Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday named real-estate expert Chang Chin-oh (張金鶚) as the city’s new deputy mayor, saying that Chang is well equipped to lead efforts to resolve the deadlock on the Wenlin Yuan (文林苑) urban renewal project in Shilin District (士林) and facilitate overall urban development.
Chang, 60, will on April 1 assume the post left vacant by Executive Yuan Secretary-General Chen Wei-zen (陳威仁) last month.
As a land economics professor at National Chengchi University and outspoken critic of the skyrocketing prices in the real-estate market, Chang also drew the attention of the pan-green camp, which enlisted him to help draft a white paper on housing policy for Democratic Progressive Party Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) when Su ran for Taipei mayor in 2010.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Chang yesterday promised to address the issue of housing prices and promote urban development.
“Taipei will not move forward if it does not continue to carry out urban development projects. However, the Wenlin Yuan case has sparked some concern about urban renewal, so my priority is to resolve these concerns and restart the city’s urban renewal,” he said.
The Wenlin Yuan project involves the demolition of decades-old apartment buildings to make way for a high-rise luxury apartment complex.
While the majority of the neighborhood’s residents — 36 households — agreed to the project, one of the households, the Wang (王) family, which owned two townhouses, refused to give up their properties.
The city government forcefully tore down the houses in March last year, sparking an ongoing protest from the family and their supporters. No consensus has yet been reached between the developer, the Wang family and the residents of the 36 other households.
Chang served on the Taipei urban renewal advisory panel that last year studied urban renewal regulations and mechanisms in a failed attempt to resolve the standoff. Yesterday, he proposed solving the issue by providing a negotiation platform by mediated civic groups.
Hau yesterday expressed confidence that he and Chang would find a solution to the stalled project, adding that he would arrange meetings between the concerned parties within the next two weeks.
Hau also said he expected the new deputy mayor would be able to put his real-estate expertise to good use in pushing forward other public housing projects and urban renewal developments to provide residents with affordable housing, a priority of the Taipei City Government.
“The housing market in Taipei is overpriced and living in the city is becoming increasingly harder for younger residents. We hope that having Chang on board will help us tackle issues of housing justice and urban renewal,” Hau said.
Although he promised to address the Wenlin Yuan project, Chang said he is not aiming to become known as the “Wenlin Yuan deputy mayor.” He pledged to focus on a range of issues, such as the overpriced real-estate market, by setting up channels of dialogue to make house prices transparent to Taipei residents.
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
WARFARE: All sectors of society should recognize, unite, and collectively resist and condemn Beijing’s cross-border suppression, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said The number of Taiwanese detained because of legal affairs by Chinese authorities has tripled this year, as Beijing intensified its intimidation and division of Taiwanese by combining lawfare and cognitive warfare, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the statement in response to questions by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈柏洋) about the government’s response to counter Chinese public opinion warfare, lawfare and psychological warfare. Shen said he is also being investigated by China for promoting “Taiwanese independence.” He was referring to a report published on Tuesday last week by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency,
‘ADDITIONAL CONDITION’: Taiwan will work with like-minded countries to protect its right to participate in next year’s meeting, the foreign ministry said The US will “continue to press China for security arrangements and protocols that safeguard all participants when attending APEC meetings in China,” a US Department of State spokesperson said yesterday, after Beijing suggested that members must adhere to its “one China principle” to participate. “The United States insists on the full and equal participation of all APEC member economies — including Taiwan — consistent with APEC’s guidelines, rules and established practice, as affirmed by China in its offer to host in 2026,” the unnamed spokesperson said in response to media queries about China putting a “one China” principle condition on Taiwan’s
RSS