Effective Activism

The Little Prince is at it again. This time, on Olswanger Street in Kiryat Hayovel.

In February 2019 the Little Prince began a project called “Clean Olswanger St.”

Olswanger Street, finally being cleaned up

They posted on Facebook about how much trash there was on the street, a place where thousands of people live, work and study. (In addition to residents, there’s an elementary and junior high school and six kindergartens on that street.) We developed relationships with local sanitation workers, the municipal enforcement workers (those who give fines for littering, etc.) and landscaping department. We recruited residents, created plans, met, talked, and…… nothing happened – there was not yet enough passion and responsibility at the residents’ side to be a part of the solution. Very frustrating.

Before. This is what people had to live with.

A year went by. The Jerusalem Municipality began to implement its clean city reform, according to which the Municipality would take responsibility for cleaning 1,250 acres of private-public spaces (PPS’s – we wrote about them here). Technically, it doesn’t need to, because, technically, these spaces aren’t city property. But they are public property, and it just makes sense. We’ve said it before but it’s worth repeating – thank you to the Municipality as a whole and the different departments involved. This is a groundbreaking move, with Jerusalem being the first municipality in Israel to clean up the PPS. Hopefully, other municipalities will follow suit.

Bags upon bags of garbage

So finally, Olswanger St. is receiving its due. Last week, at the end of February 2020, sanitation crews began cleaning up the garbage that had piled up on the hillsides, on the pathways, between the buildings. Over the first week they cleaned one side of the street and the difference is huge!

Look how many bags the garbage filled!

Let’s hope that this is a turning point for Olswanger Street, for many clean years to come.

After. Hoping for a cleaner future.

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and to the Rayne Foundation for their support of the Little Prince.

Who’s responsibility is it to clean up those open spaces between apartment buildings? That walkway or set of never-ending staircases that lead from the street to your complex? That vacant lot two doors down? This is an issue that unites all members of the Little Prince network – Arabs, Ultra-Orthodox Jews, residents of various ethnicities etc., and the reason we began the Little Prince network two years ago.

Jerusalem, along with many other cities in Israel, has an interesting section of its zoning code called Private-Public Space, or PPS.  These spaces are basically public open spaces – beside apartment buildings, or in common courtyards, or gardens or stairwells to very large complexes. As opposed to property that technically belongs to specific homeowners or apartment complexes, these PPS’ are open for anyone to pass by. But paradoxically, although they are open to the public, the space doesn’t belong to the Municipality, so technically, the Municipality is not responsible for maintaining these spaces. This responsibility is supposed to be the residents. However, many residents are either unaware of this responsibility or are unable to maintain and clean these areas. The result – too many PPS spaces throughout Jerusalem that are overgrown messes strewn with trash.

Cleaning up the Private-Public Space

And this is a widespread problem, that the Municipality has recognized that is must step in to improve. After several decades of neglect, as part of its plan to clean up Jerusalem, the Municipality mapped PPS’ around the city – over 1,125 acres – with plans to help residents clean and maintain these spaces on a regular basis. Cleaning will be carried out at different frequencies according to each PPS. In addition to cleaning, the Sanitation Division will, as far as possible, be responsible for handling lighting and safety hazards and more.

This is a tremendous accomplishment. Private-Public Spaces cover huge areas throughout Jerusalem, and cleaning and maintaining them will make a significant impact on how Jerusalem’s neighborhoods look.

The most exciting part of this news is that in doing so, in taking responsibility for cleaning up the PPS’s, the Jeruslaem Municipality has set a groundbreaking precedent throughout Israel. As we noted above, issues of PPS’s and whose responsibility it is to clean them up permeate Israel, but most of the municipalities keep to their legal responsibilities – public spaces as zoned. Congratulations to the Little Prince for this huge accomplishment, and many thanks to the Operations Division of the Jerusalem Municipality for their partnership.

fianThe Little Prince – Fostering cooperation between city workers, city departments and residents

One example is in old Katamon. This PPS has been the subject of Little Prince activist, and member of the Ginot Ha’Ir Community Council board, Sarah Yacobzada’s attention over the past few months. A few weeks ago, the Municipality finally began to clean up the area. In response Sarah wrote:

Remember the PPS? They finally started cleaning it in old Katamon. It’s important to say a huge thank you for the partnership between Dudi Turgeman, the Director in the Southern District of the Sanitation Department, and Mazal Gorney, who is responsible for landscaping in our area, as well as to Eitan Levy and Jamal who recruited the workers who cleaned up all the neglect from over the years! And our dear friend Gil Gorny who directed everyone, and who managed to drive significant change in cleaning up the city.

Here’s her Facebook post:

Here’s the post from the Ginot Ha’Ir Community Center’s Facebook page (in Hebrew):

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and the Rayne Foundation for their support of the Little Prince.

It’s been two years in the making (see this post from August 2017 to read about its roots), but the MyCity app is finally here!

You, too, can download MyCity

The idea for the MyCity app was born two years ago, during a #MadeinJLM #HackJLM hackathon event. At the all-night event, activists from the Little Prince, together with a ‘group of techies’ as we called them then, teamed up to sketch out an idea. The breakthrough that night was the understanding that the app must be as simple as possible (the KISS approach).  While other apps, including the Municipality’s, were time-consuming and complicated (requiring a lot of text about location, personal details, a long form, etc.), MyCity was to be as simple as the conventional camera app. You point at the target – a pile of garbage, a garbage can that is overflowing, etc., and click. The app does the rest: it sends the picture to the server with the coordinates, time and the identity of the already registered sender.

It took a while to find the entrepreneurs who would make it work, but now, a beta version of the app is here! One of the important uses of this application is for a series of pictures. You can be walking on the street or in the park and just point-and-click at every point-that-should-be-cleaned. The server can make this series of pictures into one report (“list of problems on X street, or in Y park) that can be sent to the relevant municipality official. Another interesting use is when you pass the same filthy spot on your way to work or school every day, you can take a picture each day. The server is able to create a time-based report, (“Corner of X and Y streets, from October 1 – 31”) which can also be reported to a municipal official, asking for a sustainable systemic response. The Municipality’s app can’t – there you need to file separate reports for each location and time and fill a form before sending. There is no way to understand the context of the report – the other parts of the park or the history of the spot. Even before this novel app was out, you could see Jerusalemite activists creating ‘garbage stories.’ (Want to see examples of successful local ‘Garbage Stories’? See this post about MiniActive’s successes in East Jerusalem.)

Here’s the Facebook (in Hebrew) post from the Little Prince Facebook group:

Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and the Rayne Foundation for their support of the Little Prince.

Yet another accomplishment for the Little Prince – Cleaning up Jerusalem Together. This time, one of our leading activists, Ronen Weil, was recognized by the Mayor, in a special prize awarded to local residents and activists who volunteer to improve their immediate surroundings.

Mayor Lion and all prize winners, picture from Municipality Spokesman’s Office

This news was published in both national and local Jerusalemite news sources, here and here, respectively. The official statement praised Ronen, for his:

Extensive contribution to the neighborhood of Homat Shmuel (Har Homa) in the areas of physical infrastructures, transportation and cleaning up the city. Ronen is part of the Little Prince – Cleaning Up Jerusalem Together project.

He takes great care in bringing about changes in the neighborhood public sphere that will benefit the residents, while ensuring that all tasks and projects are completed and seen through to fruition.

At the ceremony, Mayor Lion said:

The city of Jerusalem is the only city in the country where almost one in every three residents volunteers, for the betterment of the entire society, for his or her neighborhood, for weakened populations, for animals, and more, and we have that to be proud of. Jerusalem’s unique mix that makes it unique in Israel and the world. Together and apart they are what make Jerusalemites better and more caring people. Thank you, each and every one of you. Because of you we have such a great city.

Thank you, Mayor Lion for those inspiring words. Congratulations Ronen and all of the activists in the Little Prince!

Many thanks to the Rayne Foundation and the Jerusalem Foundation for their support of the Little Prince.