The Prime Minister’s office (PMO) has been urging IKEA to open up their second store in the town of Lod, one of the poorest towns in all of Israel. To all of you who believe American trends hit Israel years later, here is another one for you. Lod is notorious for its drug deals and thousands come to the city every day to buy crack and heroin fixes. Yes, crack. However whack it is in America these days, its gained some traction here. Despite the large crackdown (uh, absolutely no pun intended) a few years ago against the infamous drug ATMs (you put your money through a mail slot and you get your drugs – no face to face with the dealer) they quickly returned and Lod’s problems persist.
Enter Ilan Harari, Lod’s current Mayor who was appointed after Benny Regev was removed due to rampant corruption. Regev, highly influenced by Rudy Giuliani, has a plan. Increase visible police presence, security cameras and set up roadblocks in the town to prevent junkies from coming in. A decent plan, but when 1 out of 130 residents of your town has a drug file with the Police the cards are stacked against you. (More here)
Enter Ikea. According to today’s Globes (Israel’s daily business paper) the PMO has offered 3-4 Million shekels (roughly one million dollars) towards the infrastructure of the building should IKEA choose to open in Lod.
At a meeting held on October 16, 2005 (parallel to IKEA Israel’s negotiations with the Rishon LeZion municipality), with the then mayor of Lod Benny Regev, Avishai Cohen, then head of the PMO Division for Coordination, Follow-Up and Control, said the state would give the project a “green track,” and that “it would not be a problem for the division to attend to the necessary business with the Ministries of Interior an Industry, Trade and Labor regarding the Investment Promotion Center and discounts for superstores.”
A document obtained by “Globes” reveals that the Prime Minister’s office (PMO) has been promoting the opening of a branch of Swedish home furniture chain Ikea in Lod and even offered IKEA Israel various benefits, including NIS 3-4 million in aid through the Lod Municipality, which would be used to develop a superstore in the city.
Cohen also declared at the meeting that, “beyond that, we will, as a rule, be on your side.” He went on to say that the PMO could not be of help with regard to discounts to employers since these are usually given only in frontline regions, but suggested a way round this. “We’ll find a special way in which to help a project of this scale. Instead of giving grants, the municipality will receive a one-time budget for infrastructures of NIS 3-4 million.”
(link)
I believe that opening a branch of Ikea in Lod would be a godsend for the community. It will provide hundreds (potentially thousands) of jobs and bring hundreds of thousands of shekels in revenue to the struggling town. It will also be the impetus for other businesses to open nearby. One just has to look at Ikea in Netanya as an example. Since opening, numerous specialty supermarkets, cafes, restaurants and other stores have opened within the vicinity. Opening Ikea in Lod will without a doubt create a snowball effect that will only have a positive influence on the city.
If Times Square can be cleaned up, why can’t Lod? Granted, I’m not an urban planner nor a criminologist, but my gut feeling tells me this is a great idea. Lod is easily accessible from both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv (direct train!). And soon with the advent of the southern part of Road 6, Beersheva.
What do you think? Would the opening of Ikea in one of Israel’s most criminal cities help the city or just backfire?
