If the Taipei Dome “is not torn down, it means it will be built,” Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday in response to Minister of Culture Cheng Li-chiun’s (鄭麗君) request that the Taipei City Government clarify its stance on whether the project would be finished.
The project is a “historical glitch,” Ko said during a meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Thursday, adding that he did not select the Dome’s location and cannot easily decide to tear it down.
The city government needs help from the central government to solve public safety problems related to the site, he added.
Photo: Huang Chien-hao, Taipei Times
The structure has taken up so much space that there was no room left to build evacuation passages, Ko said, adding that an 80m-wide underpass connecting the Dome with the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall could serve as an evacuation tunnel.
He also suggested opening up a road between the Dome and the historical Taipei Railway Workshop for vehicle and crowd evacuation.
As the memorial hall and the workshop are both managed by the Ministry of Culture, Ko asked Tsai to help the city government solve the problem.
However, Ko over the weekend said that the ministry seemed to be obstructing progress.
The Taipei Department of Cultural Affairs in June designated the memorial hall and its plaza as a proposed historic monument, and the workshop is a national historic monument, so the plans might have to go through cultural heritage reviews, Cheng said yesterday.
The ministry wants to remind the city government that it should fully understand the situation and clarify its stance on whether the project would be continued, Cheng said, adding that the central and city governments need to discuss plans rationally so that they can cooperate.
Asked for comments, Ko said the Dome must be constructed safely, because it is impossible to continue building it while neglecting public safety issues.
The proposed evacuation passage must be constructed and the city government has already told the ministry about it in previous meetings, which can seen in the meeting records, Ko said.
Society needs more “problem solvers,” rather than people who only find and explain problems, he said.
The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July. The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas. The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) tendered his resignation last night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by media. His resignation was immediately accepted by the Control Yuan. In a statement explaining why he had resigned, Lee apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon on May 20. The issue first came to light late last month, when TVBS News reported that Lee had instructed his driver to take the dog to the salon. The news channel broadcast photos that it said were taken by an unnamed whistle-blower, which purportedly showed the
RSS