A survey released by the Taipei City Government showed that Taipei residents love the city for its convenient public transportation system, high-quality medical services and its variety of food, although major projects such as road resurfacing and public housing garnered low support.
The survey was conducted by Taipei’s Research, Development and Evaluation Commission in October and showed that of the 1,382 Taipei residents polled, 83 percent said they love living in the capital, while 11 percent said they did not.
Of those who said they love the city, 95 percent cited convenient transportation as a primary reason, while 83 percent lauded the city’s high-quality medical service. Multiple educational facilities, a wide variety of food and an abundance of recreational facilities were also listed as top advantages of life in Taipei.
The MRT system topped the list of respondents’ favorite city infrastructure with an 87 percent approval rate, followed by district sports centers, the 1999 Citizen Hotline and Taipei’s bicycle policy.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) campaign platform, which included a road-smoothing project, the 2017 Summer Universiade and public housing unit construction, are the three least-favorite Taipei projects and received approval from just 28 percent, 27 percent and 26 percent of respondents respectively, the survey showed.
Taipei deputy commissioner Huang Ming-tsai (黃銘材) yesterday said the survey sought to look at the city from a positive perspective and dismissed concerns about the lack of follow-up questions exploring the reasons why 11 percent of those polled said they do not like living in the city.
“There has been too much negative coverage of Taipei’s problems and people tend to ignore the city’s attractiveness … If Taipei is such a bad place, why would so many people choose to live there?” he said.
Taipei Deputy Mayor Timothy Ting (丁庭宇) said the city conducts regular polls to gauge public reactions to major city projects and the latest survey focused on positive perspectives of the city amid city government efforts to increase Taipei’s international competitiveness.
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