Grapevine: Bevy of buses

IT’S NOT every day that there is a reason to voice appreciation to Transportation Minister Miri Regev. But anyone who relies on public transport cannot help notice the frequency of buses and light rail trains; waiting time has also been reduced.

In town last week, I walked in the direction of King George Avenue, and along the way four trains passed. That’s truly amazing. Better still, there were enough seats for every passenger. Earlier, I waited only two minutes for the bus to town, and even less time for the bus back home.

■ APROPOS THE light rail, notices in Hebrew, Arabic, and English posted at some major stops advise the public not to ride scooters, skateboards, bicycles, or motorcycles on the tracks, and to cross only at designated crosswalks.

The problem is there’s no one to enforce these regulations, and bicycles go whizzing along the tracks at breakneck speed. With so many closures and detours, it’s small wonder those on wheels are breaking the rules, but they were doing that long before light rail construction began. If there’s no one on hand to oversee that rules are obeyed, what is the point of making them?

■ IT’S a known fact that Mayor Moshe Lion is a stickler for cleanliness, but for all that, many streets are littered with cigarette butts, disposable cups, food remnants, and broken branches. Moreover, though light rail construction sites are surrounded by fences, the earth being dug up finds its way to the sidewalk and quickly becomes mud, with city workers hosing down the streets as late as 9 a.m.

For reasons those not in the construction business may not understand, light rail construction is not confined to the enclosed areas but encroaches on sections of the sidewalk, removing or breaking large sections of paving, without signboards offering explanations for pedestrians of any kind of timeline. As for the people working on light rail projects, they are completely exposed to missile hits. Admittedly, they’re wearing hard hats, but when they’re working they can’t hear a siren, and even if they could, there’s no way in most cases that they could run to safety in the limited time available to them.

■ ARCHITECTS OF Jerusalem residential projects have a dilemma. In several neighborhoods, one or two buildings on some streets have been designated as “historic” and, as such, must be preserved and cannot be torn down.

In some cases, the exterior facade is preserved and the interior is gutted, such as the house in Rehavia that Golda Meir lived in, which was later given to Levi Eshkol’s widow for the creation of a mini museum, and was repaired in accordance with its original appearance. It remains a nostalgic reminder of the Jerusalem that used to be, which charmed so many of the city’s residents, but it doesn’t fit in with the new architectural designs.

Some architects have found a happy medium by incorporating the high ceilings and arched windows of yesteryear into more modern structures, but others are still puzzling over how to fuse their own ideas with those of architects long deceased.

Anyone looking at any other newspaper will know why. During the war, there was a paucity of local news. Nearly all of what we get to read is where a missile fell, how much damage was incurred, how many people were wounded, how many were evacuated, how many people do not have access to fortified rooms, whether schools will be operating, whether legislation about the conscription of haredi youth will be postponed indefinitely, how long the war will last, and the scandal of how billions of shekels intended for the army and for protecting and rehabilitating northern communities have been transferred to haredi institutions,

Different versions of these themes keep repeating themselves because museums are closed; most government offices are closed to the public, even though staff may be working, and few celebrities are visiting the country due to the cancellation of flights and airport restrictions.

For the same reasons, there are few tourists. Hotels and restaurants are in a sorry economic state, and many people whose dreams have been shattered are going out of business because they can’t afford to pay rent when income is meager or nonexistent.

There are now several vacant stores on Hillel Street. In better times, they were well patronized. Now they open up because it gives proprietors and sales staff something to do. Even supermarkets have far fewer in-person customers.

Technology makes it easier to place an order without leaving home. The few customers who do cross the threshold are mostly elderly, who would never buy fruit and vegetables without inspecting the size, the freshness, and the quality.

■ WHEN SURVEYS are taken of the cost of a basket of the price of the same commodities in different supermarket chains, Rami Levy is always No. 1, 2, or 3 in assessments of best value for money. This year, his stores are offering even better discounts than usual because this is the jubilee year of the opening of his first store in Mahaneh Yehuda in 1976. Since then, he has opened more than 40 additional stores in Jerusalem and around the country and has branched out into several other lines of business.

■ FISCAL DESPERATION is often the harbinger of crime, more so when guns are easily procurable. A large number of Jerusalemites petitioned Mayor Lion to find a means of doing away with the gun law introduced by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The petitioners are fearful that if more people have weapons, there will be more killings. In times of tension, hot-headed arguments get out of control, and an easily excitable person instinctively pulls out a gun and shoots point-blank.

Of course, there was and there is crime in Jerusalem, and it will only be exacerbated if more people carry guns.