Jerusalem of (foreign) gold: Entrepreneurship and pattern-driven policy in a historic city

This article examines the relationship between recent luxury residences built in Jerusalem and the citys fragile urban fabric regarding the extent to which government affects the form of such projects in practice. It highlights the establishment of a pattern-driven policy - a form of policy resulting from the entrenchment of specific solutions. The research addresses two seemingly unrelated spheres, namely urban regime and planning gains, and urban design, as embodied in Jerusalems "ghost complexes". Based on the Jerusalem case, we depict the practicability of the planning deal between the municipality and the entrepreneur as the driving force shaping the built environment under the neo-liberal rationale that controls negotiations between the municipality and the developers. Relations between local government and developers may develop in a pattern-driven path; hence, specific solutions may become entrenched and affect the nature of understandings or agreements, thereby continuously affecting the cityscape.