Shatz Street Revisited

At the top of Schatz street there is construction going on. From all appearances, they will be working at a steady pace and building a mixed commercial and residential project. It really does look as if the building will go up quickly and finish within a few months’ time.

But that rarely happens in Jerusalem where it seems that as many building projects are left half-finished as are completed. And while objectively, that may be an exaggeration; the impact of these eye-sores makes the greater impression.

This new building will be covering over a rather attractive mural. The mural is there to cover up a rather unattractive wall. Such walls can be found all over Jerusalem the result of buildings not being built at the same time.

Current regulations allow developers to leave external walls unclad expecting future development to eclipse it. Sadly, that future building is often long in coming.

One aesthetic approach is to turn the corner with the stone cladding for half a meter, but that didn’t happen in this case. What did happen was that the mural was painted on canvas and hung, allowing it to be moved to another of the many bare walls around town.

Such slow development is the rule here in Jerusalem. Efforts could be made, preferably via economic incentive, to better coordinate and speed up bureaucracy. But at least in this case, things are moving along. The bottom of Schatz street tells a different story.

A small unassuming three-story building with some fine stone detailing, this public building has the claim to fame of being Israel’s first Knesset building. Prior to inhabiting the iconic Acropolis-like structure on Givat Ram, our country’s lawmakers sat here. Prior to becoming a construction zone, the building housed government offices.

Some years ago, work began on renovating the building as a museum. Scaffolding went up, pedestrian traffic was blocked, initial demolition took place and then… nothing. In an effort to hide the eyesore, a sticker illustrating an historical timeline of the Knesset was placed on the scaffolding. Due to increasing graffiti, it was recently refreshed. How many times will that have to happen?

A generation of Bezalel architecture students has walked past this unfinished project. Ironically, their own new building near the Russian compound which was supposed to be finished 5 years ago, is still a hole in the ground.

Jews in the exile pray to meet ‘next year in Jerusalem’. Jews in Jerusalem pray to meet ‘next year in a re-built Jerusalem.’ I pray that next year all the many unfinished projects in Jerusalem will get back underway.