Accompanied by supporters from across the country, the Wang (王) family from Taipei’s Shihlin District (士林) yesterday protested the city government’s deadline of Sunday for the family to raze its home to make way for a urban renewal project, calling the city government action illegal and unconstitutional.
“Over the past few years, we’ve had countless negotiations with the Taipei City Government, but it has not once been able to tell us what public interest is involved in the urban renewal case that concerns our family,” Wang Yao-teh (王耀德) told a news conference.
“Apparently, the government is working to defend the interests of the construction firm, not us ordinary citizens — unless the city government can tell us what the public interest of the project is, our struggle will continue,” he added.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The Wang family lives in a -decades-old two-story building that it built on a plot of land it owns in a block along Wenlin Road (文林路) in Shilin, next to Wenlin Bridge.
The block where the Wang Family House was located was chosen by Le Young, a construction company, to build a 15-story high-rise apartment building as an urban renewal project.
Although the family has refused to give up its land, the construction firm has already received the consent of more than 75 percent of the landowners on the block, and according to the Urban Renewal Act (都市更新條例), the firm can now ask the city government to help it evict the Wangs and demolish their home.
The city government set Thursday last week as the deadline for the family to demolish the buildings, adding that failure to do so would force the city government to take action itself.
“Article 1 of the Urban Renewal Act states that urban renewal projects are meant to promote the planned redevelopment of land and revitalize urban areas for the purpose of enhancing the public interest,” said Chen Hung-ying (陳虹穎), a member of the Taiwan Alliance for the Victims of Urban Renewal.
“However, in this case, we do not see how allowing a construction firm to tear down houses already in existence and build a high-rise apartment building constitutes a public good,” Chen added.
“The government should not be hired thugs for construction firms, the law needs to be revised,” Chen added. “What is happening to the Wangs is not an isolated case. If we allow such a terrible law to exist without revision, any one of us could be its next victims.”
Activists also questioned the legality of the city government’s decision, because the Fire Services Act (消防法) stipulates that buildings over five stories tall can only be built on a street that is at least 4m in width to provide access to fire fighters, but the street in front of the planned construction site is less than 4m in width.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) said the Ministry of the Interior’s Construction and Planning Agency (CPA) has informed the Taipei City Government via an official letter that, according inspections of the area conducted by the agency, there could be genuine fire safety concerns regarding the -construction site because of the narrowness of the of streets surrounding it.
“The city government should not ignore the opinions of a central government agency,” she said, showing a copy of the letter.
However, a CPA official, who attended the press conference, said that the final say on the case belongs to the local government.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS