In one last endeavor to reach out to the Taipei City Government and establish dialogue over the forced closures of stores in the Shida Night Market, the Shida Shopping District Development Promotion Association and the Allied Guardians of Shida Commercial, both advocacy groups for business owners, in tandem with nearly 400 stores, launched a silent protest yesterday evening by turning their lights off for 30 minutes.
“We want fair treatment!” a group of shopowners chanted in unison amid the “lights-out” protest.
With the first wave of the city government’s notice of payment for violations given out to businesses in the area, some store owners are already making plans to close shop by the end of the month.
Photo: Tsai Wei-chi, Taipei Times
Because of the Shida Night Market’s location within a residential area, expansion of the night market in recent years has caused local residents to complain to the city government about the growing levels and amounts of noise, garbage and greasy smoke produced.
Many of the restaurants and clothing stores in the Shida Night Market have set up shop in alleys less than 6m across and are in violation of a Taipei City urban planning bylaw which prohibits the operation of restaurants, retail stores or service-related businesses in alleys less than 6m wide.
Many of the store owners said they are worried they would be forced to close shop because they do not meet legal requirements.
More than 400 stores in the area switched off their lights in protest, beginning at 8pm, in hopes that it would persuade the Taipei City Government to listen to their pleas and offer a channel of communication. Owners of the stores spanning Pucheng Street, Longquan Street and Shida Road Alley 39, prepared glow sticks and encouraged supporters of the Shida Night Market to take a stand with them.
A number of restaurants in the Shida Night Market area had responded to the Taipei City Government’s crackdown on stores in narrow alleys by closing for lunch on Thursday.
In a move meant to both inconvenience the public and attract its support, many restaurant owners on Thursday closed their stores at noon and put up notices that read: “Why only Shida Night Market?” and “Is it fair?”
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
RSS