The emotions of the residents of the German Colony and the Katamonim neighborhoods continue to swing between hope and frustration. Will the light rail's Blue Line run along Emek Refaim Street or not? Will it affect the Mesila Park? Will someone in charge – the Transportation Ministry, the municipality, the Jerusalem Transportation Master Plan or anyone else – ever be bold enough to make a final decision on the matter? The answer is not blowing in the wind; it is stuck inside large offices of high-ranking officials, leaving thousands of residents in uncertainty. Three weeks ago, it seemed as if, against all odds, a bold decision was finally made by Transportation Minister Israel Katz. After hearing during an unofficial meeting between some of the parties involved that the project was causing significant distress to the residents along the route, he instructed his assistants to “do anything needed to ensure that residents won't suffer.” Upon hearing this, members of the Emek Refaim residents' association, strongly opposed to the segment of the line on that street, grew optimistic, feeling that the minister, whose ministry approves and finances the whole light rail budget in the city – estimated at NIS 25 billion – heard them with sympathy. However, while the minister hasn't retracted his remark that residents shouldn't suffer as a result of the project and ordered the whole plan to be revised before being submitted again to the district planning and constructing committee for final approval – nothing concrete has happened since. Meanwhile, the residents' association is hard at work on their alternative – a tunnel instead of rails on the ground on that street. Such a solution has already been approved for another segment of the same line, on Yehezkel Street, near Shabbat Square. “If the tunnel there is a legitimate option in order to prevent haredi residents from being exposed to secular passengers traveling through their neighborhood, then it is no less legitimate to have a tunnel here in order to prevent devastation to Emek Refaim Street” maintains Mordechai Avraham, chairman of the residents' association. If approved, the tunnel would run under Harakevet Street along Mesila Park from the Liberty Bell Garden to the Oranim junction, leaving Emek Refaim untouched and preserving Mesila Park. This plan is being finetuned at top speed by a group of architects and planners hired by the association and will be presented soon to the relevant committees and to Barkat and deputy mayor Meir Turgeman. Meanwhile, the next date on the schedule of this topic is September 12 – another hearing of the objections submitted by residents, at the upcoming session of the District Committee. Asked if they believe that their alternative proposal has a greater chance of approval than their former ones (like to run the light rail on Harakevet Street, causing irreparable damage to the Mesila Park) Avraham expresses confidence.
