No surprise that Jason Hu, the major of Taichung lost. What surprises me is that after a stroke and 13 years in office, the KMT did not have a succession policy in place. What gives?
Having only lived in Taichung for a year or so, it’s difficult for me to say what Jason Hu has done for this city. What I have seen so far I am not impressed. Anybody know if Lin Jia Long will make a difference?
With the KMT losing so many seats are we looking at 4 or more years of an even worse economy?
I don’t live in Taichung and am certainly not an expert on the place. I agree entirely that Jason Hu was way past his expiration date, and the KMT (under the guidance of Chairman Ma?) demonstrated extreme incompetence in choosing him to be the candidate yet again. In fact, Taiwan’s mayors are restricted to 8-year term limits, but Hu was able to exploit a little loophole in the law because of the redrawing of political boundaries.
As for the economy (of Taichung), I do remember that a couple of years ago, Jason Hu shut down most (if not all) of the city’s expat pubs for no good reason, causing a fair bit of economic damage and winning him the wrath of both expats and tourists. I don’t think the recent electoral rout of the KMT in local elections will necessarily impact the overall economy of Taiwan. At the local level, it’s hard to say - I don’t know if the new DPP mayors/magistrates have any plans to build new infrastructure projects. Ko (who isn’t actually DPP) did talk about building more low-cost housing in Taipei, but the DPP was mostly talking about contaminated salad oil. It worries me that Ko supported the DPP’s lame-brain project to close Songshan airport and turn it into a park.
Conceivably, China could use tourism as leverage, arranging an unofficial boycott of Taiwan by mainland visitors. That could inflict some economic damage.
Looking forward, if the DPP wins the 2016 presidential election, I can’t imagine that relations with China are going to improve. Plus I expect they’ll shut down all the nuclear power plants, leaving us with a big bill for imported coal and natural gas, and a big increase in electricity prices to pay for the windmills which won’t work. Maybe they can revive the economy by increasing exports of bubble milk tea? If they don’t have some other economic rabbit to pull out of their hat, I’m not terribly confident.
I moved to Taichung from the USA in 2002. I lived in Danshui from 2008-2013, but now live back in Taichung so I have lived here for virtually the entirety of Hu’s administration.
I COMPLETELY understand the idea and feeling that 12+ years is TOO long for someone to be the mayor of a city.
But I don’t get the popular notion that Hu hasn’t gotten much done during his time as mayor. Taichung has changed SO MUCH over the past 12 years. I have no idea how much of it was due to Hu’s administration of the city, but seeing that most of the time, people blame and praise a mayor for anything that happens in a given city, I’ll list some things that have happened over the past 12+ years.
- Public transportation is roughly a billion times better. Hu gets a lot of flack for having promised an MRT for so long and just now getting it under construction the past year or so, but putting that delay aside, public transportation in Taichung has gone from virtually useless 12 years ago to being pretty convenient. The bus routes have multiplied several times over. Many bus stops have clocks that tell an ETA for the next bus. The BRT is packed every time I see it and, although I haven’t used it yet, I know several foreigners who have said they love it.
- Taichung’s reputation as being a crime-ridden gang hub has been virtually wiped out. When I moved to Taichung, I couldn’t get away from hearing how it is the crime capital of Taiwan. Early on, I would frequently hear about shootings at KTV joints that were well-known gang homes. There were motor scooter gangs that would travel in large groups on the major roads late at night that were frankly pretty frightening. I would find numbers to call on slips of paper under my windshield wipers put there by prostitution rings. This stuff is all in the past now. I haven’t heard anything of prominent gang violence. Places that were well-known “taboo” crime areas (like Taichung Park) are now perfectly safe. I haven’t heard a scooter gang in I don’t know how long.
- The new city hall and the areas surrounding the 新光三越 department store are completely unrecognizable. There was literally nothing there 12 years ago. It was just flat undeveloped land. Now it is one of the nicest areas of Taiwan. Beautiful upscale apartment buildings, excellent restaurants, good shopping. Even along 文心 Road there is completely different/new. There are large modern shopping complexes, new parks, and, of course, a Costco.
- New and nice facilities. The public library on 五權 Road is gorgeous and has a massive selection of books…and a pretty amazing selection of English books as well. If you live in Taichung and love to read, go check out this library. You will be pleased by the English selection. The National Opera House just opened in Taichung a few weeks ago.
There is a lot of other stuff as well. I was talking with a foreigner friend of mine that has lived here even longer than I have the other day and he was also talking about how ridiculous the change in Taichung has been, both physically and in reputation, over the past decade. I would wager that Taichung has changed more and made larger strides over the past decade than any of the larger cities in Taiwan. I have spend significant time all over Taiwan and easily would choose Taichung as the nicest city to live in. After coming back last year, I’ve found that the number of nice western-style eating places has also increase many fold. I really like this city and hope it continues on this track under Lin Jialong.
Chen Chu is also entering her third term heading Kaohsiung.
That’s not quite fair. There was a fire-dancing show at a bar in Taichung that… started a fire. And they didn’t have proper exits and whatnot so basically dozens of people suffocated to death. The city’s way of cracking down was to shut down most clubs and bars, ostensibly to check that they are up to fire codes. I’m told Taichung was a ghost town at night for a long time. I think it’s back to normal now.
It’s hard to judge how well or poorly a mayor does in Taiwan because the governance of a city is fairly opaque. But we can way his actions against his accomplishments. Hu promised since before his most recent term that he would build an MRT for Taichung. Instead, you get that failure of a BRT project along Taizhonggang Rd. It’s like he promised people “we can be as good as Taipei” and then yanked the rug out from under them. I think that’s one of the big things that sealed his defeat.
I wouldn’t say he was a terrible mayor, though. Taichung’s longstanding reuptation of Taiwan’s gangland hasn’t resurfaced in years, and he oversaw its transition from a relatively unimportant Taiwanese city of middling size into one of the country’s most important. And most importantly, he hasn’t been accused of massive corruption.
I lived in Taichung for almost five years. It has some excellent advantages over Northern cities namely its well planned out, spacious and has a good climate. The major problem for me was air pollution and lack of MRT, I mostly worried about air pollution affecting my kids. Of course this is a problem across China and much of Taiwan. Loving In Taichung we had a nice lifestyle at 1/3 less cost of Taipei (mainly rent difference). We had to leave due to lack of good employment opportunities (only well paid offers were in Hsinchu and Taipei, typical situation in Taiwan). It has an airport but needs to be bigger with more routes.
Anyway, Taichung’s parks and children’s play areas are mostly superior to Taipei’s in number and condition. Taichung is also much safer than its given credit for. I think demographic changes have been most influential ie less young kids to become gangsters, older gangsters turning to property development as low risk high reward business etc.
The mayor focused on developing new areas for rich people, looks great but it didn’t benefit people in their pockets…incomes are depressed and low in Taichung (in Taichung a lot of people are blue collar labourers and they work in the factories surrounding the city, which gives it a weird rush hour!). This is the major reason Hu is gone. The second reason is of course the slow improvement in public transport , the poor mans MRT and lack of redevelopment in older areas especially train station area. But really he should have been gone four years ago and I guess people just got sick of him hanging around!
Taichung has massive potential but needs a new economic raison d’être (hint: building luxury apartments has its limits) and I think Hu didn’t really do anything for that even if he helped with the museums, parks and play areas which are very good.
I agree that Taichung has massive potential and in the year that I have lived here, it has felt quite safe. The government from what it sounds has done a good job in cleaning the city up. There are plenty of well kept parks and lots of other public spaces making it a great place to raise a young family. The low rents and cost of living has made it possible for young creative types to open up small shops to pursue their dreams.
However when I am driving around and see the Behemoth that is the new government offices, the BRT which is just a private bus lane with way too large bus shelters, the new high rises which appear to be mostly unoccupied, art type installations in odd locales, kms of bike lanes next to furniture shops and a major highway (環中路), it leaves me thinking that the KMT has been milking Taichung for far too long.
The night life is pretty lame here. It is really surprising to live in such a large city with a large young demographic to not have a street or two full of bars and clubs filled with young people. I do know about the terrible fire at Ala and that being the reason for the closure of a large number of drinking establishments. However that was four years ago, long enough for the place to be reborn literally from the ashes as …you wouldn’t believe it… a bbq (燒烤)joint…sad but true.
All of which is a shame, as Taichung is a diamond in the rough. There are so many things here that makes this city great, it just needs someone to connect the dots of this city together and to give it, as previously mentioned, a raison d’etre.
I don’t know how far Taichung has come under Jason Hu, but it sounds like it has changed vastly for the better, so maybe I am being too harsh on the guy. However it is obvious that Taichung needs a young fresh pair of hands and that is what the people has voted for.
:bravo: :bravo: :bravo:
Yes, the bike lanes in the city are a complete joke, and the BRT is simply a glorified bus lane. If Taichung could just build out it’s pavements, allow the youbikes to ride up and down them like in Taipei, plant trees for shading from the strong sun, bury the sewer rivers and put parks on top, and build some overhead bike bridges to allow bikes to traverse some of the busy thoroughfares safely, that would make a massive difference.
And more bars and music by all means!
I’m a middle-aged married guy with children so I couldn’t care less and know nothing about the nightlife in Taichung. I understand that many do, though. In my opinion and experience after having lived in both Taichung and Taipei/ New Taipei, I would certainly pick Taichung.
Mayor Lu in Taichung will be termed out later this year. Who will step up and lead Taichung? C Donovan Smith takes a deep dive into this topic to see what might lie ahead.
Guy
Thats great, I’m happy I wont have to see her plastic surgery disaster of a face in the spotlight anymore.
Why do you think she will simply exit politics and not move into the larger national stage?
Guy
Made to by others who are tired of looking at her?