Interview: Ron Huldai, Mayor of Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv has been dubbed the ‘start-up city in the start-up nation’. Jonathan Andrews met with the mayor, Ron Huldai, to find out if other cities can learn from Tel Aviv’s example

You were first elected in 1998, so how has Tel Aviv changed in those 17 years?

The city today is completely different from what it was. The city I got when I became the mayor was a neglected city. There was a negative balance of immigration–more people left the city than came. It had a deteriorated infrastructure, in all areas–roads, streetlights and sidewalks. There was a huge deficit and huge debts to banks and suppliers.

I had a problem in paying staff salaries at the beginning. Within four or five years we managed a real turnaround and we jumped to a balanced budget. Since then we have had 13 consecutive years of balanced budgets. We are investing four times more in infrastructure and facilities. People then recognised that this city is a good place to live in and the balance of immigration changed completely. Everyone now wants to live in the city of Tel Aviv, so the price of real estate is going up and we are growing. We have doubled the number of kindergartens in the last 15 years and Tel Aviv is a very vibrant and prosperous city.

We also believe that the city is not just a city here in the state of Israel, but a model for democracy and pluralism. It is a model for tolerance, art, culture, science, research, rational thinking, and one that is open to the world. We are a global city and a home for every minority. These are not just phrases or slogans; the city invests 6.5 percent of its total budget in art and cultural activities when the state of Israel only invests one-third of a percent.

This city became, who could believe it, the most gay friendly city in the world, and we have received other recognitions. We are not only the nicest beach city in the world but also the second best city in the world to open a start-up.

You have doubled the number of young people in the city but it is it still affordable? One of the dilemmas of becoming a successful city is a rising cost of living, how are you tackling that aspect?

We are the only city in the world that when the price of real estate goes up, the residents say the mayor is lousy! In Israel there is only one housing market, we are too small a country. Every apartment we build here, everyone in Israel is competing for it. It is the same market.

We are the spearhead of any effort to show the government how to deal with the cost of living by issuing or bringing affordable housing, or rental subsidies for students. We are trying to push the government to legalise affordable housing in city plans. We are trying by all means but there is no way for the city of Tel Aviv to deal with it because it is a national issue. The scarcity of apartments and housing is an issue all over the country. In Israel it is more problematic because we lack a sufficient public transport system. When you don’t have a good public transport system the pyramid of house prices is steeper.

You mention culture being an important aspect to the city’s success. Do you think this cultural push has created the start-up scene in Tel Aviv or has the start-up scene pushed the cultural scene, which is driving which and I suppose what would you say to mayors who are trying something similar?

The centrality of Tel Aviv is in one way a big name but in practical measures it is the centre of London, because we don’t have a Greater London. So the numbers are unique. Fifty percent of employees from the banking industry are working in Tel Aviv, 70 percent of people in Israel travelling by train are going to and from Tel Aviv. Over 420,000 residents and 1 million commuters are coming in on a daily basis. Seventy percent of the country’s theatres are in Tel Aviv, half of those in the city, and the other half just outside Tel Aviv. So the entirety is huge, and the attractiveness of the city is that everything here is close and human.

When you go out into the streets of Tel Aviv, people from one side of the city can meet with people from the other, not like in big cities which can be divided in a way as once you go and live on one side, you never really go to another. The distances here are very small.

You’ve dubbed Tel Aviv the “start-up city of the start-up nation” with the largest number of start-ups outside Silicon Valley. How was this achieved?

For of a lot of reasons. Our people are creative. I used to say, I don’t know why they are so creative but once I identified that fact I began to try and empower the process by providing Wi-Fi in public squares and opened all of the city databases that we have for start-ups. We opened a start-up lab in the city library and another in the northern part of the city and more than 50 co-working spaces across the city. We have the highest number of start-ups per capita and density in the world, and in fact the most important thing is the city has the best ecosystem for start-up people. We have excellent public spheres, excellent food, excellent nightlife and culture. This is the perfect ecosystem for start-ups.

Is it something unique to Tel Aviv or could it be applied to other cities?

The issue is not competition here in the city of Tel Aviv, I compete, or Israel competes with Silicon Valley, Berlin, London or Sydney. This is the problem of Israel, it is not a competition of cities within Israel. When somebody asks me, all I can tell them is that this is the way I did it.

In October 2015, Tel Aviv and Berlin signed an agreement to promote innovation between the two technology cities. What will this entail and is this a dilemma, on the one hand you compete with other cities and yet want to share ideas?

It is a dilemma but when I think that if we would like to maintain our position in the start-up world the key is by also cooperating with others, bringing different cultures to the brainstorm. If they are sending entrepreneurs here, we will help them to integrate, to find their way, to get the visa, and vice versa. Once our citizens go there I hope and expect them to do the same. I don’t think I can stop our young people from going there because they are wanting to go. On the contrary once they are there I want them to be accepted in a good manner.

Which cities do you look to as examples and with which cities do you most closely work sharing Tel Aviv’s examples?

There is no specific answer. I am trying to get everything from everywhere. Mayors all over the world, once they meet, they have within a couple of minutes interesting conversations and the answer is very clear. We all deal with the same issues. We deal with sewage, transport, welfare and education. But we have different ways of solving problems so we listen to each other to find out if we have a good idea to solve something. For example, our bike sharing system happened because I was a guest of the mayor of Paris. He was the first one to do it on a large scale, so I decided to do it.

Barcelona is an excellent example for me because it is on the Mediterranean. It has the same climate, and in a way, we have the same temperament, so it is an excellent example from where I get a lot of ideas. Europe as a whole has good examples on housing. So this is the way I look to it, I can’t say that there is only one particular model for something.

It is often said that city mayors are the most pragmatic of politicians. Does this give mayors more common ground and make it easier to build relationships and reach out to other cities in the region? Do you have relations with cities in the West Bank?

We [mayors] are very political because we are dealing with people, the difference is that we do not see ourselves as ‘politicians’ as such.

We don’t have connections with those cities [in the West Bank] and it is unfortunate. I don’t think the time is coming. We are trying to undertake mutual projects with the West Bank about water and sewage because we are in the same boat. We are trying to get the European Union to become involved but to say that we have a good relationship with cities in the West Bank, no. It is unfortunate.

Did your previous jobs as fighter pilot and school principal prepare you well for city politics?

I am a grandfather of nine, this is more important! It didn’t prepare me for politics but I think my professional life, not as a fighter pilot but as an air force commander–and from being even a member of a kibbutz and school principal–I think it brought me a perspective about life– about a way of doing things. There is a culture in the air force, of long term planning, about being precise, about an appreciation of time and being professional, getting results. It was always management. My air force base that I commanded was bigger in size than the city of Tel Aviv!

This edition of Cities Today includes a focus on resilience. What was your reaction to the COP21 agreement and what types of resilience in regards to climate change is Tel Aviv facing and what is the city undertaking to tackle these?

It is good question but [looks out the window onto Tel Aviv for 30 seconds]… I am trying to be honest, how much can a city this size which is 14 kilometres long and three and a half kilometres wide influence the climate? The most important thing is that I am dealing with an Israeli issue and not an issue for the city. But if you look at the details you will find out that if, 17 years ago when I entered office, we had more than 90 days of poor air quality, today we have less than 19 days of poor air quality, and some of those 19 days are a result of dust from the desert which we have no influence over. I cannot change it! It comes from the desert of Saudi or the Sahara, it is all over the Middle East. But if you look at the details you will find out that in a lot of cases we did a lot. We were the first to initiate standards for green building a couple of years ago.

We, the mayors in the country, the initiators, we signed the treaty and pushed the national government to be part of it. I cannot say that we are not active but if you think we can influence the world, well, it is a lot more important what Putin and Obama are deciding than what I am.

Even though cities have taken a lead on this issue and driven national governments to take action?

Even if you speak about cities, it is different when you talk about Beijing, one of our sister cities, and Moscow. Their size is equivalent to the whole of Israel and they have much bigger populations.

Turning to mobility now, a metro system has been on Tel Aviv’s drawing board since the 1960s, and then revised in the 2000s as a light rail system that began construction in August 2015. Was that the one remaining issue that was holding Tel Aviv back to becoming a fully modern international metropolis?

This has been the biggest obstacle for furthering the development of this city. It is also one of the biggest obstacles to improving the quality of life for our citizens. People spend so much time in their car and on their way to and from work. The new metro will create a different quality of life. This is the most important factor and we are lagging behind the developed world by maybe two generations.

The fact that we are only starting now is a joke. It has been too little, too late but at least we have started. It now seems to be serious, also it is not in my hands, it is an intergovernmental problem including five municipalities. The length of the light rail line is 22 kilometres, so it’s not very long, and it’s not a real metro, only light rail with half of it underground.

We are still lagging. The reason why it took so long was the weakness of our governing system. The mayor should have a lot more power. Everywhere else in the world transport is in the hands of the mayor or mayors of a consortium of cities. Israel is the only country in the world where transport is managed by the central government. It can’t work this way.

I’m also not having a lot of success getting our government to move from its position. During one of the previous governments, a law was submitted to the parliament and the minister of transport vetoed it.

When elections are due in 2018 you will have served 20 years as mayor. What are your future plans?

In Israel who knows what can happen three years from now. There are three options. One is to jump to the national level, one is to continue being the mayor, and the third is to retire–by then I will be 74. I have too much time and energy to be a full time grandfather but I don’t know yet.