We’d never thought we’d be so happy to talk about tickets, especially tickets and fines to enforce clean streets in Jerusalem. This past week, we’ve seen real change on the ground, thanks to the continued efforts of the Little Prince activists, hand in hand with municipal professionals. These activists come from all parts of the city – Arabs, religious, secular and Haredi Jews, and through our mentoring have been able to forge intercultural connections with each other and with Municipal professionals and officials on numerous levels. We have empowered them to create change on the ground, starting with one of the most basic services – garbage and clean streets. (You can read about the Little Prince’s work over the past 3 years in the blog category here.)
Beginning to enforce littering and polluting laws in Ramot
There have been countless changes in Jerusalem in advancing clean streets over the past two years. Much of this is in the operations division, but one thing is clear: all the efforts of the sanitation department and the beautification department to clean up the city and make it more aesthetically pleasing will come to naught if residents’ behavior is not changed. Residents will continue to throw garbage in the streets and gardens as long as the municipal authorities do not give tickets to every person who breaks the law, so that it is clear: Littering = ticket.
Changing habits in Ramot
Take, for example, the Ramot neighborhood on Jerusalem’s northern end.
Neighborhood activists, led by Haim Paniri, joined together with the local enforcement personnel to increase enforcement to stop bodies and residents who pollute the neighborhood. The ramped-up enforcement efforts include opening garbage bags to identify the polluters, placing cameras on streets, tracking dog owners, inspectors in gardens and commercial areas and more.
The enthusiastic reactions from neighborhood residents came quickly. It started with a happy message announcing: “A ticket was written for dumping garbage!”
And continued with an endless trail of messages and letters. Here are a few:
“No words!!!!”
“Thanks so much to the municipal teams. You’re creating a makeover in the neighborhood! Now, there’s someone to turn to, people who take care of things. Ramot residents feel the change, we appreciate the work and are committed to keeping the neighborhood clean. ”
“Listen … I’ve lived in the neighborhood for more than 20 years, and this is the first time I can say that I appreciate the municipal enforcement department. My hat off to you! Please keep it going!”
Thank you and wish us all a clean and pleasant neighborhood to live in, while increasing enforcement in order to preserve the desired result. ”
“I have family and friends all over town. And they are jealous of us. Today’s Ramot is becoming much more cleaner and old Ramot…Every day the situation is improving…We have an excellent connection [with the municipal teams] and their willingness to work to help and improve. The Ramot team – each and every one are champions and they give everything for the residents and for a clean neighborhood.”
It was difficult to pick from the dozens of messages, recognizing and appreciating the work of the municipal teams.
We hope that municipal enforcement teams will take the work in Ramot as an example, and start giving tickets to litterers and polluters in neighborhoods throughout the city. Thank you too to Ilan Sasson, Director of the Enforcement Department, to Sasson Numa who connected between residents and municipal workers and made the magic happen, the regional coordinators, and to Itzik Nidam and Shai Moshe Moshe for the constant supervision.
Here’s the Facebook post in Hebrew:
And another post, from Haim Paniri, re-posting Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion’s post about the new enforcement efforts:
Many thanks to the Jerusalem Foundation and the US Embassy in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv for its continued support of the Little Prince!
