Chang Lu-wen (
He said his reasons are simple: half of the route would cover his borough -- which houses half of the district's hot spring hotels and eight of the district's 11 historic sites.
"We don't need to boost the economy here because it's already a prosperous place," he said. "What's wrong with keeping it the way it is, as a residential area?"
Robust rebuttal from the city
Although the city has shown sincerity in tackling the concerns of opponents of the project, said Hsu Cheng-ping (許正平), planning chief of the city's Bureau of Public Works, he said he is fed up with the constant whining from protagonists.
"They're rejecting something just because they have an opportunity to do so," he said. "They're so conservative that they think no development is the best development."
The opposing forces are not as strong as they seem, he said.
"I would like to make one thing clear here: most people have the impression that the majority of people are opposed to the idea, but it's not true. The reason is that those who approve of the idea don't feel the need to have their voices heard," he said.
To prove it, Hsu said 39 out of the district's 40 borough wardens approve of the project. In addition, three surveys administered by the bureau have shown that about 60 to 80 percent of local residents favor the project.
"We've been very flexible in terms of making adjustments to the plan," he said, adding that they have reduced the number of houses which would need to be demolished from 60 to 30, and moved the starting point, originally set at Chinshui Park, to the skating rink which is 100m west of the park.
As for the expensive fares, Hsu said, [the current prices] are just for the sake of reference.
"Everything is negotiable," he said. "We're just setting the ceiling for future contractors."
Hsu explained why the project does not require an environmental impact assessment, something that cultural workers have fiercely criticized.
"The Environmental Impact Assessment Law stipulates that no assessment is needed if the development area of a project is less than 4 hectares and the amount of soil dug up is less than 10,000m2," he said.
The project covers an area of 2.4 hectares and the amount of soil that would be have to be dug up is estimated at 5,000m2.
Hsu said that he personally does not care whether or not the cable car system is built.
"As a civil servant, I do what my superior tells me to do. It doesn't really matter to me whether the project is eventually realized. I won't get paid less for that, but the way that opponents are making waves really upsets me," he said.
RSS