I just don't see the problem

Housing and the cost of living in Raanana is getting just as expensive as Tel Aviv!

Maybey it's time for them to grow up Israel is not Manhattan and cant afford a druggie irresponsible youth culture get real we are in the Middle East not East Manhatan . Perhaps this protest is a first step but they need to help settle the rest of the country not settle the bars of Tel Aviv.

...Tel Aviv isn't just about college kids going out and getting drunk at clubs every night. It is also theater, opera, classical concerts (of one of the best orchestras in the world), art museums and other cultural events which the "young" (as the author writes) don't appreciate. If people didn't go out and get drunk every night, Tel Aviv would still be a vibrant city of young professionals. Most universities in the world have dorm housing and low rent shared apartments for student housing. I don't know if this exists in Israel or not. If not, it should. While there is a problem of the housing costs compared to salaries, college students shouldn't expect to be able to rent an apartment in the prime locations in the city. Once out of the university, I worked for 6 years, living in a not-so-nice shared apartment in Los Angeles, saving every penny I could to afford to buy my first condo in a cheaper area of town. After years of working, I was able to upgrade. Tel Aviv is not different, and when I made Aliya many years ago, I still had to work to buy an apartment here - nobody is exempt from hard work to afford things they want. The problem of rents compared to salaries needs to be fixed, but expectations also need to be realistic. Most people aren't going to be able to afford to live on Rothschild. Those who live there have worked very hard to get there. Perhaps the English news doesn't print everything, but I have yet to see specific solutions proposed by the organizers of this protest. They are pointing out a problem, but what exactly do they want done? I learned a long time ago that bringing solutions is more productive than pointing out problems. If they have proposed solutions, perhaps the English news in Israel can write an article about it.

Whoa, not every young adult who wants to live in Tel-Aviv is a druggie or a drunkard. Without these young people Tel-Aviv would loose its fantastic energy & pulse. Rents are way too high for the lousy monthly salaries they work their butts off for. These youngsters are or have defended ou rcountry, they have served in the IDF. This is not the way to treat our future generation. Lower rents throughout Israel & lower the cost of apartments throughout Israel. Why should foreign Jews be allowed to buy up expensive homes when our kids have to struggle to pay the awfully high mortgages for 20-40 years & struggle with their study payments etc. Not only do rentals have to be lowered, all food prices also must to be lowered. If our Government sits this problem out, we are going to loose loads of our valuable young citizens & that would be a great shame.

Wonderful that you are a billionaire & dont see the problem. May you always have a roof over your head & may you never know what its like to go to sleep at night on an empty stomach.

What a snide, h olier-than-thou remark. So, yes, there are a few druggies andirresponsible youth. But they're not the ones who are demonstrating. Let's take students: as the article says, many in Tel Aviv University have at least one job in a local cafe, bar, or maybe night watchmen duties. This often means working late into the night - I know from my own children when they were students. so how exactly do you want them to get home to Ashkelon, Ashdod or other places on the priphery at one or two o'clock in the morning? And what about something in the way of rent control which is totally non-existent in this country except for government housing - and there's not much of that. There should be a legal limit to the percentage by which landlords are allowed to raise the rent in a single step, but there isn't. The protest is certainly not just about settling the bars of Tel Aviv but to make affordable h ousing - purchase or rentals - available for people. It's about the high taxation to support the huge non-working population, particularly many Haredi. I wonder what works for you that you can determine that all Tel Aviv youth are drugies and irresponsible. shame on you.

The recent housing price protests are especially difficult to comment on. On the one hand, the problem is real and serious, and one that most people (even many in the upper echelon) can identify with. On the other hand, the protest in practice is political and extreme leftist, with signs like "Revolution Now!" and "Mubarak, Assad, Netanyahu". One simply cannot identify with such stupidity. However, regarding the actual article: The one important point that the author of the article is forgetting is that if these youths leave Tel Aviv, it's not like most of them will immediately board a plane to Europe or North America. If they all move to Haifa and Beer Sheva, Tel Aviv might indeed empty of young people, but Haifa and Beer Sheva (or Jerusalem for that matter) will gain the strong young population they are sorely lacking. Contrary to what the author says, it is NOT in our national interest to attract all the country's young to Tel Aviv and its metropolitan area.

perhaps not boring, but quite ugly IMO. Nothing wrong with young professionals living in Ashkelon for example. They can still go to have a good time doing whatever in Tel Aviv. People have the right to choose where they want to live, but they also need to be able to afford their choices.

With all the intellectual tolerance I can muster, with the economics, cultural, and for the sake of a healthy soul for the country, I must admit: this Article is one of the most naive and lacking of any legitimate arguments to win its case.

greed by the landlords and owners and unchecked and unrestricted development and growth. Everywhere you look, you can see building cranes and structures rising from one end of the city to the other. What I see from my apartment is a loss of view of the sea over the past three years. The mayor should be taking the lead to control growth of over-priced highrises and utilize what we already have, supplying funds for rundown and abandoned buildings to once again be livable and lived in by students and young couples. Tax incentives should be used but only for permanent residents. Otherwise the schools will empty, the taxes won't be paid and no one will live here full-time and this will create crime and decay. When I ask my landlords each year why they are raising my rent their invariable answer is "because we can". Israeli cities need rent control now. This is the answer to unchecked greed and growth.

It makes me sick to hear allt hese hypocrites, probably ijn their 40's, who haven never had to experience living in tel aviv as a young person and having to support themselves. I made aliyah 2 years ago, I don't receive any money from home, in the last 2 years my rent has gone up %25, while my salary ahs stayed the same, there are some weeks I can't eat because the money has gone on rent; and that is working a 6 day a week job, over 200 hours a month!! It takes years to become a qualifged proffessional, all of these protestors are students who want to get ahead in their lives, but they can't. You can't live in askelon and communte everday while working two jobs, itr's just not physically possible. Tel aviv is our biggest city, it is everybody's right to be able to live here, Imagine if Obama announced everybody under the age of 30 had to leave the five bouroghs of new yourk on go live in the countryside. Th solutions of those who say that young people can simply live elswhere are absolutley insane. No jobs, nowherte to live and nothing to do in the periphery!!! And it's not just tel aviv, all the areas around tel aviv: givatayim, ramat gan, holon, it's all the same! The middle class are dissapearing the rich like, bibi, barak and steintz get richer!!! This has to stop the people have a right to a roof over their head and three meals a day!!

You say "everyone has a right to live in Tel Aviv". Do you honestly think that all of Israel can fit in Tel Aviv? What about people in the U.S. who want to live in San Francisco, or Manhattan, or the prime area of downtown Chicago? Not everyone can afford to live there. Why is Tel Aviv any different? I'm not saying that there isn't a problem here. There is. Something needs to be done about rents in proportion to salaries, however, it does take years of work and savings to be able to move up in ones standard of living. Anywhere. It doesn't happen overnight, and it doesn't happen in one's first job after college. People everywhere in the world live in worn-down places for cheap rent while they make their way in the workplace and can afford nicer places in prime locations. Nothing comes for free, and the more people who want to live in Tel Aviv, the higher the cost of living. This is simple economics of supply and demand...

If there is MUCH demand for something , prices will ALWAYS go up .

If you can't afford to eat, how can you afford a computer and internet connection? One day when you grow up, you'll realize that people in their 40s were once your age, but maybe instead of whining they got on with life and made something of themselves.

Youth angry 'cause they can't afford to live in the big city where the hip good times are at? Well ain't that a bitch. You & I had to adapt to the reality of not having much in the pocket during our younger years, and this fussing lot will as well.

THere should be a fundemental right to live in Tel Aviv lets not be so cruel as New YOrk which forces it's young people to live in Brooklyn and Queens and not Manhattan. THere is a genuine need for low income housing but why do many feel some demand to live in Tel Aviv as a right and that behind all this is yet another attempt at replacing the current government with the old "Oslo Peace " party crowd . I think the public is more aware than the media thinks.

How will I lower rents? Buy introducing a law that FORBIDS landlords to raise rents. Thats how dear Charles. I would build many many many more apartmnet buildings all over this land. Israel has the land, Israel has the money. I would cut ALL the red tape & ''proteksia" the bullsh*t of the land authority here & I would get my laws through the Knesset. Bibi needs to act now. Listen to the speech that he intends on giving tomorrow dear Charles. Are you a landlord by any chance, dear Charles??

Shikkun & Biniu? They are one of the developers most guilty of building apartments that no one can afford!

# 12 says ''some weeks'' he cant afford to eat. Some weeks is not every day. Cant expect a winner like you to understand how hard it is to make ends meet, even with 2 jobs that pay LOW wages.

Kudos Rachel, well said.

yeah yeah, ha ha ha to you. what do you care? are you affected by any of this mess? Nope you are not.

LOL, Cameron, since when did you know me ''in my youth" You are so wrong clever cloggs. Hush & shoosh.

Cameron tell me please, have you ever visited Israel? Do you have kids (young adults) in Israel who are studying? Do you honestly have any idea what its like to be a 22-25 year old who has completed his army service & is still living at home because he cannot afford to fork out 2500-4000 sheqels a month on rent which does not include monthly utility bills nor food, nor public transport, nor his tuition fees No Cameron, you do not. If his family do not help him, he cannot make it to the end of the month. No joking, life in Israel is very very hard for everyone, not only the students.

shuuuuuuuuuuuut uuuuuuuuuuup! the government should build a couple of dormitories for students at fantastic rates, actually really really low unbelievable rates and then wait the 5-10 years to see the returns...medically, scientifically etc etc see the students were focused on learning, simply because they were living in TA and being concerned with their education. the last thing on their minds were the cheap rates everyone else protesting that is not a student......shut up. are you unhappy your life did not turn out the way you dreamed? beachfront address? living in the gay capital? too bad, life is not getting everything you want handed to you, sometimes people need to work harder to get things easier.

Spare me the piss & moan about making ends meet in Paradise. I had jack nothing during college years, and the 20s in general were damn lean years of counting every penny. Don't run that burden of broke youth routine by me........was there for years. Junior still in the room down the hall? Well, it won't last forever, so straighten up and hush with that fuss. Everyone is under economic pressure in these times of ours.

Rent control is an immoral "taking" of the value of someone else's property, allowing someone else to benefit at the expense of the owner. Most would call that theft. We've seen rent controlled apartments in places like New York become entitlements, handed down within families or among friends while the owners wonder why they should maintain or improve them if they can't claim fair returns. Worse, the owner may think, "Why should I maintain the rental market at all when I can make more money selling them as condos?" It's the law of unintended consequences. I've seen this happen elsewhere, but some still believe in the fantasy. Or take another example: Folks complain about an old, run-down neighborhood (think South Tel Aviv or Jaffa). Then folks come in, buy up some property cheap, and fix them up for personal use or resale. The newly gentrified neighborhood is now "in". The locals then complain, "There's no more cheap housing here. We're being priced out." I've seen this in DC.

In a democracy there are things you can't do , you can't control private owned appartements rent . When there is demand for something , the price goes up . If you have an appartement for rent , and 5 people are interested , to whom will you rent it ? You will build many many more appartements , great . But p[eople want to live in Gush Dan where there is much work available . Living elsewhere , cheaper , fine . But you forget the transportatrion costs and wasted time . I had , for many years to go to my [ well paid ] work with my car . 25 km in the morning , the same to return home . it's not something to envy . It was abroad , no traffic jams , they were in the other direction . Sad to say Birdi , i'm not a landlord , i've only one appartement , where i'm living .

my 1st reply to your post was not published! Fyi there is ''no junior down the hall' & I aint writing about myself. The rest, you dont need to know.

you hit the nail on the head with this tackback at my opinion. an alternative/option/ solution can be: a re-division of incomes, wealth/properties of the entire population on national and world-level.