Amid an ongoing dispute over the legitimacy of vendors operating in Taipei’s Shida Night Market, a local residents’ self-help association yesterday dismissed the vendors’ latest pledge to maintain a clean environment, insisting that their demand for illegal businesses to leave the neighborhood remained unchanged.
More than 400 vendors in the night market recently signed a joint pledge of self-restraint to reduce air and noise pollution, and presented the pledge to the Taipei City Government yesterday.
In the pledge, vendors promised to move closing hours to 11pm, take responsibility for cleaning up the roads and collecting garbage after closing the stores, keeping the music and their voices down and installing more facilities to prevent air pollution.
Photo: Tsai Wei-chi, Taipei Times
However, the vendors’ latest efforts to keep their businesses from being shut down amid a recent crackdown on illegal businesses in the night market did not receive a positive response from local residents.
“Those vendors have been ignoring the law by operating illegally in the area and they are in no position to sign any pledges. Our demand that illegal businesses leave the neighborhood will not change,” association director Liu Chen-wei (劉振偉) said.
Liu also dismissed the city government’s issuing of questionnaires to neighborhood residents to seek their opinion on dealing with the vendors and urged the city not to side with the vendors.
Taipei City Government spokesman Chang Chi-chiang (張其強) said the city’s goal of maintaining a safe and quiet environment for residents remained and while the vendors’ pledge to maintain a clean and quiet environment was welcomed, it would not affect the city’s plan in handling the issue.
“We will continue to demand area vendors follow the regulations, and the city government will hold more public hearings with vendors and residents. Hopefully they can reach a consensus,” Chang said.
Disputes over the night market began after Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) announced in November last year that expansion of the market would not be allowed following a growing number of complaints from residents about the garbage and noise produced by vendors and customers.
In addition to noise and air pollution, some vendors have also violated regulations, as their locations are classified as residential zones. According to the city’s land-use bylaws, roads less than 6m wide in residential zones cannot be used for commercial purposes.
UPGRADE: The Kang Ding-class frigate is replacing its Chaparall missiles with Tien Chien II and Hua Yang VLS, which would provide it with long-range, 360° air defense Taiwan plans to produce 1,200 to 1,376 Hai Chien II missiles (海劍二, Sea Sword II) — also known as TC-2N — to serve as the standard air defense system of the navy’s surface combatant fleet, a source said yesterday. Last week, the Hai Chien II, the naval version of the Tien Kung II missile (天劍二, Sky Sword II), completed a live-fire test in waters off the National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology’s Jiupeng facility (九鵬) in Pingtung County’s Manjhou Township (滿州). The MIM72 Chaparral and other dated air defense missiles that currently arm Taiwanese ships have inadequate range to combat Chinese
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, returned to Taiwan last night after being deported from the US. She is to stand trial in Taiwan for charges involving embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes. The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said it took her into custody at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and would first question her before transferring her to the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. She was arrested upon disembarking a flight from San Francisco that landed shortly before 7pm. Liou absconded to the US in 2019 after jumping bail
RSS