Tel Aviv mayor flaunts poetry skills
Ron Huldai responds in kind to resident’s plea in verse for a parking ticket to be canceled
Adiv Sterman is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai and a resident of the city, Kfir Metzuyanim, went head to head Tuesday in a Facebook poetry slam over Metzuyanim’s request that the city cancel his parking ticket.
Metzuyanim had received the ticket for a minor violation, an all-too-familiar phenomenon in the ever-crowded streets of the Big Orange, and was determined to get the ticket canceled and provide a bit of entertainment on the side. So, rather than simply pay the NIS 100 ($27) fine, Metzuyanim issued the Tel Aviv municipality a letter of complaint — in rhyming couplets.
Beginning with a colorful, albeit somewhat unrelated, description of the weather, Metzuyanim took to the Tel Aviv municipality’s facebook page and laid out the sequence of events that led to his receiving of the ticket on Monday afternoon.
I searched the sidewalks for a parking space /
And suddenly, within moments had found a place, Metzuyanim wrote.
Parking at the spot was allowed till five o’clock /
but it was 10 past the hour when I returned to that block!
Metzuyanim concluded with a plea for the fine to be waived, citing among other things his unique literary skills.
How many people, I ask, have written you verses this long? /
forget the hundred shekels, take the copyrights to this song! he wrote.
The first comment on Metzuyanim’s post came from none other than Mayor Huldai, who responded with a rhyming composition of his own.
Even if you’ve parked farther than you originally expected /
At the end of the day the law must be respected, wrote Huldai, who isn’t usually known as the hippest or most savvy of mayors. (It may have been one of his aides).
Despite the need to uphold the law, Huldai suggested that Metzuyanim appeal the ticket officially so that the municipality could review it.
The report number we will gladly accept /
and rethink your request from a fine to be exempt, he wrote.
As of this writing, it’s unclear whether Metzuyanim, who posted an excited status on his Facebook wall shortly after the mayor’s response, had followed Huldai’s advice or just decided to pay the fee.
The Times of Israel Community.