Row after row of copy-pasted high-rise apartment buildings does not spark joy.
Unfortunately, Hong Kong has so little buildable land, its terrain hilly with scattered flat patches, that this approach is the only one that gets you enough units for everyone. Last I heard though property prices were absolutely skyrocketing.
More to the point, a huge mall does not compare with green outdoor space to walk around in. On the other hand, there’s at least four months each year when outside is a fucking steam oven and a mall with air conditioning is 100% where you want to be.
Hong Kong not having enough land to build is a myth. Less than 30% of its land is developed, and no, mountainous terrain is not an excuse when the Peak Tram allows access to literal mansions on the sides of Victoria Peak.
Instead, analysts point to other factors such as the vested interest the Hong Kong government has in keeping land (and therefore house) prices high for revenue purposes (due to it's infamous lack of taxes), political corruption, financing infrastructure, and other political factors.
If you've ever walked around Hong Kong, you'll notice that despite all the public transit and pedestrian footpaths, it is incredibly carbrained (or rather, rich brained). Highways and flyovers randomly carve up the city funnel endless cars which legally do not have to give way to pedestrians, and the pedestrian walkways are all developed by real estate developers, which force you to walk through an IKEA maze like mall every time you wish to go anywhere.
Hopping off the airport express onto Kowloon station and want to transfer to a bus? Better to take a taxi, unless you wish to brave the dingy bus station which looks more like a truck loading zone.
Huh… I had no idea. I lived there as a kid, and now you mention it, yeah – flyovers all over the place and lots of cars. I miss being able to get anywhere cheaply with the combo of KCR/MTR and taxis though.
To me this particular place seems too commercial.
The good parts: there's a lot available nearby, and you're literally on top of the train station if you want to go elsewhere.
The bad parts: The common space is the mall, so it's not really a public common space. It's a shopping center. A park or something on top of it would be great.
(Edit: it looks like it may have a park or some green space?)
Add in schools and any missing neighborhood amenities like a library, etc, and it'd be great.
Increasingly more people in Hong Kong are having mental issues. Lots of them live in stressful life, partly due to the crazy work culture, but the overcrowding with tiny apartments does not help.
It's not like children could use a lawn to play on or anything....
And our Public transit system is totally ready for nobody to have cars.... Our GDP totally won't fall to 10% is what it was before once nobody can go to work.
Right-wing nutjobs. The idea oozed out of russia, was picked up by the Brexit/Cambridge Analytica cabal/MAGA fascists/Qanon cultists and that's where it comes from.
It was not ever based in any fact, reasoning, ideal, or true belief.
Paris' mayor, Anne Hidalgo, is incredibly unpopular in the rest of the Parisian Metropolitan Area (whose government is right-wing under Valérie Pécresse). Much of these areas are still car-dependent beyond belief with bad-to-awful public transit, meaning they are progressively getting cut-off from car-hostile Paris. Paris is completely unaffordable to live in, so it is normal for the working class to have a 1h+ commute into Paris.
This understandably breeds resentment from most people who have never heard of the term "induced demand" or think that the lack of rail transit it Hidalgo's fault.
Fuck Cars
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