In the face of the COVID-19 crisis, cities around the world are re-evaluating the importance of accessible green spaces for the benefit of public health and well-being. However, Taiwan’s success in containing the virus might impede opportunities to transform its cities into greener, healthier and more resilient places.
Urban vegetable gardens have been highlighted by community planners worldwide during this wave of the green-space movement. Such gardens help enhance food security and also mental health, which in turn fosters social resilience in local communities during lockdowns.
Since 2015, Taipei has run the “garden city” program, which allocates vacant land for use as green space. It could be viewed as a far-sighted policy. However, the city is about to enact a plan that runs counter to this visionary approach.
“Happiness Farm” in Songshan District’s (松山) Fujian Borough (復建) was created seven years ago on a vacant lot owned by the Ministry of National Defense. It has become popular among residents as a place not only to grow vegetables, but also to meet with neighbors and ease the symptoms of depression.
The Taipei City Government has repeatedly held up the garden as an example. Its popularity and success continue to attract visitors — even from aboard. However, residents have always been afraid of losing it.
The garden is located in the city center, and the land is worth NT$2 billion (US$67.5 million). For this reason, the garden’s design is quite simple, using mostly inexpensive and temporary materials. Borough Warden Lin Kun-xin (林坤信) said that the ministry, as the landlord, was not happy to see the garden’s success, as it makes it difficult for it to reclaim the land.
Earlier this month, the doomsday scenario arrived. Without prior consultation with the community, the ministry told Lin that the garden must be cleared within three months to make way for social housing to be built by the National Housing and Urban Regeneration Center.
It is understandable that the city needs more affordable housing, but the appropriateness of the location and the decisionmaking process matters. It seems that the ministry and the center have already made an agreement, so residents have no chance to voice their opinion on the matter.
As there is a relatively high rate of vacant housing in Wanhua (萬華) and Beitou (北投) districts, it would be more practical to reuse or refurbish vacant properties to provide affordable housing rather than further increase the density of buildings in the city center, where green spaces are already scarce.
Among the strengths of the garden city program are its robust public-private partnership and the active public participation in shaping policy. It would be a pity to undermine this with such an abrupt decision. After all, it is always easier to protect an existing green space than to reclaim it later, especially in a densely developed city such as Taipei.
While the pandemic has catalyzed urban redevelopment, Taiwan is still behind the curve on rethinking the need for food supply and contact with nature in urban communities. It is also a critical time to consider what communities really need and who can decide what they have in their immediate surroundings.
Shih Wan-yu is an associate professor in the Department of Urban Planning and Disaster Management at Ming Chuan University in Taipei.
China is the most populous country on the planet, with the second-largest economy and a growing military strength, all of which contribute to the perception that China is a challenger to the US for global leadership. After the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the return to power of the Taliban in August 2021, many assumed that China would seek to fill the ensuing power vacuum. However, that has not happened. China’s engagement with Afghanistan has essentially been driven by short-term and narrow considerations, rather than a well thought through plan. If China’s Afghanistan policy is anything to go by, it is clear that it
The defining issue of the coming year in Taiwan likely will be the upcoming presidential and legislative election. This election presents a competition of ideas about the future of Taiwan and the nature of its relations with the People’s Republic of China and other countries. Taiwan will once again have an opportunity to show the world the strength of its democratic system. The outcome of the election will turn on the strength of the candidates and their visions for the future. Even so, events outside of Taiwan also will inform the contest. Although there are a virtually limitless number of potential
A lawyer recently submitted a letter to a media outlet criticizing a proposed amendment to the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法), which the writer said would regulate how the state can intervene in the marriages and lifestyles of foreigners living in Taiwan. The lawyer said a clause that would be added to Article 24 would allow the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to revoke foreigners’ residence permits if it has sufficient evidence that they do not live with their dependent relative without justifiable reasons, or that statements they made or evidence found by the agency regarding their marriage are inconsistent. This view is
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) spoke with Czech president-elect Petr Pavel by telephone on Monday in what is being regarded as a diplomatic coup for Taipei. Taiwan and the Czech Republic do not have formal relations; dialogue between a president and a president-elect is therefore significant. That it happened at all inevitably led to comparisons with the Dec. 2, 2016, phone call between then-US president-elect Donald Trump and Tsai. At the time, many commentators assumed that Trump taking the congratulatory call was a stroke of luck for Tsai, and that he had accepted it either because of his political naivete and
RSS