Taipei's oldest food market at Jiancheng Circle was consigned to history on July 2. A massive reconstruction project to rebuild the market was undertaken after it was damaged by fire in February 1999, at a cost of as much as NT$200 million (US$6.18 million). The result was a cylindrical building of glass that had pretensions of becoming a local landmark -- but totally failed to meet practical needs.
If we examine the Taipei City Government's eight-year urban renewal plan -- from Lungshan Temple's withdrawal from an underground mall project to Shilin Night Market's poor performance since being relocated -- a great amount of government money has been spent without any result.
Taipei is inferior to major cities in neighboring countries in terms of traffic management, quality of goods, discounts for shopping and the degree of internationalization. The city government is obsessed with the number of visitors who arrive, and often ignores that a substantial improvement in tourism usually comes from an increase in the value offered to tourists. It has obliterated the humanity and history of the city, with officials only doing their development planning from inside their offices.
The hawker stalls that made up Jiancheng Circle are part of the city's history. Most of the vendors are still doing good business today in other locations nearby. Evidently, the market's poor performance was not caused by the vendors and consumers. Rather, it was the lack of parking, a poor design that had no clear lines of movement on the first two floors, as well as narrow seating areas and aisles.
Unfortunately, the city government has been unable to face the problems objectively, attempting to turn it into a promotion center for traditional food after all the food vendors left.
Food is a mixture of tradition, culture and even emotions. It cannot be replaced by festivals that look good in appearance only. Blaming the market's failure on the public is irresponsible and immoral. But worse is that the city councilors passed a huge budget and allowed the city government to ignore local residents' petition. They even claimed that the policy mistake was a result of people's outdated dining habits and different historical backgrounds. I strongly hope that the public can see through this political trickery and buck-passing.
We must demand that those councilors who claimed they were concerned about this issue take responsibility and review the failure of the market. They should not show concern only when elect-ions approach, or when vendors, housing prices and the public are already hurt. Such concern is as meaningless as the money wasted on rebuilding the market.
Lo Ying-wei is a project manager for the Taiwan Solidarity Union.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
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