2002-01-25 Mayor Ehud Olmert-San Diego visit
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Jerusalem express Mayor Olmert travels to California for traffic solutions San Diego Jewish Press-Heritage, Jan. 25, 2003 |
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2002-01-25 Mayor Ehud Olmert-San Diego visit |
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| By Donald
H. Harrison Mayor Ehud Olmert of Jerusalem, dressed casually for touring, spent a few hours in San Diego County on Tuesday, Jan. 15, to learn more about reversible traffic lanes and the Fastrack system for commuters. After spending a night in the Los Angeles area, where he and a small entourage of officials from his city and its Moriah infrastructure company had inspected the State Highway 91 toll road, Olmert was driven to Escondido, where local California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) officials and a representative of the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) were waiting to continue the briefings. The group drove south on Interstate 15 from Escondido, stopping at the toll collection booth near the exit at Miramar Way, where they were able to leave their 10-passenger van and observe the traffic flow. Jim Larsen, a spokesman for SANDAG, told Olmert about the Fastrack system which enables people who do not have two or more passengers in their car to use the carpool lane for a fee. Joel Haver, CalTrans deputy director for traffic operations, explained some of the intricacies of the making the commuter lane reversible. From there, the party went to CalTrans' Transportation Management Center in the Kearny Mesa area of San Diego, where the visitors were briefed on the building which houses both CalTrans employees and units of the California Highway Patrol. Haver's briefing focused on the back up measures CalTrans had taken to keep the building operational in times of emergency. It is built upon earthquake-resistant piers; there are a double set of back up generators; there are dormitories for men and women who might be kept overnight to respond to emergencies. In a control room, where engineers at banks of computers can monitor live camera shots showing the flow of trafffic throughout the county, Olmert told Heritage that his own city needs to find ways to ease access and egress by commuters from elsewhere in Israel. The main entrance to the city from Tel Aviv is a particular problem, Olmert said. He stressed that his city has been making numerous improvements including a project expected to be completed in 2006 that will spread eight light rail lines across the city. Development of commuter lanes for automobiles may be another piece of the puzzle, he said. From the Transportation Management Center, it was on to San Diego City Hall to pay a courtesy call on Mayor Dick Murphy. While he waited in Murphy's reception hall for the San Diego mayor to complete a previously scheduled appointment, Olmert had just a little time to answer questions from Heritage about recent events in Jerusalem bearing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The recent bulldozing of unpermitted homes in East Jerusalem, he said, was necessary in order that the Arabs could not establish new facts on the ground that might affect Jewish rights to an undivided capital. "We had to demolish the buildings," he said. "People might not like it, but this is what we have to do because this is law enforcement." Similarly, when Sari Nusseibeh, whom the Palestinian Authority has designated as its representative in Jerusalem, recently hosted a reception for foreign dignitaries at a Jerusalem hotel, authorities insisted that it not proceed. "Sari wanted to perform as a representative of the Palestinian Authority," Olmert said. "The Palestinian Authority has no status in Jerusalem. As such, he can¹t hold a reception, and when he tried to do it, we very politely said, 'excuse me' — that¹s all." Olmert was joined at a private meeting with Murphy by such members of his entourage as Jacob Deri, director of the Moriah city infrastructure company; Eitan Meir, Jerusalem's deputy director general, Yechiel Levi, head of Moriah's transportation projects, and Doron Abrahami, consul for economic affairs from Israel's Consulate-General in Los Angeles. Murphy reported later that the conversation was mostly social, in which they found they were not only both mayors but also were both attorneys. The San Diego mayor said Olmert recalled that on the first time he was in San Diego, he had met with then Mayor Pete Wilson—who went on to become a United States senator and later governor. Perhaps, he quipped, his visit would similarly propel Murphy's political career. Murphy told Olmert how he had once toured Israel on a United Jewish Federation-sponsored mission which was led by Heritage columnist Gert Thaler and on which he first got to know Norman Greene, who now is Heritage's co-publisher. "That was one of the greatest experiences of my life— that week I spent in Israel," Murphy said. |
