Modi'in at 20 - vision and reality

Modi'in  picture: Eyal Yitzhar
Modi'in picture: Eyal Yitzhar

Architect Moshe Safdie discusses his plans for the city and residents reveal what life in Israel's newest city is like.

Moshe Safdie: Twenty five years ago, then Minister of Housing David Levy asked me to develop a master plan for Modi’in. That was before the massive Russian Aliyah (immigration). It was the fulfillment of a dream that was born with the State of Israel - in the first national master plan. A city planned to be halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

I asked myself: What have we learned from the past? The city needs to be an urban place, not suburban. It needs to be a normal city, which draws inspiration from A.B. Yehoshua’s essay “In Praise of Normalcy.” A normal city, with streets and boulevards, with buildings, with street addresses, parks, and streets with shops. It should not look like a collection of building projects, or a collection of autonomous neighborhoods. There must be a city center, architectural diversity, and population diversity. A normal city should not look like a collection of elements that repeat themselves. It should look more like old Tel Aviv - Rothschild Boulevard - not like all of the familiar Ministry of Housing projects.

A job for every resident

A city must have jobs, therefore, a high-tech industrial park is needed. Eventually, there will be as many jobs as people living in the city. Moreover, it should be a city that focuses on experiencing nature. Despite the fact that there will be urban density, it should be full of parks, and green spaces. Today, we call it an “ecological city,” but, then, we called it “a place connected to nature.”

The inspiration for the city plan came from the site itself: a series of wadis (valleys) that ran from east to west, in the center of which was an intermittent series of hills and ridges. Unlike previous projects that were built on hills, in which highways were built in the valleys that separated between neighborhoods that were built on the hillsides, we decided to create a backbone of community life in the valleys - a sort of Cardo Maximus, like in ancient Roman cities. 50% of the valleys - the most fertile parts of the site - would be public parks. Schools, shopping centers, and community services would also be built there. On either side, the boulevards would serve local transport. The valleys would connect between the neighborhoods on the two hillsides.

City of parks

This year, we will begin completing the transport center, which will include the train, the central bus station, and parking in the city center - the dream of many cities. Modi’in, which is near the Anabe Wadi, is one of the only cities in the world - a little like Edinburgh - in which the city center, the transport center, and the nature preserve, are all in one place.

In retrospect, I can say that the valleys are the great innovation, and the success, of Modi’in. One Friday afternoon I wandered through the city. There were hundreds of people jogging, and walking on the boulevards, and children played in the park. The mix of architecture and the densely planted areas already give the city the character of a city that has been around a long time - a city of parks. Looking ahead, with 150,000 people more than the 100,000 already living in Modi’in, I hope that the principles of the planning will succeed. The parks are marvelously maintained, and the city’s residents have developed an impressive degree of pride. I hope the city leaders will continue to oversee development strictly. On the twentieth anniversary of the beginning of construction, I wish the city vibrant life.

The reality

The Weisberg Family: Modi’in is a bedroom community

Ruti (34), Gabriel (36), and two children, ages 2 and 4

Gabriel and Ruti Weisberg moved to Modi’in-Maccabim-Reut three years ago. “We had an apartment in Jerusalem, in Kiryat Moriah, between Armon Hanetziv and Arnona. We loved the city; I worked there, and still work there today, but my husband started working in Tel Hashomer, and the commute became difficult,” says Ruti. “We decided to look for something mid-way, because we didn’t want to move to Tel Aviv. At first, we looked at rural communities and at Mevasseret Zion, but the small communities were too rural for me, because I like the city, and Mevasseret was too expensive, and not close enough to Tel Aviv,”

According to Weisberg, the decision to move to Modi’in was ultimately made because of its location, and because of the fact that it is a city, with all the necessary amenities.

“We rented a four-room (three-bedroom) apartment in the Malibu neighborhood for a year and a half. Rent was NIS 4,200/month, so we decided to buy. We sold our apartment in Jerusalem, four rooms, for NIS 1.5 million, and we bought a duplex for NIS 2.6 million. It is a six-room (five-bedroom) house, with a basement and a 100 square meter (1075 square foot) yard. Prices have gone up since then, and today they are extremely high. But even though prices today are similar to Jerusalem, it feels like you get more for your money in Modi’in. It also feels like you get more for your property tax in Modi’in than in Jerusalem.”

Weisberg says that there are many advantages to living in Modi’in, particularly for the children, but also some prominent drawbacks: “Modi’in is a city, but not really a big city. It is a very well planned city - too planned - there are no places that are ‘late additions,’ or different areas to wander around, like in a big city. If you want to go shopping, there is only the mall. If you want to go out in the evening, there are almost no options, and you have to get in the car and drive to Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. I sometimes joke with friends that we want to go to the big city to see some dirt. I miss streets with shops and cafes, and an open market, and I sometimes miss population diversity, like there is in Jerusalem. The city is really very functional, and the schools are very good, but it is missing the spontaneity that is a part of every city, it lacks personality.

As for places to work, Weisberg says, “There is almost no one who works in the city, everyone commutes. Modi’in is like a suburb; a bedroom community. So there is a lot of traffic in the morning on the roads to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Many people commute, and the commute is not easy. Because of this, by the way, there are a lot of people who carpool, it has become popular.” Despite everything Modi’in lacks, Weisberg concludes that there are many advantages, like large public spaces, parks and playgrounds, a great place to raise children. “We don’t plan to leave,” she says.

The Shemi Family: No affordable housing

Tali (39), Roy (39), and two children, ages 4 and 6.

The Shemis moved to Modi’in six and a half years ago. They have been renting since then, and enjoying the green spaces, but they have had difficulty finding a reasonably priced apartment to settle down in. They are currently planning to move north, to the new, growing city of Harish. They explain that the possibility of finding affordable housing was the determining factor in their decision to leave Modi’in.

“We moved to the city six and a half years ago. Until then we were a young couple, and we lived in a 2.5 room (1.5 bedroom) apartment in Tel Aviv,” says Tali Shemi, who works in childcare near Modi’in. “We moved to Modi’in because it was close to our families, and also because Modi’in is a better place to raise children than Tel Aviv, and we were looking for someplace green, with a high quality of life.”

Since moving to Modi’in, the Shemis have been living in rented apartments, and they have experienced the rise in rents firsthand - as well as the rise in housing prices.

Shemi: “We moved three times since moving to the city. The first apartment was three rooms (two bedrooms), and rent was NIS 2,200 a month. After two and a half years, the rise in rents began, and our landlord asked to raise our rent by a thousand shekels. We moved to a different three-room apartment, and we paid NIS 3,200 a month, but after two years the apartment was sold, and we had to look for another apartment. Since then, and until today, we live in an 85 square meter (915 square foot), three-room apartment, on the second floor, with no elevator, and we pay NIS 3,600 a month rent.”

Over the years, housing prices in the city rose significantly as well, and the Shemi family says that current prices do not allow them to buy an apartment in the city. For this reason, the couple decided to move to Harish.

“If there were reasonably priced apartments in the city, we would stay, but there is no such thing. The city is expensive, and seems to be only for well-established families. We decided to look for a cheaper apartment and we found Harish. My family is from there, and that also helped us make the decision. We joined the Neot Harish Association, and we are not choosing a contractor. With the group, the price of a five-room apartment is NIS 720,000, and I hope it does not change as construction moves forward.

“I am not sad to leave Modi’in, because we are not attached to any one place. But everything has to do with the cost of living. Housing prices are very high here, and also other things, like education, and municipal summer camps. Most of the population in the city is well-off, and that is why the cost of living in the city is higher.”

The Neuman Family: No parking by schools. Morning traffic jams.

Matan (33), Naama (32), and three children ages 7, 6, and 8 months

The Neuman family moved to Modi’in in 2004, when the city was something between a construction zone and a big city. Ten years have passed since then, and, according to Matan Neuman, things have changed in the city, but the expectation that it would become a more vibrant, lively place has not yet been fulfilled.

"We moved to Modi’in as a young couple, and we bought a four-room apartment for a price we couldn’t have found anywhere else: a 118 square meter (1270 square foot) apartment, on the third floor, with an elevator, a storage room, and two parking spaces, for NIS 668,000. We still live in it today. If we had needed to buy an apartment as a young couple today, I don’t think we would be able to - prices are very high, and this apartment is probably worth around NIS 1.6 million. We had beginners’ luck," says Matan.

“We chose Modi’in because it is between my family in Tzur Hadassah and my wife’s family in the Tel Aviv area. Another reason is the schools are good, and there is a community school for religious and secular Jews.”

In a new, planned city, one might have expected that the planning would take into account issues such as morning traffic, or pickup points for children, but, according to Neuman, these things are lacking: “As a city that is supposed to be planned, there are some points that it’s unclear how they were overlooked. For instance, there is no parking near the schools and daycare centers, and anyone who lives near any of these places or passes by them in the morning sees what goes on, and is stuck, because people stop in the middle of the road. There is nowhere to sop, there are no parking bays or parking lots. There are bottlenecks at the entrances to neighborhoods, and the city exits are also jammed. Anyone who needs to commute to Tel Aviv can go by train, but there is no train to Jerusalem, and if you want to go south, you can only do that by taking the train to Tel Aviv first.”

Neuman also complains that there is no place for people to get a drink after work, without going out to the industrial parks or leaving Modi’in. For this reason, Neuman has opened a Landwer Café franchise in town, which he hopes will give people a place to unwind in the late hours.

Neuman’s café opened in the Modi’in Azrieli mall in February. “There is a great advantage to opening a café in the city you live in, for the simple reason that you don’t need to waste time on the road.”

In addition to giving Modi’in residents a place to relax and unwind, the café also contributes to employment in the city; according to Neuman, the vast majority of café employees are Modi’in residents.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 2, 2014

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2014

Modi'in  picture: Eyal Yitzhar
Modi'in picture: Eyal Yitzhar
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