Holon is a sluggish city when it comes to demolition-reconstruction and TAMA 38 projects, like many of the surrounding cities. But is the writing on the wall? Will cases like the collapse of buildings on Bialik Street in Ramat Gan and Serlin Street in Holon, which tumbled with all the furniture and possessions of their tenants, be repeated among the thousands of buildings made of sand and seashells, products of the rapid construction wave in the 1950s and 1960s intended to absorb a large influx of immigrants?
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In the course of two weeks, two buildings collapsed in similar circumstances. A building on 33 Bialik Street in Ramat Gan was declared a hazardous structure, and the tenants, including the Nitzat HaDuvdevan health food store on the ground floor, were evacuated. On the recommendation of engineer Israel David, a decision was taken to demolish the building in hours.
This week, a building on Bar Kochva Street in Tiberias was evacuated after residents reported noises and slight cracks were discovered. Firefighters were called to a building with deep cracks on Anilevich Street in the Kiryat Eliyahu neighborhood in Rishon LeZion. They wanted to evacuate the tenants, who refused. And that's just the beginning.
State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman, on a visit to the site of the collapsed building in Holon, said: "All the authorities should examine where there are dangerous buildings, and government officials should come to their senses and act. It is of critical importance to find solutions for the residents. We see with our own eyes people who've lost everything."
"I personally know of dozens more buildings that are about to collapse," said developer Yossi Avrahami. "We notified the authorities and warned them, but no one will listen. A slight earthquake and 2 million people will lose their homes."
"I called the police in Holon to the dangerous building on Sunday at 9:25 am. I sent a letter to the mayor, and a few hours later, the building constructed in 1973 and considered relatively new, collapsed," says Roni Mizrahi, Chairman of the Holon Contractors Organization. "The case of Holon should set off an alarm for all the mayors delaying permits for TAMA 38/2 and demolition-reconstruction projects. That's what will soon happen to a lot of these old and tired buildings. In a small earthquake, 20,000 buildings will collapse. Soon the banks will begin asking for engineer approval to receive a mortgage on old second-hand apartments."
"I can't say if there are other dangerous buildings in the city," said Holon Mayor Moti Sasson following the collapse. "I can't enter every building and we don't have the ability to check thousands of buildings."
Israel Goodovitch, formerly Tel Aviv's municipal engineer, estimates that "The collapse of the building in Holon is a sign of things to come. Buildings could collapse like cards. That's very sad, because more than 20 years have passed since the discussions on TAMA 38 and everything has just evaporated."
And that's exactly the point. The Urban Renewal Authority has given up. All the attempts to promote urban renewal get caught up in red tape. Permits issued after a decade are considered "fast-track."
Will the Holon case prompt some soul-searching regarding urban renewal? One should hope so.
Avi Turiski, owner and co-CEO of real estate company Rotem Shani, says: "The Holon building is like the Mount Meron disaster. The cancellation of TAMA 38 is a death sentence to the residents of the State of Israel."
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In an urgent letter to Minister of Housing and Construction Ze'ev Elkin, Adir Keinan, CEO of Koach Real Estate, which builds urban renewal projects, wrote: "Based on my professional knowledge of the engineering infrastructure in many buildings designated for urban renewal, I'm sorry to inform you that another collapse of this kind is just a matter of time, and who knows if next time it won't be fatal. The collapse of the residential building today in Holon should be an ear-splitting alarm for all the decision-makers, as well as apartment owners, developers, and contractors and in fact for all those involved in the field. You're not dealing with real estate and investments but with matters of life and death."
Givatayim Mayor Ron Konik suggests that the government should "obligate building maintenance committees to perform licensing examinations every few years, like a vehicle licensing test. A building that does not have a permit will be fined. A building that doesn't pass the test will be required to undertake repairs. The responsibility will pass to the homeowners, like in any normal country. Why don't we try, before the next disaster happens?"
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