Despite spending NT$700 million (US$22.8 million) on the new Kuanghua Digital Plaza (光華數位新天地), the building does not meet safety standards and consumer needs, Democratic Progressive Party Taipei City Councilor Hsu Jia-ching (徐佳青) said yesterday.
The Kuanghua Digital Plaza opened three weeks ago, replacing Kuanghua Market (光華商場), which was torn down over safety concerns. But the new building also has several planning and safety deficiencies, Hsu said, adding that the building lacks proper safety installations.
“Fire extinguishers are haphazardly placed and sometimes even used as doorstops,” she said. “In the event of an emergency, without designated areas, people would not be able to locate a fire extinguisher.”
Also, unsupervised children could easily fall out of the building through the gaps in the safety railings, she said.
Hsu said the women’s bathroom needed some changes, as some stalls had windows looking out onto the street.
“These windows allow no privacy and may make female customers uncomfortable or unwilling to go to the restroom,” she said.
Taipei City Market Administration Office Division Chief Wang San-chung (王三中) said improvements were being made. He agreed that the situation with the women’s bathroom was something that needed to be dealt with and said it was an isolated problem. The cargo elevator alarm button previously did not sound when pressed, but that has now been fixed, he said, adding that many fire extinguishers were now also placed in designated areas.
In addition to the safety issues, Hsu said that although the first floor was designated as an exhibition area, vendors were still making transactions there.
“An exhibition is for brands to showcase their new products, not for sales,” she said.
Although at the time of the press conference temporary ATMs had been installed, Hsu said there previously had been none, adding that the ATMs were only located on certain floors. Instead, banks had set up areas for customers to open credit card accounts, she said.
“This will not help customers who need to withdraw money to make a purchase,” she said.
In response, Wang said that it takes six to eight months to arrange a contract with a bank to have an ATM installed. He said the office was working on the problems Hsu had identified.
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