I suspect that what’s going on here is a classic case of Nimbyism: Jerusalem has a growing population, it needs a lot more residential square footage, but the locals in Jerusalem proper refuse to allow developers to build up. neighborhood is un-walkable, inaccessible, closed in, and. Residential towers can be fine things, but they become very bad neighbors when they’re surrounded by nothing. Except for traditional downtowns, few American communities even have things to walk to within safe and easy walking distance. Communities: Six Case Studies of Neighborhood Walkability in Clackamas and Washington Counties. What’s more, the Holyland development seems to be targeted at Americans, who are used to the suburban lifestyle, like it a lot, and are attracted by developments which can claim to be “surrounded by 15 acres of green park”. This area, to the west of the city, is relatively new it was clearly built with the idea that people would get around first and foremost using their own personal cars. Yes, Jerusalem is hilly, but there are lots of walkable hilly cities: San Francisco and Lisbon spring to mind. One look at the map and you can tell this is not a walkable neighborhood. As a result, very little of interest is within walking distance, and what is within walking distance is hard to find unless you know the area really, really, really well. You will note that the street is in a section of looped streets that make the typical American cul-de-sac seem like a masterpiece of clarity. To find the area, go to Google Maps and go to a street called Avraham Perrera. But in reality, this is not a neighborhood for pedestrians:
He was staying in a 32-storey residential building called Holyland Tower, whose official rendering shows lots of people on foot and just one car. Now, Michael Lewyn reports on some extremely unwalkable street design in a city which most emphatically predates 1930: Jerusalem, of all places.
Cities did this naturally before the 1930s, but then urban planners started building cul-de-sacs and other ways of maximizing the effective distance between any two points. Remember the importance of counting intersections? Density alone is good, but not sufficient for a pleasant, walkable urban experience: you also need to be able to get from one place to another in a reasonably straightforward, noncircuitous manner.
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