leaving private car ownership behind

it began with this article. i didn't realize that they're discussing heavily taxing car owners; although i have personally proposed taxing owners on condition that that tax money goes towards improving public transport options.
an argument later with one of my managers and i'm convinced that with the level of corruption in our municipality that might not be particularly applicable.

however, i did have the following argument with a girl from our student union.

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some of us do not live in tel aviv (i know it is hard to believe) and if you live in rishon or holon you cannot be without the car. read it carefully and you will see that most of the examples that were given were that of artists, yoga teachers and one business. most of us do not lead that kind of life.

rishon and holon are not tel aviv. and if you are coming to the city from there, then it's a good idea to use public transport. and bicycles / feet / car2go when you get here. the point is that city living is a great idea, and if you do live in the city then owning a car is silly.

as for the lifestyle, i'm one of the many people who have real jobs (no, artists, i'm not saying you shouldn't do what you do!) and don't own a car, and my lifestyle is all the better for it. you don't need a car. cars are more trouble than they're worth.

except for trance parties. those are a bitch to get to without personal transport :/

if you had lived in holon you would know that you cannot go out at night without a car. public transport stops at 24:00. the person who wrote this article is so detached from reality outside of tel aviv

umm... who needs a reality outside of tel aviv??? some of us are very comfortable living in civilization. it's not impossible to petition for the bus companies to open night lines between the cities. the fact that holon's infrastructure isn't very good means that those people living there need to do something about it.

as for us... i thought this article was about tel aviv.

there are night lines only on weekends. if you believe that petitions will work so... ah, but right you live in tel aviv ... the place in which reality does not dare to enter

the other way around. the fact that we have a different reality doesn't make it unreal, it's just better than what's outside. and that's why we choose to live in it. reality is subjective, and we all make choices appropriately.

i love living in tel aviv. but israel? no way.

what you wrote is just so sad. it only attests to the existence of "the state of tel aviv," detached from the rest of the country

what's sad is that the rest of the country doesn't think that civilization is a very good idea. i wish we could all get our bums in to gear and leave the primitivism behind... but we don't seem to be a nation of progress when it comes to the socio-political aspects of things.

because we don't want to be educated, we don't want to support arts and culture; we just want personal wealth, new cars and big houses and trips overseas so we can talk about how wonderful everywhere else is.

this IS very depressing.

do you think holon, givatayim, rishon lezion, rehovot, petah tikva aren't "civilization"? and what about the kibbutzim and small communities? please keep in mind that they are the ones who settled here first (i'm talking about the first pioneers on the second and third immigrations) and built everything. i doubt if those that established the fifth immigration would have reached tel aviv if the guys in the third and second had not paved the road for them first

i didn't say that the other cities aren't an important step, what i said is that they're stuck in a point in our history that's no longer relevant. it's time to move forward, to move on, otherwise the work of all those great men and women is WASTED.

we have so much potential, the whole country has so much to offer, and instead we've decided that "we've done enough"

it's embarrassing to have achieved so much, so quickly, and then to have given up and started saying "that's the way it is" instead of "let's do it better". which is what happens in tel aviv, AND NOWHERE ELSE. there's no good reason for this, except perhaps the fact the tel aviv is a place where young people live and perhaps it's our idealism that allows us to evolve.

we're waiting for the rest of you.

i agree with you that we need improvement and change. but i do not think we need to reinvent the israeli experience in tel aviv's image. tel aviv is full of young people who can allow themselves this fantasy that not all of us can have. honestly, i do not know when you came to israel. your idealism and enthusiastic spirit is wonderful and praiseworthy, but i don't think you've been here long enough to understand what's happening here. i would advise you to live a year in the negev and the galilee to work with the communities there and then channel all your energies for the benefit of society as a whole and not just for a very small sector of "haves"

here's the thing: most of israel is NOT in a good state, but without idealism and without actually trying to fix things it's not going to get any better. i think you're simply too entrenched in the old way of thinking to believe in change.

everything is a choice. we can choose to stay right where we are, or we can choose to take ourselves to the next level. the only thing stopping us is the attitude that "this is the way things are", because that defines our reality. in tel aviv, we're slowly breaking that and we are making a difference, and the same can be repeated anywhere. *anywhere*.

but it requires faith, and direction, it doesn't just happen by itself. what you're suggesting is that the more of israel i see, the less idealism i'll retain and the more i'll just accept things and be done with it.

no.

i won't. this isn't about me, it's about us. and i'm praying that enough israelis will leave that backwards, primitive mentality behind and emerge into a new, modern israel. because we can. we did once, we can do it again. and everywhere can be like tel aviv. and everywhere SHOULD be like tel aviv. it would be better for everyone.

unless you think we should be more like our neighbouring countries. i don't think that's what you think.

what's apparent from this article, now that i'm not trying to be nice, is that i'm arguing with the standard israeli viewpoint. things are shit, they're not going to get better, stop dreaming, there's nothing you can do, progress is not "israeli".
i think that's all a load of shit. if that was true, we'd never have managed to get to where we are now.

but the kibbutzim have fallen apart, and a culture of "me first" and the arabic influence with their notion of "respect" are destroying us from within. and in tel aviv, there are enough people who haven't been brainwashed into their chains that things do improve. and instead of looking on jealously, the periphery could make a choice, make a stand, and follow in our footsteps.

attitude is a choice, and it doesn't need money.