Now my neighborhood is gone

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
21

Come and have a look and tell me they are widening the streets… Here, they are builing over existing structures which means they ocuppy previously built space. Maybe we’ll gain a few inches of sidewalk, but we’ll lose in services and actual space. Actually, the highrises contribute even more to the feeling of claustrophobia. At this pace, we’ll look like Hong Kong and the hills will no longer be visible.

One of the things that really mystifies me of the plan in my neighborhood is that they are actually adding more streets where the alleys already are. How are they gonna do that is a mystery to me, as they are adding more buildings, a hall square -like the one in your link, which is Sonjiang in Taipei City by the way- and hopefully keeping teh only small park we have - so far not adding any “green” space. In my book, this lessens quality of life.

The only advantage we had seen was their paving over the open sewer we have now. You may think that could widen the street and finally make it possible for a fire engine to come in in case of fire. Well, they have plans to make that a parking lot, which ads another problem: in the original plans, they had no place for parking. It is all supposed to be underground -yeah, right. Where will visitors go is still unanswered.

22

well at least they are getting rid of all the yucky old dirty concrete/bathroom tiled buildings in place of new ones.

23

Yep, on that we both agree: tiles are hideous. And dangerous: they have already started to fall in some places. Luckily, they are paper thin…

24

I think it’s good the old rotten concrete boxes are being torn down. Of course it would be nice to see a nice living environment being put in it’s place…but people’s expectations are not high here. The field of view is limited.

25

…which leads to so many kids with myopia. :laughing:

I’d wish the new places looked and felt nice. Alas, the last concrete beasties we had in the neighborhood, had plastic windows… :noway: :loco:

26

some of the new complexes are nice. i’ve seen them. just maybe not in your neighborhood. :laughing:

27

The worst part is thinking those things go for 32 million, 18 million… when they finish up with my neighborhood, who is going to be able to buy those things?! Certainly not me. :cry:

They haven’t started on my neighborhood yet, doing their Big Plan. :unamused: The new buildings I’ve seen are isolated in the middle of the old stuff. That should make them look more beautiful, but somehow, they fall short of expectations.

And talking about expectations:

[quote]“It is a human right to be able to enjoy fresh air in a city — turning the 202 Munitions Works into a park open to the general public would serve the interest of the people,” Chen said.
[/quote]
taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/ … 2003473136

This is in Taipei City, that already has more parks than Taipei County (sorry, Xinbei City). If more parks were included, which help people build community ties, I’d shut up. But no matter how nice they build stuff up, if the people there do not rally together, it will all degenerate sooner or later.

Now we have the market people cleaning up the streets everyday, leaving them spotless, so much you will never know there was the hustle and bustle of a wet market there. Volunteers go through alleys and clean up. The kids from nearby schoold come every month to pick up teh cigarrette buts and crisps bags they leave on their wake when they cross through our neighborhood every morning. There are birdies in the trees by the sewer. Heck, there are even flocks of cormorans, big white birds, big red eyed grey and white. The neighborhood is alive and thriving. All this will dissappear under the “beautify, modernize and unify” manthra.

28

[quote=“Icon”]The worst part is thinking those things go for 32 million, 18 million… when they finish up with my neighborhood, who is going to be able to buy those things?! Certainly not me. :cry:

They haven’t started on my neighborhood yet, doing their Big Plan. :unamused: The new buildings I’ve seen are isolated in the middle of the old stuff. That should make them look more beautiful, but somehow, they fall short of expectations.

And talking about expectations:

[quote]“It is a human right to be able to enjoy fresh air in a city — turning the 202 Munitions Works into a park open to the general public would serve the interest of the people,” Chen said.
[/quote]
taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/ … 2003473136

This is in Taipei City, that already has more parks than Taipei County (sorry, Xinbei City). If more parks were included, which help people build community ties, I’d shut up. But no matter how nice they build stuff up, if the people there do not rally together, it will all degenerate sooner or later.

Now we have the market people cleaning up the streets everyday, leaving them spotless, so much you will never know there was the hustle and bustle of a wet market there. Volunteers go through alleys and clean up. The kids from nearby schoold come every month to pick up teh cigarrette buts and crisps bags they leave on their wake when they cross through our neighborhood every morning. There are birdies in the trees by the sewer. Heck, there are even flocks of cormorans, big white birds, big red eyed grey and white. The neighborhood is alive and thriving. All this will dissappear under the “beautify, modernize and unify” manthra.[/quote]

oh quit your whining. i’m sure everyone will continue to do the nice maintenance things they’ve been doing. they’ll just be living in new housing with more modern amenities now. you’re just one of those old toad’s who’s against gentrification. they’re in every city - new york, los angeles, etc. :laughing:

29

[quote=“thyrdrail”][quote=“Icon”]The worst part is thinking those things go for 32 million, 18 million… when they finish up with my neighborhood, who is going to be able to buy those things?! Certainly not me. :cry:

They haven’t started on my neighborhood yet, doing their Big Plan. :unamused: The new buildings I’ve seen are isolated in the middle of the old stuff. That should make them look more beautiful, but somehow, they fall short of expectations.

And talking about expectations:

[quote]“It is a human right to be able to enjoy fresh air in a city — turning the 202 Munitions Works into a park open to the general public would serve the interest of the people,” Chen said.
[/quote]
taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/ … 2003473136

This is in Taipei City, that already has more parks than Taipei County (sorry, Xinbei City). If more parks were included, which help people build community ties, I’d shut up. But no matter how nice they build stuff up, if the people there do not rally together, it will all degenerate sooner or later.

Now we have the market people cleaning up the streets everyday, leaving them spotless, so much you will never know there was the hustle and bustle of a wet market there. Volunteers go through alleys and clean up. The kids from nearby schoold come every month to pick up teh cigarrette buts and crisps bags they leave on their wake when they cross through our neighborhood every morning. There are birdies in the trees by the sewer. Heck, there are even flocks of cormorans, big white birds, big red eyed grey and white. The neighborhood is alive and thriving. All this will dissappear under the “beautify, modernize and unify” manthra.[/quote]

oh quit your whining. i’m sure everyone will continue to do the nice maintenance things they’ve been doing. they’ll just be living in new housing with more modern amenities now. you’re just one of those old toad’s who’s against gentrification. they’re in every city - new york, los angeles, etc. :laughing:[/quote]
And for very good reason. Gentrification? :roflmao: Soulless rabbit warrens with big iron gates. Gah! I’ve seen plenty of those kinds of “modern amenities” here and they’re all the goddamn same. Awful, awful destruction. Even right where Icon lives, you need look no further than the monstrosities they’ve thrown up there. Utterly awful, with not even a hint of any form of humanity whatsoever.
Hard to believe they could have knocked down blackened, fungus-riddled 40-year-old concrete and replaced it with brand new buildings – that look even WORSE! :astonished: Until you factor in Taiwanese design briefs and architects only too willing to swallow their pride and take the money. :laughing:

30

check out some of the posts of new taiwanese residential complexes in skyscrapercity.com. some of them are super nice! my favorites are the contemporary southern california-style townhouses and loft apartments. i dont care much for the gaudy faux euro-trash ones but some of them are actually pretty nice too. and the housing units are actually quite big!

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1009025

31

:cry: Buah! Buah! But I like whining… and I got an audience. :laughing:

Actually, if they are the owners, yes, they care. If they are just rich fandongs, heck if they gonna care. And those are the ones buying expensive properties like candy, just to keep empty apartments “that keep gaining value”. Not a good prospect anyhow. :frowning:

I have a very interesting article about Shanghai. So, they had teh same dilema with the lilongs being demolished in favor of high rises. Now the people who migrated en masse to the suburbs are coming back. They want their children to experince the sense of community they had growing up in lilongs.

Thyrail, those pics and reality… there is a distance…

32

OK, the first one isn’t absolutely AWFUL, granted, although you’d never catch me paying actual MONEY for one!
As for the other two pics, even though they’re nothing but crude ugly monstrosities of concrete blockhouses, they’re STILL far nicer than anything we’re likely to see in Xindian.

33

OK, they build this modern block, on the surface of it relatively well designed, even though I would not live in one if you paid me.

It gets bought by a standard Taiwan white collar family. They then proceed bricking parts of the nice balconies up, and put some brownish birdcage thingies over all the windows. The latter protrude, they are all different, and they are sure to destroy any sense of design the poor architect managed to preserve in the face of the cost cutting by the construction company.

Fine and good. Then fast forward 2-3 years, the outside of the building is never washed, the dirt and soot accumulate giving the salmon colored tile used a greyish dirty sheen. That will get progressively worse over time until someone pull it down 40 years from now.

The pictures might look relatively nice, the reality won’t. Unfortunately, we have to live in the reality here.

34

Embrace the future!

35

[cut]

OK, OK, everybody calm down -or we’ll end up in Temp! [[color=#008000]he he he[/color]]

Thyrail, you must be Taiwanese or love Taiwan very much. I also gather you must be a student of arquitecture or a fan of such topics. I am into interior decoration myself.

I am sorry of our bitter comments from old rags who have been through a lot and on top of that are reluctant to change have offended you. More often than not, we furriners end up living in places which do not fit our expectations and are way overpriced by international standards, and as such, we have grown wary of any promises. You show me a pretty picture and my knee jerk reaction is “No way!”.

I am willing to concede the fact that we -but by that standard, not your average Joe Taiwanese- can afford the kind of housing that meets our expectations. It is like what we in the student circle call the famous steak conundrum: it is not that there are not good steaks in Taiwan, it is just that we cannot afford them. And the problem is that we are used to affordable steaks in our countries.

Hence, going back to the original problem, I am more worried about the soul, the spiritual part of our community, which could be constrained by a new physicality, meaning the “renovations”. I am worried about losing my old friends, the faces I know. After a decade, I’ll miss the old ambiance a lot. And that ambiance is given by teh people, who will not be able to afford those houses anymore, so we will never see each other again. And that is so sad.

36

Why would that be? Surely if he really DID love Taiwan he’d be out protesting the rape and pillaging being done by these construction companies!
His problem is that he loves ugliness and doesn’t love Taiwan ENOUGH.

37

[quote=“Icon”]
…Hence, going back to the original problem, I am more worried about the soul, the spiritual part of our community, which could be constrained by a new physicallity, meaning the “renovations”. I am worried about losing my old friends, the faces I know. After a decade, I’ll miss the old ambiance a lot. And that ambiance is given by teh people, who will not be able to afford those houses anymore, so we will never see each otehr again. And that is so sad.[/quote]

thanks for your mature, intelligent and reasonable explanation. i understand what you are saying.

38

Thyrdrail, your pictures are not representative of Taiwan and Taiwan’s cities in general. Also, they are villas which would cost millions of USD upwards, especially in Taipei.
There are some nice places being built, mainly outside Taipei due to lower land cost.

39

[quote=“headhonchoII”]Thyrdrail, your pictures are not representative of Taiwan and Taiwan’s cities in general. Also, they are villas which would cost millions of USD upwards, especially in Taipei.
There are some nice places being built, mainly outside Taipei due to lower land cost.[/quote]

so they are expensive? the point is they still exist in taiwan. we are not talking price here. that is beside the point.

40

[quote=“thyrdrail”][quote=“headhonchoII”]Thyrdrail, your pictures are not representative of Taiwan and Taiwan’s cities in general. Also, they are villas which would cost millions of USD upwards, especially in Taipei.
There are some nice places being built, mainly outside Taipei due to lower land cost.[/quote]

so they are expensive? the point is they still exist in Taiwan. we are not talking price here. that is beside the point.[/quote]
Aren’t we talking of affordable decent housing space in this thread???