what does mixed city really mean?

jaffa is considered to be a "mixed city" and statistically it is just that. of its roughly 50,000 citzens, 20,000 are arab and 30,000 are jewish. it is divided into neighborhoods, most of which have a more arab or jewish character, but they are somewhat interspersed. however, its not quite ready to be a poster-city for coexistence.

for example, a conversation i had with a landlady yesterday (roughly translated from my broken hebrew):

"hi, i'm responding to the ad about the apartment, can i come look at it today?"
"sure, actually i have two apartments you can see. but there are arabs in the building."
"ok."
"that doesn't bother you?"

i arrived at the building to find a sign posted on the front door that rat poison had been used on the premises. rats and their poison (as well as the near-condemned condition of the building) do happen to bother me and had she mentioned that on the phone i might have declined to see the place.

her attitude came in sharp contrast to the optimistic and inspiring sadaka reut annual report, which describes numerous successes of joint arab-jewish youth groups participating in community service projects. so im reminded that there is a long way to go, even in this so-called "mixed" city.