What do you love/hate about Taipei? City Hall wants to know!

I am a Canadian urban planning student working at Taipei City Hall, i have been asked to find out what foreigners love and hate about taipei. They want to know the little things you like and dislike about the city. Dont say the museams, or C.K.S. Hall, mention something about your neighborhood park, the streets you walk along, the lack of sanitaition, secret neighborhoods, stray dogs whatever. If you can, please include details. This will be a large project that will end up as a presentation for the City Planning department. I will have a more formal questionaire later, right now im just trying to get a rough sketch of the issues. I would really appreciate your input. include as much or as little detail as you like, hopefully the city will actually do something about it! thank you.
sauce_e@hotmail.com

I love the fact that Mayor Ma is astute enough to implement the international standard of Mandarin Romanization, Hanyu Pinyin, for street signs in Taipei. :smiley:

I hate the fact that it is not yet fully implemented. :imp:

I also hate that the restrooms at Renai Hospital - the place many, many Taipei residents go for their health check - are so dirty. :cry: It is difficult to manage a coat, briefcase/purse, documents, plastic vials, zipper, and ~ahem~ other necessary accessories at the same time. Also, the fact that one’s hands are full almost precludes one from washing one’s hands afterwards. I did, but I noticed that the three gentlemen ahead of me did not, wiped their hands on their trousers and then went to the counter to sign some forms using the pen provided. :shock: When it was my turn, I used my own pen, natch. :wink:

http://segue.com.tw/viewtopic.php?t=5211
http://segue.com.tw/viewtopic.php?t=5028
http://www.segue.com.tw/viewtopic.php?t=2657
http://www.segue.com.tw/viewtopic.php?t=5137

The above links are a good place to start. Try scanning all the forums for a vast assortment of opinions.

By the way, Saucey, your research skills need a bit of honing. You clearly stated in your above post that you feel Taiwan is unclean: “lack of sanitation”.
I recommend taking a more neutral stance when embarking on future investigations.

Love the bars and restaurants that proliferate either side of Chunghsiao E. Road and on An Her. Also the night markets. Love the fact that you can eat on the street and hygiene requirements are not killing small businesses.

Hate license requirements to set up small business - still too onerous. Hate the protection-money rackets run by gansters / police to extort profits.

Love the attempts at setting up humourous statues (the half Zebra on Tun hwa, etc)

Hate the poor infrasturcture - subway needs to be improved and sporting facilities are not good.

Hate the fact that “parks” are normally concrete, not greenery.

Love Ximenting and the vibrant “youth culture.”

  1. Love the Breeze shopping Mall; hate the big globe-thingy fire-trap shopping centre (Core Pacific?).

I suggest the opposite - start with a strong conviction of what is right or wrong about Taiwan and then critical examine all the responses and data. That way, wether, you confirm or revise your original prejudice, you will end up with a strong conclusion or opinion.

Your paper is, after all, a reasearch project NOT JOURNALISM. So, carry on…

The only thing is you have to be careful that your data are not unrealistically dominated by “whingers” or apologists. In the end, thats a judgement call.

[quote]By the way, Saucey, your research skills need a bit of honing. You clearly stated in your above post that you feel Taiwan is unclean: “lack of sanitation”.
I recommend taking a more neutral stance when embarking on future investigations.[/quote]
Ahhh… i love the forums, always someone waiting to pounce. I appreciate your concern towards my research skills. I mentioned taipei’s “sanitation” as an example. None of my own feelings have been included in my request. I also mentioned that today is day one of many months, i am simple extending my “feelers” to try and get a general idea of the the larger issues at hand. Please feel free to send any constructive criticisms my way, but if your bored and looking to meddle, no thanks.

No more two-stroke scooters…
More legal parking for scooters - the existing bays are insufficient
More enforcement of traffic laws for double-parked cars.

Right now, it seems like Taiwan is gearing itself to people who have cars instead of scooters. Scooters are great, because they use very little gas, take up very little room in the road and in the parking lots, give people much more mobility than public transport, emit very little pollution ([b]If and this is a huge “if”, they’re well maintained and don’t have two-stroke engines[/b]), and also they’re well-suited to Taiwan’s physical environment - lots of crowded roads, low top speeds, moderate climate.

It’s the SUVs and the Mercedes-Benzes that are clogging things up, not the scooters.

Not true. You mentioned Taipei’s “lack of sanitation”, not Taipei’s “sanitation” as an example. You’re expressing an opinion there, not asking for one. Not neutral at all, really. :?

Not true. You mentioned Taipei’s “lack of sanitation”, not Taipei’s “sanitation” as an example. You’re expressing an opinion there, not asking for one. Not neutral at all, really. :?[/quote]

Dear Nitpickers,

Main Entry: lack
Pronunciation: 'lak
Date: 13th century
intransitive senses
1 : to be deficient or missing
2 : to be short or have need of something
transitive senses : to stand in need of : suffer from the absence or deficiency of

 For the record, unless someone comes up with a toilet that can wipe my a** for me, there will always be a lack.

Saucey,

Quadruple the amount of city serviced street garbage cans. I hate having to use the nearest scooter basket, er, well, no I don’t.

the city should heavilly subsidice architecture schools as the new office buildings look fine but the residential buildings being build still look terrible

Look at the Taipei Art Park (next to the Fine Arts Museum). How long has that been there? 10 years or so? Look at the trees. Those twigs could be there another 100 years and NEVER provide shade.
Look at the park behind the Tienmu Baseball Stadium – ditto.
Look at Sungchiang b[/b] Road – all the 30+ year old trees were totally uprooted (to put in pipes we are told). If the mayor would stop and think about this perhaps he would do something. Or does he prefer living on the surface of the moon?
And by the way, tell him that his “modern, electronic city” is worthless if he and his staff NEVER answer e-mails of relevant questions and comments.
Also, please publish how much of my tax dollars were spent by the current mayor on street signs with avenues and boulevards on them?

  1. The traffic is a top gripe. Not just that there is too much of it, or the wrong types (too many scooters), but Taiwan has failed where Singapore and Hong Kong succeeded–at making them drive politely. People are essentially murdered every day because of this, it’s not cute or funny.

Possible solution: contract out the traffic police work to the police of another country.

  1. The sidewalk problem, which is all over the city and not just where I live. People set up food stalls, auto garages, or whatever they please and take up the sidewalk. Or they just add big potted plants so no one can use them. Somebody needs to drive over all these so-called “sidewalks” with a tank, to clear a path for the rest of us.

  2. They should close the main street markets to vehicular traffic. I mean places like the Hsimending and Wanhua pedestrian areas. No sense in sitting down to dinner if people are zooming by on their motorcycles.

  3. Can the city government do anything about the CKS memorial to make it slightly less fascist? They could keep the CKS emphasis, but make it more of a memorial to the era than a shrine to the glory of ol’ peanut-head. It’s too nice and too central of a place to either tear it down, or let it stay the way it is.

  4. While I’m thinking of that area, do the “secret police” really do any good? I mean the plainclothes twenty-year-olds near the presidential offices. Their presence kind of leaves a bad impression, like the shattered beer-bottle glass on top of the walls.

  5. Hell, that building should be a museum anyway–can’t they make A-bian go live in one of the ugly offices?

  6. Something has got to be done about those rivers. Big scrubbers? I don’t know, ask the environmentalists.

  7. Has Taipei ever considered having zoning laws, or signage laws, or laws about what kind of buildings you can construct? Just wondering.

  8. Just out of morbid curiosity, how many sanitation inspectors are there for the city’s restaurants? I suspect I wouldn’t like the answer.

  9. Noise ordinances. Bullhorns and similar noise-makers should be banned, both in vehicles and by those barkers who stand in front ot the shops.

No, only a year or two. Well, maybe three. I’ve been here so long now and my life is so monotonous, the years are just kind of blending into one another. The park behind the Zhongshan Football Stadium is even newer.

Traffic and the cops.

Definitely.

I would guess that I almost get hit about once a week and I’m VERY cautious. You literally take your life in your hands every time you cross the road here.

As for the cops, when I pick up the phone and need their help, I damn well want them to come. But currently, they are as worthless as nipples on a man.

I honestly feel that if anything ever happened and I needed a cop, I would just have to take care of it myself. If that means taking the law into my own hands then so be it. It’s a real cowboy and Indians type of place.

So please tell the mayor that traffic and police corruption would be two good places to start. Without law and order you won’t have much of anything else.

I agree on the cops. I was attacked once (fluke thing, don’t worry about it) and not only were they incompetent investigators, they kept losing my file all the way to trial. I kept filling out police statements, and they kept on losing them, until finally on the big day I discovered they neglected to bring one to court. Of course the legal system is equally wretched (not your brief, I know) so they threw the book at the guy anyway, damn the legal niceties.

No way to solve this without replacing a good percentage of the force, you can’t “educate” them without also giving them a compelling reason to change. Unfortunately Taiwanese seem comfortable with their incompetent, corrupt police forces.

[quote=“Anonymous”]No more two-stroke scooters…
More legal parking for scooters - the existing bays are insufficient
More enforcement of traffic laws for double-parked cars.

Right now, it seems like Taiwan is gearing itself to people who have cars instead of scooters. Scooters are great, because they use very little gas, take up very little room in the road and in the parking lots, give people much more mobility than public transport, [/quote]

I remember Jeremy Clarkson doing a report from Vietnam, and commenting on how the traffic all flowed despite there being a huge amount of people on the roads. He then noted the new BMW factory, and pointed out that if all these people had been in cars no-one would go anywhere.

They were talking about banning 2 strokes when I arrived in 92. But then the Mucha line was supposed to have opened that October… 2 stroke engines are designed to burn oil. In other words, designed to create pollution. Should’ve been banned years ago.

If Jeremy Clarkson was living in Vietnam which would he drive- the two stroke or the shiny new beemer 8)

Got to agree with Geezer and chessman 71: Traffic and (lack of) a professional police force are the worst problems.

People are being killed, injured and maimed because of their incompetence, and a lack of government action in raising public conscience (as well as enforcement of their laws).

The police are inept.

Also agree on beautification issues. They should have more parks (WITHOUT concrete), and the steel bars removed from windows (why doesn’t anybody talk about the fact that those things convert you apartment into a fire trap?).

Of course the traffic, to start with. As I’ve said before, the thing that most detracts from the pleasure of living here is the appalling state of the traffic. It’s not a matter of the number of vehicles, but the way that they’re driven and parked. Especially the big 4-wheeled ones that take up so much space and are so lethal on contact with anything smaller. I totally agree with an earlier poster (one of the Guests) about the scooters v. cars issue. People should be encouraged by all means possible (parking facilities, taxes, fees, law enforcement, etc.) to ride two-wheelers rather than drive cars – except for those 2-stroke things, which definitely should be banned outright – and then the city would be much less clogged up and the roads much safer. Traffic laws should be stringently enforced, and the number of tow-trucks greatly increased.

I also agree that one of the city’s good points is its having a mayor who values its foreign residents, cares what they think, and understands the importance of adopting Hanyu pinyin over that Tongyong nonsense.

Just one more thing for now, before I run out of time: A few well-located pedestrian-only shopping, eating and entertainment areas would go a long, long way towards making this city a much, much nicer place to live in or visit.

Does anyone else see the contradiction between:

  1. Moaning about how bad the traffic congestion is

and…

  1. Demanding more pedestrianised areas in the city centre?

Duh-huh… half-wits.