After a year of bickering over the government’s plan to build the nation’s first pop music center in Kaohsiung Harbor, supporters of the project and protesters yesterday reached a consensus to relocate the site for the project.
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), who had been trumpeting the need to stick to the city government’s plan to build the center on piers 16 and 17, made a compromise and accepted the Cabinet’s offer to select piers 11 to 15 as the location for the center.
“I once insisted on my ideal, but I am willing to compromise,” she said, adding that she made the decision reluctantly.
Different government branches and civic groups had argued over the location for the NT$4 billion (US$131 million) project since former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) officially announced pier 16 and 17 as the site at a ceremony on June 16 last year.
Maritime groups and labor unions were opposed to the project, saying they did not understand why the Cabinet wanted to use two functioning piers.
Chen Chu said yesterday that piers 16 and 17 were previously selected as the original location for the music venue, which will also be used to promote pop and youth culture, because the central harbor location would help boost the nation’s businesses, art and culture.
Chen Chu said she decided to compromise because she had Kaohsiung residents’ interests in mind.
This way, residents of the city would be able to enjoy an international pop music venue as soon as possible, she said.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
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