Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) mayoral candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday envisioned a future Sinbei City filled with parks, activity centers and bicycling paths.
As part of her promise to greenify the city of 3.9 million, she pledged to build four new parks covering more than 100 hectares if elected in November.
“Sinbei City already has the nation’s most complete bicycle path system and sports recreation park — couple that with its innate natural gifts … and it’s the best place to increase leisure and sports development,” she said.
For one of the proposed parks, she plans to take an abandoned armory in Tucheng (土城) and convert it into a 44-hectare ecological park. She is also planning similar initiatives for Banciao (板橋), Jhonghe (中和) and Yonghe (永和).
Tsai said the proposal would help the city attract more international events, including bicycling competitions, marathons and triathlons.
Tsai, who doubles as DPP chair, added she would also push for the creation of a sports complex for every 300,000 residents and the rezoning of more land for neighborhood parks, prioritizing those in high-density areas.
Her election opponent, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫), did not comment on Tsai’s park policy yesterday. His campaign instead continued to press its attack over the recent MRT controversy.
Responding to the latest allegations that Chu had rejected applications for three MRT lines during his tenure as vice premier, Chu’s campaign spokesperson Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) said Tsai should produce evidence to support her claim within three days or publicly apologize, adding that Chu had not ruled out filing a lawsuit against Tsai.
Supporting Chu’s remarks, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications issued a statement last night that said the Taipei City Government did not submit the MRT projects to the ministry when Chu was vice premier — from Sept. 10 last year to May 17 this year — and “thus, Chu did not reject any of these projects.”
Additional reporting by Shelley Shan
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