The Taipei City Government should issue more public funds to help cover the cost of community events, several borough wardens said yesterday in response to Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) suggestion that they hold more activities to help mentally unstable or reclusive residents fit into society.
“I have a lot of ideas and I am willing to cooperate with the mayor, but where does the money come from?” Zhengshou Borough (正守) Warden Lin Ju-hsuan (林洳萱) said.
Lin said that the funds granted to her borough are limited to the “basics,” and that she sometimes has to use her own money to cover some of the costs of community trips she organizes.
Lin said that larger events that require stages and sound equipment to be set up can cost tens of thousands of New Taiwan dollars.
The Daan District (大安) Office’s Civil Affairs Division said the city government allocates NT$60,000 (US$1,849.45) each year for wardens to hold events, in addition to a NT$300,000 “borough and community development fund” which wardens can use to hold special events on holidays, such as on Mother’s Day and the Double Ninth Festival.
Some boroughs also receive an annual payment — ranging from several hundred thousand to several million New Taiwan dollars — for their less-than-desirable locations, such as those near airports, wastewater treatment plants or incineration plants, the office said.
The Taipei Department of Environmental Protection said it also issues a monetary “recycling reward” to boroughs, adding that events held using the reward money must promote environmental conservation.
Lin said that she was neutral over Ko’s remark, but added that the suggestion was “a bit strange.”
“In order to design activities that would draw out ‘eccentrics,’ does that mean I need to first become an eccentric, too?” she said.
Dahu Borough (大湖) Warden Hung Mei-hui (洪美惠) said that last year her borough received about NT$680,000, with which she held 15 events.
Hung said that she has made an effort to hold a wide variety of events, which would attract the interest of different groups.
Hung panned Ko’s remark that wardens should hold more events by “making better use of their funds,” saying that Ko has taken wardens’ jobs for granted.
In reference to Ko giving away 3,000 “buzz backpacks” on Double Ten National Day last year, Hung said: “Why does the mayor not share some of his budget with us?”
Dunhuang Borough (敦煌) Warden Fu Chi-tien (傅吉田) said he arranges large events in a community park on five holidays every year, but that the events are not targeted at certain groups of people.
Meanwhile, a city government plan to flatten the Chientan Youth Activity Center (劍潭青年活動中心) in Shilin District (士林) and turn it into a wetland triggered a protest from Mingsheng Bourough (明勝) Warden Chang Yung-tung (張永棟).
“I don’t mind if the city government takes back the plot of land, but there are many other choices for its future, such as a library or a parking lot,” Chang said. “A wetland is not what we want.”
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