Shuk growing pains

The narrow alleys inside Mahaneh Yehuda echo with music blaring from the speakers of the bars and the restaurants that take over the market at sunset every evening. The nightlife attracts visitors from near and far, and while business is good, not everyone is happy about it. The changes in the famous shuk – which over the past decade has become a hot spot of culture and leisure for city residents as well as tourists (locals and foreigners alike) – are threatening to change the whole character of the place, some complain. Others see the changes as a normal urban development that cannot and should not be stopped. Yair Kochav, owner of Tahrir, a bar promoting Mizrahi culture and music, says that “for the vast majority of merchants here, as well as the customers who cannot live without the shuk, Tahrir is an organic part of the shuk – something that does not apply to quite a few of the most recently opened businesses.” Where should Jerusalem draw the line between free-market options and regulation and order? Can an elected representative at city council express a preference for one type of business over another? And what can be done to keep some sense of logic in the free-market jungle that seems to reign in the capital's central market? Ofer Berkovitch, deputy mayor and head of the Hitorerut Party at city council, says there is nothing he can do to persuade an investor to open a bar or restaurant in one specific alley or another in the shuk. “This is not about my personal taste. This is about how to navigate between a free-market initiative, a quest for some balance between the original purpose – selling vegetables, fruit, meat and fish – and the exciting nightlife of this place, which has made it such a popular venue.” “What motivates me is preserving the authentic nature of the Mahaneh Yehuda,” he adds. “Besides the fact that it is a free market, we can, together with several administrations at the municipality, do something in that regard – like regulating the number of bars or restaurants inside the covered part of the shuk, while in the surrounding alleys there is no need for that.” The municipality is making an effort to encourage businessmen and investors to open and run small- and medium-sized businesses. In the shuk area, the businesses are mostly eateries – bars, coffee shops, restaurants. In the evenings, when the fruit and vegetable counters close, many of these eateries place tables and chairs outside and play music. A general permit is required to open such an establishment, and the terms of these permits specify the number of tables and chairs each business has the right to place outside in the public space. For security and safety reasons, it is necessary to leave room for free movement. “That is the municipality's responsibility – to see that passages are free for passersby as well as for any emergency, but the bar owners have a clear tendency to use as much space they can, and we become the bad guys who try to prevent that,” explains a high-ranking employee at the permits administration. Some of the owners say that as long as they do not obtain a long-term permit (one year, and renewable) they cannot develop a business. The questions they grapple with include: How long can they employ waiters? How many? How can they know in advance every 21 days or, at the most, every three months, how their business is going to develop? Berkovitch says that besides the fact that he certainly cannot intervene in the rules of the administration, he tries to find solutions to additional issues, one of them being the noise coming from bar speakers, which often leads to complaints made to police, and ends with officers coming and ordering the music shut down, to the frustration of both the owners and customers. “Let's not forget, people live in this area,” he points out, “and while a resident who chooses to live in the city center or close to the shuk has to bear in mind that this is not exactly a quiet area, there are limits to the nuisance the municipality – and the police – can allow.” Asked how he can solve this difficult equation, Berkovitch responds that various options are being considered. “One would be to find a way to link all the bars and restaurants that play music with speakers facing the street to a device that would immediately show the decibel level of each of them. If we manage to bring all the owners here to accept to be linked to this device, we may reach an agreement with the police, so that they won't automatically disconnect the speakers, but check first on our device as to who is exceeding the allowed decibel level and who is not.” Kochav believes that some kind of collaboration between bar and restaurant owners should be the aim – like sharing spaces and even tables and chairs – as the level of regulation that the authorities can provide is limited. “There is no way I can tell an investor what kind of eatery or bar he can open or where to open inside the shuk. These are the rules of the game here. We provide the maximum of infrastructure, but as for the rest – it has to be worked out between the owners and the merchants of the shuk,” concludes Berkovitch.

Shuk growing pains

How the city is fighting to maintain the character of Mahaneh Yehuda, while balancing business interests.

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Shuk growing pains

How the city is fighting to maintain the character of Mahaneh Yehuda, while balancing business interests.

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