Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that the city government is open to criticism of its public housing plans after questions were raised over the possible negative impact a high concentration of planned public housing projects in Xinyi (信義) and Wenshan (文山) districts would have on traffic.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor William Hsu (徐弘庭) on Monday questioned Taipei Department of Urban Development Commissioner Lin Jou-min (林洲民) over the department’s choice of locations for nine public housing complexes, saying they did not conform to the transit-oriented development (TOD) model, which the department has said would be a priority in planning for the projects.
Under the model, public housings should not be within a 500m radius of any MRT station and a 300m radius of any bus station to reduce impacts on local traffic after residents move into the new buildings.
Lin told the Taipei City Council meeting that if a complex’s location met one of the two aforementioned requirements, it should be counted as having conformed to the model.
Hsu countered that if the planned MRT Southern Ring line is included, the locations of the nine housing complexes would not meet the model’s requirements, because they are all within 500m of MRT stations.
If the complexes should not be built within 300m of bus stops, all houses in Taipei, except those in Maokong (貓空) and on Yangmingshan, failed the requirement, he said.
The two continued their war of words late at night on Facebook after Lin, in an apparent move to defend himself, posted the department’s site plan, saying that the ring line had not been included in the TOD analysis and asking Hsu to “read, re-read and re-read again.”
Hsu replied with a snapshot of Ko’s presentation files on the housing complexes stating the opposite.
Hsu accused Lin of spreading false information and questioned his provocative move of posting on a city councilor’s Facebook page late at night.
He said that Ko should follow the example set by president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) when she asked gaffe-prone minister without portfolio-designate Chang Ching-sen (張景森) to deactivate his Facebook account, and ask Lin to deactivate his account too.
Asked by reporters to comment on Hsu’s suggestion, Ko said: “If he [Lin] dutifully carries out his job, I do not care if he drives a taxi at night or posts on Facebook.”
Ko said that the focus of criticism of the public housing has veered from the insufficient number of units set aside for the disadvantaged to its potential impact on transportation, and that the city government would remain open to criticism and revise its plans if necessary.
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