Ko Wen-je

Mayor Ko’s accomplishments:

  1. Get Farglory to concede and at least return to the safety standards in the contract.
  2. Reduced City Government’s debt by 30 Billion NTD. That translates to each Taipeiren see their share of the debt reduced from 50 thousand to 40 thousand NTD.
  3. Replaced all led water pipes in Taipei City.
  4. Taipeiren can participate in city budget review after training http://pb.taipei/
  5. Improved traffic with many measures, including removing unused bus lane, and stopping double parking.
  6. Improved public child care, from an online platform that allows parents to find sitters to public and community child care.
  7. Improved elderly care, especially for home care, and care for elderly who wish to pass away at home.
  8. Stepped up labor inspection
  9. Crack down on drugs.

Drugs confiscated during Mayor Hau’s tenure:
2013 - 152 KG
2014 - 144 KG

Drugs confiscated during Mayor Ko’s tenure:
2015 - 400 KG
2016 -

  1. Four main Public housing projects to be completed by 2018. One of them is already finished, and another one to be completed this year. The 4 projects will create 50,000 public housing, each one costing less than 7,000 per month.
  2. Finally Taipei Metro has an official App that’s working
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Wait, when did this happen? :slight_smile:

If you see illegal parking, call 1999 or use the 1999 website/app:

http://1999.taipei.gov.tw/
http://apps.taipei/AppContent.aspx?listid=divTaipeiApp&Contentid=com.taipei.tcg1999&lan=tw

Police will get on the case. After Ko took office, these illegal parking reports are dealt swiftly, and double parking reduced. It’s a part of Ko’s so called Traffic CPR initiative. Back when the system first went online, there were over 16 thousand cases in 10 days, earning the government at least 10 million NTD.

You may still see illegal parking on non-major roads, but from my personal experience, double parking went down along main roads.

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Can we make this the Mayor Ko appreciate thread?

https://www.ft.com/content/031106c0-a4f1-11e7-9e4f-7f5e6a7c98a2

The above is just kind of a quick summary of him, reelection for mayor next year and maybe a presidential candidate?

Some of the quotes are gold.

As a professor at medical school, I was a kind of god and now I’ve fallen from heaven

Without me, the mass media cannot work in the night, because every station is discussing Ko Wen-je

Trump: God Emperor
Ko: God Ambassador

I would give that a like if not for the spelling mistake in Discobot’s name.

Love Ko

Trapped behind a paywall. :wall:

This is really naïve and borderline laughable. He’s not the Messiah.

What right thing has he done exactly? I’m really curious because so far he’s done nothing but the same as all other scumbags politicians.

There’s that one small event that everyone thought he did a pretty good job at being head committee of, but we all know you’re the only one that didn’t think it was a big deal. So I’ll skip that bullet.

How about, the north gate? I know you’ll only shoot this point down, so I’ll wait for your reasons why instead of listing the good it’s brought. Go.

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I saw him talking yesterday in Nangang .

Interestingly he said the north gate took a longtime to achieve but is now showing a lot of progress. That really is concrete improvement in what was a sorely neglected area, a real eyesore.

He also said the Taipei city govt is going to refocus after the sports games, one of their big targets now is Nangang area redevelopment !
Kept repeating that Nangang is the key area for the North East.

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Wow you guys must have really lowered your standards on politicians. A gate is enough to impress you so much that you’d go as far as putting him on a pedestal.

What about the dom scandal? Have you guys forgotten about that? And do you people not remember the protest at the opening ceremony of Universiade? The security was a complete disaster.

I really don’t think he’s that much different from all the other nasty politicians you see here. He was an egotistical doctor who gave it a try. It’s been 3 years and I honestly haven’t observed any improvement. Apart from the north gate, that is.

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At risk of further derailing this thread, I will say that Taipei City’s ridiculous dome scandal is one that Dr Ko inherited–and was willing to call bullsh-t on and at least try to fight. After years and years of Ma and Hau as mayors (16 years total), it was I think important to have a new voice to speak the truth, at least as Dr Ko saw it. I am not claiming that this man is the best mayor of all time but he is far more candid in calling bullsh-t than perhaps any politician in Taiwan since Chen was mayor of Taipei in the 1990s.

Now if he could just fight to get some godd*amn trees planted in this town–instead of continuing to cut everything down–I’d be happy.

Guy

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Among his deeds, for example, there is the roof of Taipei Main Station. A project that had taken years due to corruption. he set the wheels in motion to get it finally done. It is one of the things I have heard him praised among the locals. That he is finally doing what needs to be done to get things done.

And he is through. Once the North Gate’s bridge was removed -efficiently, on schedule- then work started on removing the old bus station, which had been delayed also forever, and got on track to make it a park. This open space helps in appreciating the North Gate and opens up the city landscape.

You have next to it the new station complex, which is going to be a great addition. With this, Dihua Street, renovated with cafes and creative enterprises, is a stone’s throw away and touruists can go to the train museum, the postal museum, etc. The whole area is going to see a great tourism push. Most tourists from Korea or even Japan stay around Taipei Station area, and to have these amenities nearby helps reliving them from their hard earned money and into Taiwanese pockets in an enjoyable way for both.

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If removing a highway that blocked an important piece of Taipei history, which eventually lowered traffic, created some green areas in its place, revitalized it as a tourist destination AND allowed for bikes to cross that intersection low in_your_ standards.

Come on Debbie Downer, I would like to see what is considered high.

No one will forget that. But wait, I thought you didn’t care about Universiade and it wasn’t a big deal. If it wasn’t a big deal, then how can you consider it one of Ko’s successes? I’m confused.

Honestly, you probably haven’t observed any improvement because you only see the negative side of things and not the positive.

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The way he’s been managing Taipei has been stellar, and the fact that he’s been doing it with both political parties (one in particular) complaining about EVERYTHING because they’re jelly as fuck, is amazing.

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I like the bike lanes as well and his charging for parking in Taipei.

He isn’t perfect or amazing, but breaks the mould of Taiwanese politicians not doing ANYTHING. Gives you hope that this place won’t be permanently in stasis

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Yep _c6d4984d29d9baa9ca21d826800f3821

huh? Ko merely inherited the dome scandal. In fact, Ko is investigating and rectifying the effects of the dome scandal, he is not involved in the scandal.

You want to fault Mayor Ko for stopping the construction of the dome? He did it because alteration to the safety features of the dome was never approved by the city.

Mayor Ko also didn’t cause the protest at the opening of Universiade. If he is to be blamed for not doing enough to stop protesters, then perhaps the Ministry of Interior should share half of the blame, since the MOI technically runs the police.

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Ko could have easily have had the dome completed and then got out in time before any eventual disaster happened.

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