Lod, Israel – Detroit’s not the only place struggling with fleeing residents, ethnic tensions, a dodgy reputation and a legacy of political corruption. Nor is it the only city trying to come to terms with epic dysfunction. Welcome to Lod, a backwater hard by Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion Airport that “99.9 percent of the visitors who come to Israel would ever set foot in,” jokes Yuval Bdolah, 31, CEO of the ReLod Project that aims to reverse the trends weighing on a city that dates to ancient times. History and the famous Lod mosaic, dating to the third century, are no bulwarks against demographic change. As the 1980s brought suburban expansion to Israel’s metropolitan areas, places like Lod saw its...
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