Bat Yam, Israel

Bat Yam is a city located on Israel's Mediterranean Sea coast, on the central coastal strip, just south of Tel Aviv. Part of the Gush Dan metropolitan area, in the Tel Aviv District, the city is home to 129,100 people. Bat Yam was established in 1926 as Bayit VaGan and was geared toward Orthodox Jews. During the 1929 Palestine riots, Bayit VaGan came under attacks by Arab gangs from neighbouring Jaffa and was evacuated by British Authorities before being reestablished in 1930. In 1936 the town was given the status of local council, and in 1938, the name of the town was changed to Bat Yam. Bat Yam once again experienced a period of rapid growth early 1990s with the mass-immigration from the former Soviet Union leading to many choosing Bat Yam as their new home due to its proximity to the industrial centres of the country, and relatively low real estate prices. The influx of Russians, however, did nothing to help the city's socio-economic crisis, and by the early 2000s, following financial scandals resulting from the declining local leadership, the city was placed at the brink of bankruptcy. Bat Yam became synonymous with urban decay, with a reputation for having waste left in streets, and poor sanitation.In 2003 a new mayor, Shlomo Lahiani, was elected and the city began to rejuvenate, with some areas having already been transformed. There remain to this day, however, some zones of the city which still suffer from the issues which plagued the whole of this city just a few years ago. Bat Yam started to lose its image of the "poor suburb", thanks to large investments in education, culture and the appearance of the city. In 2008 the Bat-Yam International Biennale of Landscape Urbanism was held for the first time. A small Hasidic enclave of Bobover Hasidim, known as Kiryat Bobov, was also established in Bat Yam. Margarita Lautin, 31 of Yehud was killed accidentally in a botched assassination attempt by the Abergil Crime Family while strolling on the Bat Yam beach with her husband Alexander and two children. Shlomo Lahiani was re-elected as the mayor of Bat Yam in the municipal elections of November 11, 2008. He won 86 per cent of the votes, which, according to Israeli media, is a result unprecedented in a big city.