Rapid urban renewal an ugly thing
By Lu Ching-fu 呂清夫
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said that Taipei is ugly, that it can no longer compare with the most advanced cities in China and, therefore, it is time for the city to speed up its urban renewal.
Would urban renewal solve the ugliness problem? Urban renewal in Taiwan is only about replacing old buildings with new ones or applying to build new skyscrapers, but it is not certain that these buildings would be better.
As for the ugliness, old structures are sometimes prettier than new ones: Zhongshan Bridge, which was dismantled in 2002, is just one example. What is missing is a landscape law, but a proposed bill has little to say about regulating the aesthetics of buildings.