Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) yesterday proposed using the compound in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) that houses the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) to build public rental housing after the AIT relocates to Neihu District (內湖).
Addressing the housing needs of young people in the city, Lien said that, if he is elected, the 2.5 hectare compound would be designed to accommodate 2,000 studio apartments and a multifunctional community center that would provide babysitting and adult day care services.
The community facility would also feature an entrepreneurship center, equipped with high-tech factory equipment such as 3D printers and laser cutters, for young innovators to develop skills and knowledge central to developing an entrepreneurial culture, Lien said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The entrepreneurship center would benefit students of Taipei Municipal Daan Vocational High School, the Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei Private Yan Ping High School and National Taipei University of Technology, which are all close by, Lien said.
Lien’s campaign office named the proposal “Taipei’s little Soho (台北小蘇活).”
He expected that the “for-lease-only” public housing, targeted at young single people and families, could offer rent at about 70 percent of the market price, which falls between NT$18,000 (US$592) and NT$20,000 per month.
Lien disclosed the second part of his policy platform on housing issues yesterday, following the first part revealed in late August that he would relocate the Taipei City Mortuary Services First Funeral Parlor (第一殯儀館), in Datong District (大同), to the Shanzhuku Landfill Site (山豬窟垃圾掩埋場) in Nankang District (南港), and use the vacated land to host public housing.
The plan to convert the funeral parlor to public housing, dubbed by Lien’s campaign office as “The Little Palace for Young People (青年小帝寶),” analogous to the Palace, a luxury apartment complex on Renai Road, has become the object of ridicule, with many saying that no one would like to live in a former funeral parlor.
Lien appeared to backtrack from the plan yesterday, saying that he would not force it through if he fails to win support for the idea that the renewal project would promote community prosperity.
The AIT is expected to move to its new office in Neihu in the latter half of next year.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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