Taipei mulls a street makeover

Community bulletin boards stuffed with ads, roadside resource recycling containers made of different sizes and colors, roofed bus stops equipped with broken chairs. These are just some of the eyesores that detract from Taipei City's streetscape.

In a bid to beautify the city, the city's Bureau of Urban Development (都發局) yesterday proposed to the Taipei City Council's Public Works Committee the replacement of 2,235 streetside fixtures, which include roofed bus stops, public chairs, garbage bins, resource recycling containers, community bulletin boards, bicycle racks and billboards carrying travel and culture information.

The streetside fixtures are located on the city's 11 primary downtown roads.

A 15-year contract for the first stage of the two-phase, NT$510 million project is scheduled to be awarded in July.

Under the proposal, the contractor would be required to conduct safety checks and clean fixtures twice a week. It would also be required to replace fixtures and carry out maintenance orders within 48 hours after receiving an official notice to do so.

With limited space, the contractor would be allowed to post corporate advertisements on roofed bus stops, community bulletin boards and billboards. A contract would be subject to termination if the contractor failed to meet maintenance requirements.

Although all committee members agreed that the city's streets need improvement, they expressed various concerns, among them that the bureau should integrate opinions to come up with a more comprehensive plan within one month.

New Party City Councilor Lee Hsin (李新) said that it did not make sense to have only one contractor to handle the project.

"Think about it. It's a 15-year contract. That means a 15-year monopoly. We're tired of seeing contractors fail to honor their commitments after winning a contract. I'm afraid that it might happen here again," he said.

Lee's view was echoed by New Party City Councilor Lee Ching-yuan (李慶元).

"Take the bus stop project for example. Do we see the [present] contractor clean up the boards or update the information on the bus routes as required by the contract?" he asked.

"No, the most frequently updated information on the board are the ads," he said.

DPP City Councilor Ko Chin-sheng (柯景昇) proposed that two contractors should be appointed -- one for the northern parts of the city and one for the southern areas.

City resident Lo Shu-hui (羅淑惠) said that it would be a good idea to appoint 11 contractors, and that each should be responsible for just one of the city's 11 primary roads.

"More contractors will mean more creative ideas," said Lo, who was posting a room rental ad on the community bulletin board at Yitung Park in Chungshan District.

Eighty-six-year-old great grandmother Hsu Chin-feng (許金鳳), who was sunbathing in her wheelchair in the park, said that she approved of the city's efforts to beautify streets.

"We desperately need a beautiful and clean place to live. It's a lovely idea to have public facilities that conform to uniform standards," she said.