Shuttered shops, and nothing offered

Countless traders in the city centre are reporting that their businesses are shuttering. They cannot afford to keep them open. There is no compensation offered by the city — no meaningful compensation. So you have small businesses closing left, right and centre.

The asymmetry

There is not only a lack of proactive information to residents; there is a lack of — I would even say — compensation.

I do not know whether there is any precedent for a municipality reducing the arnona it charges. But this is a system, a municipality, that knows how to take and gives very reluctantly. Collection enforcement is extremely rigorous.

That asymmetry is the part I would want tested. The same institution that will pursue an unpaid bill with real efficiency does not appear to have any equivalent machinery pointing the other way.

The disruption those businesses are closing under is described separately, in a diversion map like a plate of spaghetti.