A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilor yesterday condemned the Taipei City Government for focusing its efforts on renovating the Bopiliao (剝皮寮) in Wanhua District (萬華) and ignoring adjacent areas.
The city government spent several million dollars last year renovating Bopiliao, an historical block located between Kanding Road, Guangzhou Street and Kunming Street in Wanhua. It became a popular attraction recently after the blockbuster gangster movie Monga (艋舺) featured the old block.
DPP Taipei City Councilor Liu Yao-ren (劉耀仁) yesterday accused the city government of devoting its budget to the renovation of Bopiliao while failing to maintain the nearby Xinfu Market (新富市場), a local market listed as a municipal monument by Taipei City’s Department of Cultural Affairs in 2006.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Several local residents also complained about the city government’s maintenance of the market, which is about 50m away from the Bopiliao.
“My house was crushed by an old tree next to the market. The city government spent all that money to improve Bopiliao and promote tourism, but who cares about our safety?” said Chu Yu-mei (朱玉梅), a local resident.
Liu said the department had neglected the market despite listing it as a municipal monument, and urged the city government to devote more effort to improving the area.
Liu De-chien (劉得堅), a division chief at the department, said the city government had completed its plans for the maintenance and renovation of municipal monuments, and renovation work on the market was scheduled to be completed next year.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
RSS