better living through more money?

a short while ago, the mayor of taipei was saying that he supports the plan to build a couple of pedestrian-only grand boulevards in an effort to make taipei move even closer to becoming a truly international metropolitan city. well, perhaps he meant it with all good intentions and the plan would help further modernize the image of the city, bring in more tourists, and benefit the local economy, but, imho, in order to improve the city as a whole, the emphasis should not be focused merely on this sort of things. while it is all good trying to raise the international status and boost the local economy of the city, it is equally important to make the city a "feel-good" place to live in. keeping that balance right and moving ahead with growth in the economy while looking after the other aspects such as environmental and social sustainability issues at the same time would be a more healthy way of progressing.

personally, i really do appreciate the many developments that have been infused into the city of taipei in the past decade or two and the improvement in certain areas is very evident. and maybe i'm being too naive and things may not be as simple as this, but here are a few things that i'd love to see more attention get paid to by whoever is waving the magic wand.
* clean up the rivers (even if one can't fish there, at least it's hygienically safe enough to jump in)
* clean up the streets (more public rubbish bins, please)
* get rid of the smog (where is my blue sky?)
* tidy up the traffic (somehow...)
* even out the roads (no more wrc-ready tracks for my buses)

in a broader sense, it wouldn't hurt to take care of the following as well.
* raise the environmental awareness in the public conscience
* inject some sense of social and moral responsibility into the media
* inject some sense of social and moral responsibility into the politicians

just some of my whiny gripes and wishful thinking. no big deal.