Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday voted on 26 draft policies that Taipei residents proposed for Daan District (大安), which are to be put to a plebiscite via the city’s i-Voting online platform as part of “participatory budgeting” project.
The policies — which were proposed by residents who graduated from i-Voting classes offered by the city government — ranged from tourism, welfare packages for elderly people, parking and child safety to environmental protection.
A policy proposed by a woman named Chang Tzu-ning (張孜寧) aims to revitalize vacant houses by asking the city government to lease them to the homeless, elderly and people with meager salaries before putting them on the rental market.
Chang said that many landlords are reluctant to rent properties to old people.
She said she lives in Wanhua District (萬華), where homeless people abound, but she made the proposal for Daan, as housing is a citywide problem.
A policy drafted by a resident named Tsai Yi-shan (蔡宜珊) calls for more public daycare centers to encourage people to have babies.
The high costs of raising children discourages Taipei couples from having children, which exacerbates the nation’s low birth rate, she said.
After being briefed on the draft policies, Ko voted for 16 that he said he was most satisfied with.
“The government’s policymaking should be open and transparent. It should encourage public participation. These are my central beliefs,” Ko said.
“Participatory budgeting is a policy based solely on residents’ proposals, with its premise being that residents are the ones who know their communities best,” he said. “By asking residents to indicate their needs and having the government respond, direct democracy can be realized.”
The polls opened last week and run until 5pm on Wednesday next week. Taipei residents aged 18 or older can vote on the event’s Web site: https://ivoting.taipei.
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