The Taipei City Government on Tuesday said it would proceed to fine people living illegally in a commercial zone in the city’s Neihu District (內湖), despite protests supported by several city councilors. The move appears to be an attempt to appease commercial operators seeking to move into the area near Miramar Entertainment Park, which was designated a commercial zone in 2003.
Residents who moved into the area following the rezoning said at Tuesday’s hearing they had been unaware that it was illegal to live there and that they had been paying property taxes since moving in.
There is no question that the city government is within its rights to fine or evict the residents, but doing so is likely to do more harm than good.
There is arguably a better way for Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who has made housing issues a key part of his political platform, to appease the interests of developers as well as residents. After all, the residents went through proper channels to purchase their houses from developers, and the developers were granted permits by city officials.
If the residential buildings are demolished and replaced with businesses, it is questionable whether those would remain profitable, continue to operate in the area and pay property taxes to the city. Unlike Miramar, which is directly accessible by the city’s MRT system through Jiannan Road Station, the lots on Mingshui and Jingye roads where the residential buildings are located are far enough from the MRT system that they are less likely to draw foot traffic.
Traffic congestion in the area, which Comprehensive Planning Division head Huang Hui-ju (黃惠如) once attributed to mountains and the Keelung River limiting road construction, means that businesses in Neihu and northeastern Zhongshan District (中山) must be near the MRT system to thrive.
Conversely, if residents are permitted to stay, not only will they continue to pay property taxes, but they will also ensure a steady stream of patrons for already successful businesses in the area, such as Miramar.
A poll conducted two weeks ago by the Taiwan Competitiveness Forum showed Ko in the lead among candidates for next year’s Taipei mayoral elections. However, if Ko cannot maintain his popularity, his campaign might yet turn into an uphill battle, the forum said.
During his 2014 mayoral campaign, Ko pledged to build more than 20,000 public housing units within four years, and in the past few months he has pledged to make about 36,000 housing units in Taipei that have been vacant for more than a year available for public housing by offering incentives to landlords.
Two years ago, Ko complained of a lack of social housing in Taipei, saying that Seoul was doing a much better job.
Steep property prices and rents “are what young people living in Taipei loathe the most,” Ko said at the time, lambasting authorities for not doing more.
It seems counterintuitive for Ko to impose fines on or evict (indirectly through cutting off water and power supplies) 1,678 taxpaying residents who already have housing.
“Right now, the government only talks about resettlement, but not about how existing residency rights should be protected and whether people have just reasons for their demands,” Taiwan Association for Human Rights housing specialist Lin Yen-tung (林彥彤) said in October last year, criticizing the lack of a clear definition of housing rights in the law.
Ko is absolutely right that laws should not be applied selectively, but protecting the rights of some should not happen to the detriment of others. Finding a balanced solution that can address everyone’s needs would be in Ko’s best interest.
In an article published in Newsweek on Monday last week, President William Lai (賴清德) challenged China to retake territories it lost to Russia in the 19th century rather than invade Taiwan. “If it is really for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t China take back Russia?” Lai asked, referring to territories lost in 1858 and 1860. The territories once made up the two flanks of northern Manchuria. Once ceded to Russia, they became part of the Russian far east. Claims since then have been made that China and Russia settled the disputes in the 1990s through the 2000s and that “China
Trips to the Kenting Peninsula in Pingtung County have dredged up a lot of public debate and furor, with many complaints about how expensive and unreasonable lodging is. Some people even call it a tourist “butchering ground.” Many local business owners stake claims to beach areas by setting up parasols and driving away people who do not rent them. The managing authority for the area — Kenting National Park — has long ignored the issue. Ultimately, this has affected the willingness of domestic travelers to go there, causing tourist numbers to plummet. In 2008, Taiwan opened the door to Chinese tourists and in
On Tuesday, President William Lai (賴清德) met with a delegation from the Hoover Institution, a think tank based at Stanford University in California, to discuss strengthening US-Taiwan relations and enhancing peace and stability in the region. The delegation was led by James Ellis Jr, co-chair of the institution’s Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region project and former commander of the US Strategic Command. It also included former Australian minister for foreign affairs Marise Payne, influential US academics and other former policymakers. Think tank diplomacy is an important component of Taiwan’s efforts to maintain high-level dialogue with other nations with which it does
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je’s (柯文哲) arrest is a significant development. He could have become president or vice president on a shared TPP-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) ticket and could have stood again in 2028. If he is found guilty, there would be little chance of that, but what of his party? What about the third force in Taiwanese politics? What does this mean for the disenfranchised young people who he attracted, and what does it mean for his ambitious and ideologically fickle right-hand man, TPP caucus leader Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌)? Ko and Huang have been appealing to that
RSS