That is what residents of the Sing Sing are hoping to do in the foreseeable future.  The Eilat Sing Sing, that is:  Apartment blocs built in the general style, size, stairwell design, and - some might claim - living conditions of its namesake.  The buildings, 711 and 712, as well as the adjacent 713 and the ‘religious school', comprise a parcel that is candidate for a proposed government renovation project, ‘Pinui Binui'

The Sing Sing residents have spent years wondering when or if Pinui Binui will be implemented on their apartment blocs.  If it is, their cramped, deteriorating, smelly flats will all be torn down and replaced by new ‘luxury accommodation' apartment blocs half again the present size, all paid for by the authorities.  By gentrifying the Sing Sing, residents also hope that the rats, junkies, and other unwelcome co-tenants will choose other quarters.  City authorities hope it will make Sing Sing as good or even better than other projects built in the area in recent years so as to bring up the tone of the whole neighbourhood. 

Residents of the apartment bloc have mixed feelings.  Most welcome the idea of improvement on the small cramped flats (generally 50 m²) presently comprising the Sing Sing, but a few feel they will lose out by it and should not be forced to have changes made to their homes that they do not agree to.  Such opponents are mainly owners of ground-floor flats who are either families that enjoy the use of the gardens, or absentee landlords that have built additions (often illegally) to chop up into rental units.  Yet, due to the unpleasant conditions in that area, even some of the holdouts are changing their minds.

One such person that Eilat Today spoke with has been living for years in a ground floor flat that she owns, which includes a garden that she paid for and is part of her property.  Because she would lose her garden, even if her flat expanded from 55m² to over 75 m²  as per the plan, it was not a worthwhile deal for her because the garden had been a major consideration in the purchase.  She had preferred a small flat with a garden to a larger flat with none when deciding where to put down her money.  So no surprise that she didn't want to change her decision when Pinui-Binui came on the scene. 

However, due to the generally neglected state of the Sing Sing blocs and the fact that things are only getting worse as time goes on, she has come around to deciding that if the project will clean up the neighbourhood, she's all for it.  Being called by her son to come into the bathroom and find that neighbours' sewage has backed up the system and is flowing into her home; having litter, needles, and other ‘niceties' strewn everywhere on the estate; having unpleasant smells permeate into one's home constantly; having people use the stairwells as anything from a place to barbecue to a place to piss or to shoot up drugs; all this and more have made the coveted gardens fade into insignificance for some of the original opponents, if the quality of life in other ways will be brought up to par.

   The question will still remain, however, whether it's possible to bring the neighbours up to par.  Because the Sing Sing is basically what would be called Eilat's slum as it stands, most of it is rented out by absentee landlords to some of society's lower echelons.  This makes life an absolute misery for the residents who are normal upstanding citizens wishing to lead a regular life like everyone else.  These people, usually long-time residents who bought their homes in Sing Sing because of financial considerations and/or the fact that the estate was not as bad back in their day, are in a bind.  The insides of their individual homes might have been made into little jewels in the midst of a muck pile but, because of the setting, these jewels will find no buyers.  So their owners are trapped - and now hope very much that the Get Out of Jail Free card will be approved at all levels and the Pinui Binui project commence.

One such homeowner is Billie Ben Asher, married and mother of three, who has been living in Sing Sing for about the last eight years.  In just that time, less than a decade, her flat's value has decreased by over 50% due to its setting, in spite of the upkeep and care she and her family invest in their home.  Billie, too, was attracted by the garden that, although belonging to the building, she as ground floor resident would have the use of.  

What she didn't realise was that she'd be sharing her surroundings with rats, drug dealers, and open sewage.  Nor that, while she might not have sewage coming into her house like the other resident mentioned, no one promised her house wouldn't fall in to meet the sewage.  Incredible as it sounds, five years ago the floor in one bedroom collapsed into the open sewer because the pipes beneath it had completely disintegrated!  Who could ever imagine that the floor they stand on could fall down into what must have seemed the maw of hell?!  Something no home owner could have foreseen or prevented.

The fact that the pipes have corroded over the years is one reason that the apartment bloc must come down and be rebuilt from scratch, starting from the infrastructure.  Tenants have argued for balconies to be included in the plan, especially as no one will be given ground floor flats upon their return to the renovated structure.  These will apparently be retained to be sold, part of the complex that will contain 5 times the number of flats it presently comprises, thanks mainly to addition of the school lot.  Or else ground level will be used for parking, an issue that is still under negotiation, it appears, with an underground lot being a different alternative. 

Happily, Pinui Binui is arduously but steadily progressing through the necessary channels to bring it to realisation.  Over 80% of the residents have agreed to the project, meeting the minimum requirement as per a recent law change.  Although it's been discussed for nearly 20 years, there are signs of tangible progress as it receives approval from one government agency or another.  Having just had the Sing Sing ‘recommended' for the project by the Ministry of Housing, Israel Land Authority is apparently the next hurdle.  Meanwhile residents keep hoping their small children won't play with any more used needles found by the doorway, that rats won't have babies in their bedrooms or pop out of the toilet to say hello, and that they won't wake up to find themselves floating in subterranean sewage.