This document profiles Jesse Fox, the founder of Open TLV, an organization that aims to increase transparency and citizen engagement in urban planning in Tel Aviv. It provides background on Fox and explains Open TLV's mission to address the lack of transparency in Tel Aviv's planning system. The document outlines some of Open TLV's advocacy campaigns, such as working to demand changes to Tel Aviv's master plan and advocating for bike lanes in south Tel Aviv. It also shares lessons learned from Open TLV's work over time.

1. About me
• Jesse Fox
• Urban planner and journalist
• Master’s degree in urban
planning from Technion
• I live in Tel Aviv, grew up in U.S.
• Work at Haaretz newspaper
• Participated in PresenTense
social entrepreneurship
fellowship Jan.-May 2011

2. Open tlv
• Founded Jan. 2011
• Mission: to democratize
urban planning in Tel
Aviv through greater
transparency and
citizen engagement

3. The problem
• Overwhelming lack of transparency
in planning system
• People have no idea what’s being
planned (buildings, neighborhoods,
road works, bike lanes,
transportation, etc.)
• People don’t understand process
(local laws, city council, who to call,
how to influence - rules of the
game)
• The conversation about how to
develop Tel Aviv excludes the
people who call it home
In the best case, you might see one of these.

4. The result…
• Plans made without input from citizens – bad planning
• Citizens feel alienated from decision-making & disenfranchised (opposite
of empowerment)
• Mutual distrust between city hall and residents
• Almost all building & development plans encounter resistance from public
• Market failures (gentrification - underdevelopment)
• Corruption?
But you may not
realize that it
means this.

5. The concept
More transparency leads to…
Greater engagement, which means…
More citizen input in planning process, creating…
Higher quality of life.
Ultimate outcome: A better-planned city for all

6. First steps
1. Set up Facebook page
& Twitter account
2. Name and logo
3. Team (find a partner!)
4. Launch event (show
people you exist)

7. Our launch event

8. Campaign: Tel Aviv master plan
• One year of intensive involvement
• Comprehensive plan for whole city
(where to build what, when and
how much)
• Plan was promoted quietly,
documents kept hidden
• Initially advocated for greater
transparency (wrote letters and
articles, called reporters, tweeted
from meetings, lobbied city council
members)
• Joined forces with residents’ group
to demand changes to plan
• Victory! Many of the changes we City planning council meeting
demanded were eventually
accepted

9. Campaign: bike lanes for south Tel Aviv

11. Other stuff we’ve done
• Gave talks to city employees about
crowdsourcing and open government
• Presented our ideas at academic conferences
• Collaborated with other groups on various
campaigns (city-owned assets)

12. Lessons learned: The media
• Make friends with reporters,
but…
• Don’t overestimate the
intelligence of journalists
• Create your own media
channels
• Use visuals, keep your
language simple
• Translate new/foreign
concepts into your own
language (words like:
“crowdsourcing,” “government
2.0”)

13. Lessons learned: Organization
• Document everything you do (preferably with
pictures)
• Get to know those you want to influence; find
allies inside the system
• Stay politically unaffiliated
• Find a base (group of people who intuitively
understands and supports your goals/vision)
• Learn from similar initiatives in other countries;
contact them and meet them if possible

14. Lessons we learned the hard way
• Decide on a name early (before reaching 100 likes on Facebook )
• Research legal status and funding issues
• The world changes fast (protest movements, new internet tools,
shifts in consciousness)
• If possible, find an economic model (social entrepreneurship is
rewarding, but it won’t pay the rent)
• Do you really need a website? (maybe social media is enough…)

15. Lessons learned: The generation gap
• In-between state: old ways of doing things no longer
really work, new ways haven’t taken hold yet
• Our generation has new ideas, technologies, habits,
tools for change
• But the older generation is still in charge
• Don’t expect older people to get it right away; they
remember the world as it was and often deal today
with yesterday’s issues