewhat bamboozled, so much so that I went out via the wrong exit door and had a long walk in the street in the blazing sun until I reached a bus stop, which, as it happened, had no buses with routes going in my direction.
It took more than 15 minutes before I realized this because in past years, there were several buses from that stop that went through town, from where I could transfer to another bus with a stop near my home.
My discovery that I was at the wrong bus stop was when I attempted to board a number 18, on which I frequently travel from the Central Bus Station or from the center of town. “Lady, where do you think you’re going?” asked the driver. “This is the last stop.”
How was I to know? I had never ridden that far on that bus.
There was another bus stop across the road. Getting to it involved another long walk to the corner of the street because there was too much traffic to risk taking the shortest path to the other side. However, the number 18 was not among the options listed because buses do not always take a boomerang route. I decided instead to take a bus that was going to Gilo, figuring that I would alight as soon as I saw a parallel bus stop on the other side.
That’s what I did, though the bus was well into Gilo by that time.
None of the bus numbers listed at the bus stop were familiar to me, but I presumed that at least one would be traveling through town.
Bus 97
After what seemed like a long wait, the 97 bus pulled up. I asked the driver if he was driving through town and he replied that he was, so I boarded and settled back in air-conditioned comfort.
We passed places that were familiar and others that I did not recall having seen before. It was interesting to compare the different architectural styles and the variety and size of public parks, and to realize that many neighborhoods have their own distinct characteristics.
To my pleasant surprise, the bus had a stop at what had been my original destination when exiting Malha Mall. It stopped on the corner of Aza and Balfour. I had never even realized that it was there because for years I had been taking a 17 or a 19 bus and had also been aware of a 22 bus, which I seldom used.
But 97 was a whole new ball game. It takes a very convoluted route to and from Ramat Rahel. Any passenger who travels the whole route and back will enjoy a very broad perspective of Jerusalem.
Of course, there are many routes, and whether one has an hour or half a day without any particular commitments, it’s a fun thing to get on any bus and travel the whole route and back. If we can’t travel abroad, why not explore what’s near at hand?
Answering tourists’ questions
It’s very important for people to be knowledgeable about the cities in which they live, especially a place like Jerusalem, which even in a poor tourist season attracts pilgrims of the three monotheistic faiths. Local residents should be able to answer tourists’ questions and point people in the right direction so they can easily get to whatever destination they are seeking.
For those who’ve been here before, Jerusalem can now be a bewildering experience. So many places they had come to love on previous visits no longer exist or have undergone or are undergoing change, such as the area surrounding the Mahaneh Yehuda market, where huge construction projects are underway and others have been completed.
Jerusalem trivia quiz
Meanwhile, give yourself a quiz to discover how much or how little you know about Jerusalem.
For instance, there are streets and institutions named after every deceased president and prime minister.
- Do you know where all these streets are located? Or which street is named in memory of a former president but does not bear his name, and why? For that matter, there’s a Rivlin Street between Hillel and Jaffa, but it’s not named for Reuven Rivlin, who is happily still alive. Who is it named for?
- How many museums are there in Jerusalem, and how many of these have you visited?
- If a tourist wants to visit a particular church or synagogue, do you know where it is?
- On the subject of synagogues, do you know that the Jerusalem Great Synagogue is not the largest synagogue in the city? Which are the largest?
- How many institutions of higher learning are there in Jerusalem, and where are they located?