What do you think of the Mong Kok development plan?
Updated on Jun 06, 2008 – SCMP
Another day and another letter from the Urban Renewal Authority assuring us that their latest plan, this time to erect a wall of concrete over public recreational facilities at Macpherson Stadium in Mong Kok, the only open space in the vicinity, is not only going to have no negative effect on the heavily polluted district, but will actually improve ventilation (Talkback, June 2).
As every project proposed by the URA is accompanied by a declaration on the lines of “the URA has commissioned an environmental consultant to carry out an air ventilation assessment”, and all the reports are unanimously in favour of the projects, one has to be sceptical of these assessments.
Who is this consultant and where can we read the full report?
The URA is a juggernaut out of control.
It will stop at nothing in its drive to turn every plot in urban areas into a high-rise behemoth, regardless of the disastrous effect this will have on the local community.
No public facility is safe, so what next? Mega towers on Victoria Park with the park facilities placed on podiums, a multi-storey tower on the roof of the Tin Hau Temple in Yau Ma Tei? Anything is possible.
It is no wonder that all the richest men in the city are property developers and that, excluding the mainland, Hong Kong now has a reputation as one of the most polluted cities in Asia.
Mary Melville, Tsim Sha Tsui