Renewing urban renewal
The main flaw in Taiwan’s urban renewal is its narrow definition, a political culture that values innovation and speed, and the urban regeneration bottleneck created by the lack of a sustainable strategy for comprehensive urban development.
The government continues to believe that the heart of the problem is insufficient incentive and resources or incomplete legal procedures, when it is common knowledge that our urban renewal is a half-baked project consisting of good intentions without an attempt to gain in-depth understanding.
The definition of urban renewal in the Urban Renewal Act (都市更新條例) only focuses on construction and development, and places undue stress on the legal procedures pertaining to urban renewal. This creates implementation limitations and biases, and has caused urban renewal in Taiwan to be limited to rebuilding, restoring and maintaining buildings.
The result is a new model of urban renewal directed by real-estate development.
This kind of urban renewal prioritizes cost and prices over value, and housing and land prices decide whether you will be able to participate in the urban renewal game. Accumulated values are simplified into dollars and cents. The answer to the question: “How much can I make in return?” becomes key to deciding whether or not a project will go ahead.
There is a contradiction in the government’s implementation of urban renewal. On one hand, as a result of the pressure on popularly elected politicians and public servants to achieve results, the government tries to attract investment in urban renewal by offering floor space and tax reductions or exemptions, while on the other hand it wants to avoid accusations of influence-peddling or ignoring public interests, and therefore relies on a committee review system to regulate the process and demonstrate impartiality.
However, due to a lack of overall planning and policy guidance, this carrot-and-stick approach is reduced to a mere formality in which one restrains the other, which results in lower efficiency and diminished results.
The Presidential Office and the Cabinet recently decided to stimulate domestic demand by renewing old residential buildings. This policy seems to kill two birds with one stone, but it fails to eliminate the idea that real-estate development should take the lead in urban renewal. Although it might be a way to stimulate and drive the economy and environmental renewal, it is more likely that it will be a short-lived empty policy.
As a result of the mistaken idea that urban renewal will allow landowners to obtain housing without making any investment and former local government slogans, the prevailing view was that urban renewal was the way to vitalize development and capital. As urban renewal was hijacked by market forces, it turned into a game manipulated by capitalists who ignored the overall development of cities and society at large.
Urban renewal is not only about amending the law to speed up the process and increase incentives.
It is more important to first define what sustainable urban renewal really means.
Only by starting from fundamental sustainable development values will it be possible to avoid once again being trapped by a focus on cost and prices over value.
Fang Tuo-ma
New Taipei City
Plebiscite for big changes
Such a momentous change to social law as legalizing same-sex marriage should only be made through a plebiscite. Any other process lends itself to the charge that the electorate was duped by an activist minority.
For instance, how many, if any, of the Legislative Yuan, went to the last election with same sex-marriage as their main policy? I would venture that the answer is none.
That being the case, it would be a gross misuse of legislative power for same-sex marriage to be foisted upon an unsuspecting public and would leave the Legislative Yuan open to criticism in perpetuity.
A plebiscite is the democratic and proper way to proceed.
Gavan Duffy
Australia
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