Wardens of boroughs near the legislature in Taipei’s Zhongzheng District (中正) are calling on Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) to address disturbances to local residents from ongoing protests.
The city should relocate the legislature or financially compensate residents if moving the offices is impossible, the wardens said.
Legislative Yuan Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉) suggested first collecting ideas from all those affected, but added that financial compensation would be difficult and “seem strange.”
Xingfu Borough (幸福) Warden Su Hung-jen (蘇宏仁), who has served the borough for 11 terms over 44 years, said he has seen the number of protests at the legislature grow over the past few years.
While residents respect the right of others to protest, they have seen their quality of life decline as protests grow longer and bigger, requiring a larger area to be blocked off, Su said.
“Every time an area is cordoned off, the phone rings off the hook,” Su said, adding that residents often find themselves unable to get in and out of their homes.
Others find themselves faced with the unexpected cost of taking taxis when they are unable to get their cars out of parkings due to barriers, he said.
Dongmen Borough (東門) Warden Lee Shih-tsung (李世宗) also complained of traffic disruptions and noise disturbance from protests, as well as residents’ fear that thieves will take advantage of the chaos during protests.
“The legislature has come to be the same as a funeral parlor or garbage incinerator: Nobody wants to live near it,” Lee said.
Taipei Department of Civil Affairs Director Lan Shih-tsung (藍世聰) said he would raise the issue with the legislature after the next Ministry of the Interior meeting.
Democratic Progressive Party caucus secretary-general Ho Hsin-chun (何欣純) echoed Lin’s sentiment that providing compensation for residents would be difficult, given that there is no legal precedent for such an arrangement.
Ho apologized to residents and store owners for the disturbances and suggested a meeting to discuss more “technical” ways of solving the issue.
Relocation has already been discussed for a long time, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) said, adding that there must be a consensus between the central and local governments before relocation would be possible.
There is no historical example of compensation being provided, Lee said, adding that Lin and Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) should meet to discuss options to reduce the toll of protests on residents.
New Power Party caucus convener Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said that protests clearly affect local businesses and residents, so the government should arrange compensation for those affected as the budget allows.
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
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
‘GROWING UP TOGETHER’: Jensen Huang celebrated the nation’s role in the formation of the tech firm at a Silicon Valley gathering, saying ‘Taiwan saved Nvidia’ Taiwan is in the center of the new artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) told a gathering with Taiwanese on Thursday in Silicon Valley’s largest city, San Jose. Tainan-born Huang said it must be celebrated that “Taiwan is right in the middle” of a new industrial revolution in which “something new is being made, and made in a new way.” Huang recalled the manufacturing process of the RIVA 128 graphics processing unit, Nvidia’s first commercial success, describing it as the “most complicated chip at the time.” As Nvidia did not have the budget, he wrote a letter to Taiwan