As disputes over restaurants and entertainment establishments in Taipei’s Shida area continues, a group of vendors yesterday accused people protesting against businesses in the area of collaborating with construction companies and seeking to expel local businesses for redevelopment.
Hanging large yellow banners in front of restaurants or on building walls that read: “Legal operation runs against phony neighbors and real persecution” and “Stop urban renewal from destroying our homes,” local vendors said protests against local businesses in the neighborhood were initiated by construction companies and local residents taking part in urban renewal projects.
“Everyone in the area knows that there have been at least four construction firms planning urban renewal projects in the neighborhood … They are forcing us to leave, so that they can proceed with the projects,” an Indian restaurant owner surnamed Lee (李) said.
Photo: Weng Yu-huang, Taipei Times
Owner of local bar-restaurant Roxy Jr Cafe Ling Wei (凌威) said the Shidahood Association (師大三里里民自救會), a group formed by local residents in November last year to protest against businesses in the area, has refused to communicate with local businesses and adopted vicious measures to force shops and restaurants out of the area.
“As legal businesses in the neighborhood, we are supportive of plans to improve the living environment in the Shida area, but the group did not want any businesses here, leaving us with no option but to fight back,” he said.
While local vendors put up yellow banners to defend their legal operations, opponents of businesses in the area have continued to protest against what they called illegal operations with banners that read: “Local residents reject noise and air pollution.”
Shidahood Association chairman Jerry Liu (劉振偉) shrugged off the latest protest from local vendors and said the group did not target any specific businesses.
“All we want is a clean and quiet community with great living quality, and we did not adopt any vicious measures against local vendors. If they abided by local regulations and produced no noise or odors, the Taipei City Government would not be able to give them fines and expel them from the area,” he said.
Taipei City’s Urban Redevelopment Office yesterday said there was only one application for urban renewal in the Shida area, between Yunho Street and Shida Road, and the office has not approved the project yet, urging local residents and business owners to solve the disputes via rational discussion.
Disputes over the night market began after Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) announced in November last year that no further expansion of the market would be permitted, in response to growing complaints about trash and noise caused by vendors and visitors.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
RSS