Something fishy is going on in Taipei’s Shida area. A large number of restaurants and entertainment establishments in the area have either been closed down recently by the government, or are coming under increased pressure to shutter their businesses. Government inspectors are using legalities which have not been enforced for the more than two decades that many of the restaurants have been established in the area in order to force them out of business.
The main story used by government inspectors to force restaurant closures in Shida is that the businesses were established on alleyways less than 6m across, which is against the law. They also say that residents have complained about the excessive noise and greasy smoke from restaurants and patrons.
However, why only Shida, and why now? Many Shida restaurant owners say they want the Taipei City Government, which has heavily promoted the area as a tourist site, to give them more time to move, but the city wants them closed now. Why such a hurry? In the short span of about six months, dozens of restaurants have been boarded up. Grandma Nitty’s, which has been open for almost two decades in Shida, is being forced out of the neighborhood. However, the strange thing is, if Grandma Nitty’s — which has been slinging premium Western food long before it was available in most Taipei neighborhoods — was opened illegally, why only enforce the law now, and why with so much haste?
Another major establishment to bite the dust is Underworld, the hub of Taipei’s indie rock music scene for years. Although the music venue has had its run-ins with inspectors in the past, it addressed those concerns long ago in a bid to remain open, and it is not on an alleyway that is less than 6m across. So what is the deal?
The shopping, food and entertainment area that grew up around Shida Road, fed by the six universities and 60,000 students operating within 2km of it, is the livelihood of hundreds, if not thousands, of people. Destroying it is a decision that should not be taken lightly, if at all. However, that is precisely what is happening.
Saying these restaurants illegally opened up in narrow alleys is dubious at best, because just about every narrow alley in Taipei has businesses in them. Why not close the businesses along Yongkang Street and all the alleyways nearby? Why not close those in Gongguang, or in and around Tonghua Street? The whole of Xinyi and Daan districts are flush with businesses, in and out of the alleys. They make noise, they produce stinky wafts; why not close them too?
No, there is something more to it than just protecting residents’ rights — there is something related to money, and those who controls it are shaping this entire controversy.
The Shida area is in one of the most central parts of the city, with tens of thousands of young shoppers tantalizingly close at all times. The Shida area is a prize for any business conglomerate that can take it over and wrest control from the hands of small shop owners.
Development fever is taking over Shida and those businesses that have been established there for years are the victims. They are going to be run out and many of their owners are going to be ruined, especially those that poured everything they have into their shops. In the end, when everything is closed, there will be little or no resistance to large development projects — malls, luxury apartments, franchises and chain stores.
Shida will become like many other high-turnover business areas — soulless.
Hopefully those young shoppers, business owners, musicians, artists and interesting people who have made Shida what is, will soon find somewhere else they can call home.
In the event of a war with China, Taiwan has some surprisingly tough defenses that could make it as difficult to tackle as a porcupine: A shoreline dotted with swamps, rocks and concrete barriers; conscription for all adult men; highways and airports that are built to double as hardened combat facilities. This porcupine has a soft underbelly, though, and the war in Iran is exposing it: energy. About 39,000 ships dock at Taiwan’s ports each year, more than the 30,000 that transit the Strait of Hormuz. About one-fifth of their inbound tonnage is coal, oil, refined fuels and liquefied natural gas (LNG),
To counter the CCP’s escalating threats, Taiwan must build a national consensus and demonstrate the capability and the will to fight. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) often leans on a seductive mantra to soften its threats, such as “Chinese do not kill Chinese.” The slogan is designed to frame territorial conquest (annexation) as a domestic family matter. A look at the historical ledger reveals a different truth. For the CCP, being labeled “family” has never been a guarantee of safety; it has been the primary prerequisite for state-sanctioned slaughter. From the forced starvation of 150,000 civilians at the Siege of Changchun
The two major opposition parties, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), jointly announced on Tuesday last week that former TPP lawmaker Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) would be their joint candidate for Chiayi mayor, following polling conducted earlier this month. It is the first case of blue-white (KMT-TPP) cooperation in selecting a joint candidate under an agreement signed by their chairpersons last month. KMT and TPP supporters have blamed their 2024 presidential election loss on failing to decide on a joint candidate, which ended in a dramatic breakdown with participants pointing fingers, calling polls unfair, sobbing and walking
In the opening remarks of her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) framed her visit as a historic occasion. In his own remarks, Xi had also emphasized the history of the relationship between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Where they differed was that Cheng’s account, while flawed by its omissions, at least partially corresponded to reality. The meeting was certainly historic, albeit not in the way that Cheng and Xi were signaling, and not from the perspective
RSS