Before Renovation
After
WOOOOW!!! WHAT A REMARKABLE IMPROVEMENT!!! they should renovate all those old crusty concrete/tiled buildings throughout the entire country!!
Yes, Dogvomit.
Treasure Palace Apartment complex on Ren Ai Road is super nice. Designed by Kenzo Tange, architect of Tokyo City Hall
Tokyo City Hall:
Presumably it is for the super rich. I’m not sure it is a model we would want to follow too widely. I wouldn’t call the buildings beautiful either. They look better at night.
no i dont think the architecture is superb either. just saying overall it’s a nice complex, especially compared with most apartment buildings in taiwan. btw, the price ranges of those apartments are NT$130 million and NT$300 million per unit and cost NT$25 billion to build.
the funniest fact about these, are the buildings next to it. Such a high class and expensive residencial area as some nice old houses around it (the normal Taipei type). Tokyo City Gov building is in it high-rise area of Tokyo, where the buildings complement well each other. The only complain is how long you have to walk from the JR station to get there…
[quote=“mr_boogie”]I think that the people in Forumosa need to be a little bit more proactive when talking about local politics. For sure we have the brains here to make Taipei a better city (if someone wants to start a make your other city better thread, please do it). We know this is a decisive moment, and we can do in a short period of time a compilation of ideas that can be given to all the candidates and newspapers. Forumosa is a space where many foreigners mingle, and therefore, many different experiences can be assembled together.
If we want, for sure we can try to make this country better and start being a more active voice in the local community. Maybe it is up to us, who are from more developed democracies, to give the good example.
My first worry in Taipei goes with the general non-pratical aspects of living here. There are too many things that can be changed just with a small amount of investment.
I allready put it elsewhere, but I will put it here again - The biggest pollution problem in Taipei comes from stormwater (and believe me, after the rain, you don’t get that fresh odour). To address it, I would change the way people think about planning. The easiest way to decrease the stormwater quantity that goes into the rivers is to increase the green mass. This can be done by introducing the concept of rain gardens (uri.edu/ce/healthylandscapes/raingarden.htm), small sidewalks with stormwater retainers (think of a garden before the stormwater collector - nice on the view and it helps cleaning up the water), use of rain barrels in residences to act as a storage compartment for lowering water consumption (when properly equipped, a rain barrel can also be used to reduce the quantity of stormwater in peak moments).
Introducing the concept of external tubes in houses, with 2 functions - 1 is to put all the cables you normally see hanging around (just make a law that states that companies cannot have their cables at view, and enforce it), the second is to conduct stormwater from every single corner of the apartments - this would make houses nicer to view, would reduce the noise created by rain and house reduce the water drops you get when walking in the streets.
Create a partnership with a street furniture company (JCDecaux, by example) to ease the burden of citywide investment on new bus stops, automated public conveniences and newspapers stands. Also, these companies take care of maintenance, creating an image of cleanliness.
Investment on Bus Rapid Transit lines, specially on the major avenues. Either using a conventional double articulated bus or using more expensive systems like the TransLohr (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Translohr) they can alleviate the cities troubling traffic problem, by creating a good (and I said good) alternative. In fact, they can use the same system used in some countries where the bus stop acts as a station to the bus, providing both shelter and fast entrance/exit for people, with tourniquets for people to go pass their easycard - the amount you will pay will depend on the actual trip you make, not on the quantity of buses you take). Also, creating roundabouts for cars with middle stations will help people transit between lines, ensure the timescale and increase the quality of the service. I don’t have an exact figure to follow on this, but can explain it easily to anyone using a small piece of paper. Another way of doing this is by centralizing the amount you pay, meaning that if you enter bus route A in stop 1 and exit on stop 5 (pay 4stops equivalent) and then enter bus route B from stop 3-6, you can get a discount on the second one, and not pay a full fare (10 minutes interval between entering bus stop). Also, implementation of monthly fees would be a reasonable way to help the people who need to use the system more. If the Bus system is the one who gets to be approved, low emission buses like the articulated MB Citaro G, are a good way of diminishing the pollution. Also, implementing a global information system will increase the public satisfaction, by providing real-time information for bus schedules.
Creating a Taipei City car pass, where people wanting to bring their car to Taipei city would have to pay a tax (like in London), and this tax would be used to fund the previous proposal. This Tax would be addressed by the pollution type of the car (we can use the Euro 1/2/3/4/5 (this one from 2008) standard to put it for passenger cars). All cars with non-polluting alternatives (just like the Prius) would be considered for 0 tax. This tax can be collected as a stamp to be shown on the right side of the windshield (cars parked inside Taipei city without this stamp would be blocked, and the owner would have to pay a fee to have his car back). Buses and trucks would have to pay a special Tax, which would be discussed with the respective unions.
Introducing Cameras on red light to catch offenders, just like New York did, would be a deterrent for accidents and speeding.
Increasing the number of sidewalks on the streets, as cities are made for people, not for cars. A better planning of the streets will also be needed, especially when dealing with parallel streets having 2 senses of traffic. These sidewalks would include small garden that would help filtrate the stormwater.
Increase the signalization of the streets and improve the application of laws (just apply them).
Fund a global city face wash, by allowing special publicity in the construction protectors - the funds from this publicity would be used to pay the bank loan and part of the rebuild, making the loans for the people interest free or very low interest ones. This formula is used in the most beautiful cities in the world as it gives the landlords a easy and cheap way of having façade reconstructions - this project only applies to the non-habitable area of the building, so that no landlord can use it for own profit. The city can also accept candidatures for buildings who need facelifts that are on sale, being that the building is evaluated before the reconstruction begins and the owner will have this value after a public sale (meaning that the city will get the extra money generated from the rebuilding). If this formula is used correctly, it will create more quality housing in older areas (portovivosru.pt/sub_menu_7_5.php for an example of a 19th century rebuilding in the city of Porto, Portugal; the street where this house is was first opened in 1518; this project is co-funded by 5 companies, and all of them have been offered a full front publicity for a period of time (Schindler for the elevator, Weber for construction materials, Portgas for the natural gas pipelining, Marilina Tintas for the paiting and floor polishers and Portugal Telecom for the full communication package (cable TV and Telephone/Internet Access)).
Regulate the billboards in the city, including establishment of a maximum height for lights to be put, to save both power and give the inhabitants of the city a view to the sky… Publicity in the exterior of buildings should also be addressed as visual pollution.[/quote]
A wonderful post full of great ideas, which is fundamentaly flawed in that for it to work the people who live here would have to actually give a fuck. I think you can agree that civic, letalone national pride is seriously lacking here.
The majority of the Taiwanese people I know just want to make money and get the fuck out of taiwan as fast as possible.
I wish it was different, but anything that in anyway causes a local to spend money or gets in the way of them geting what they want when they want it will be very hard to get off the ground.
You’re joking, right? I don’t know ANYBODY who actually likes Singapore, expat or foreigner. Perhaps the most soulless place on the face of the earth. Even the Singapore people I know cannot stand the place.
You’re joking, right? I don’t know ANYBODY who actually likes Singapore, expat or foreigner. Perhaps the most soulless place on the face of the earth. Even the Singapore people I know cannot stand the place.[/quote]
yes it might be soulless and culturally deficient, but i was really referring to the infrastructure issues such as their architecture, urban planning, cleanliness, english language prevalence, etc., that give singapore their reputation as a ‘pristine’ city and which everybody in this forum complains taiwan lacks. so my question is do you all prefer taiwan to be more like singapore in that regard?
Miles upon miles of identical rabbit-hutch “apartments.” So similar to each other that my friend’s wife was still getting lost on her way home months after moving in because all the apartment blocks looked the same. 
Horrific. That’s the only way to describe Singapore’s urban planning. Utterly horrific.
Yes, putting too many appartments to look alike makes the city look bad. Diversity is a key for all the nice cities in the world.
Another thing that amazes me in Taipei is the fact that there are no city maps, and in the major roads you need to get to an intersection to know where you are (and the lanes/alleys names normally are so confusing you don’t even understand where you are (like my address is Xinyi Road, but it does take me 15 minutes to actually get there)).
What about the fact that the names in English have nothing to do with the Chinese name, like 3rd Boulevard (for RenAi). Also, asking people for indications without having the Chinese name is equal to going nowhere. Most people here cannot read pinyin.
Of course there are city maps – in both English and Chinese. Alleys and lanes are numbered and these numbers also appear on the maps so they’re actually pretty easy to follow.
Sandman, I was speaking in the streets. If you find yourself in the middle of an unknown area, it isn’t that easy to find your way. They should put in intersections maps like they have in the MRT stations. That is very common. Another thing that should actually change is the way they put the bus routes. If you happen not to be able to read Chinese, trying to find a way to go by bus somewhere is painfull. They have nice maps on internet with all the bus lines, so they should print them and put them on the bus stops (provided that they build bus stops, also).
Road signs for people would be nice. Currently (aside from the actual house numbers/addresses) they’re all at intersections, designed for cars drivers so you have to walk around the corner and look up to see what road you’re on. So signs on the corners of buildings or on street corners would be nice but this city is designed for cars.
The best map I’ve found yet is the MRT map available at stations. Maps on the streets at intersections is a good idea - one that assumes people are walking places.
Lane numbers, though a little souless, do make it relatively easy to find your way.
I think every foreigner is probably in agreement that it would be good to screw the politics and use hanyu pinyin universally for Romanisation, but what’s the chance of that. Maybe, if Ma gets in…
Why are you assuming that Ma would change it? Taipei still hasn’t change anything… If he wanted to change, he has both the Party and the Mayor office to change it.
Mayor Ma is one of the responsibles for the current situation of Taipei, in my opinion. Although many things have changed, most of the biggest changes in Taipei where made in the pre-CSB and the CSB times. What did Ma do so important to make him such a good mayor? Non enforcement of laws (unless you carry a ARC, of course) must the the biggest problem in Taipei. This city is built for cars, and it seems that only cars exist in the city. I received a letter from the mayor office explaining that the works on the lane where my alley connects where to make traffic and people movement better, not for parking. After covering up a river that existed, they left all the rest of the work to be done, so, now, it is a nice parking area. You want to walk in this lane (number 150 in Xinyi Road Sec 5), you have to pray the lord you won’t get hit by a car. Sidewalks are not for people to walk, but for scooters to park and for shops to increase their size. How many shops occupy sidewalks? Does the city government spends the day having yoga classes… yes, it seems so.
[quote=“mr_boogie”]Why are you assuming that Ma would change it? Taipei still hasn’t change anything… If he wanted to change, he has both the Party and the Mayor office to change it.
What did Ma do so important to make him such a good mayor?[/quote]
Slow down a minute.
I never said anything about Ma being a good Mayor in general or a potentially good President. The reason I’m assuming he might change the Romanisation system is because in Taipei City now uses Hanyu Pinyin. Given the date below, I assume Ma had a hand in this.
[quote]The Abiding Principles of Taipei City Romanization
– August 18, 2003 –
- This city mainly uses Hanyu Pinyin system while romanizing Chinese characters.[/quote]
english.taipei.gov.tw/civil/inde … cordid=920
So if he can be arsed to do anything about it, perhaps he’ll change the system nationwide, and implement it. Hence maybe!
Still, Ma has the control of the LY, so why not push it as law? Unless only the Executive Yuan has the power to do so.
Anyway, back to the topic, anyone saw the project that won the Solar Awards? Damn good Idea, to transform those ugly rooftops into solar powerhouses. Saves the bill and saves the country at same time.
ya why does mayor ma allow scooters to park on sidewalks and for merchants to block sidewalks with their wares or take over the sidewalk by building out over it to the street? or allow sidewalks to be so uneven that it’s like walking on stairs? how do handicapped or older people with walking disabilities ever get around the city? ma should do something to rectify this problem. having a sidewalk so people can safely walk on the streets is a basic part of a city’s urban planning.
Nah, maybe he is too busy reading the “I want to be President” book.
YA politicians are always SELF CENTERED.
is Soong self centered you think?
is CSB self centered?
is SMT self centered?
YOU BETCHA