Well, it took me quite a long while, but I have finally managed to open my English urban blog with its international aspirations. This blog comes after seven years of blogging in my native tongue – Hebrew, mainly on topics of urbanism in Israel and in the city of Tel-Aviv.

A few reasons stand behind this effort to blog in English. I am nearing the completion of my PhD in urban geogrpahy at the University of Tel Aviv and hoping to join the ranks of academia afterwards and as an academic the only language which we use is (somewhat broken) English. Aside from that, the urban challenge is a global one with similar problems and conflicts in many different parts of the world. English is probably the only langauge that we can use to deal with issues on a global scale.

One other factor is that the Hebrew blogosphere is slowly withering away as Facebook gulps down the discussions on various subjects in Israel and in the process reduces the quality of the discussions themselves. Contrary to this trend, the global blogosphere is still alive and well with many different voices and I am hoping to add to the global discussion through this small outlet.

I am looking forward to making my contribution to the global urban blogosphere and hope you’ll join me for the ride. I hope we’ll all have a good and enjoyful time here, with some fruitful and deep discussions on the state of urbanism, walkability, housing and everything else related to cities.