On a Saturday morning, with the sun barely up, a group of people gathers at a dimly lit storefront in Taipei City’s Beitou District (北投).
The chatting crowd, wearing slippers and looking as if they had just rolled out of bed, seem a little out of place on the otherwise quiet Zhonghe Street (中和街). But the red banner across the storefront explains it all: The Zhonghe Community is hosting its annual tree-planting event. Free roses and camellia plants are given to anyone who wants them at home.
“We are one of the first communities in Taipei City to have applied for tree-planting subsidies from the Forestry Bureau,” former Zhonghe Community Development Association (ZCDA) president Tsai Tsong-min (蔡聰敏) said, his eyes beaming, while busily responding to inquiries.
PHOTO: MEGGIE LU, TAIPEI TIMES
“Are there any roses left?” one asks.
“I want three pots of petunias,” another says.
“This is our third year and in addition to giving away plants, we are going to get volunteers to garden part of the community sidewalk,” he said.
Tsai, a former construction materials vendor, has lived in Beitou for more than 40 years. After retiring, he and the association’s current president, Lin Cheng-hsiung (林正雄), began promoting a green and beautiful community.
The Zhonghe Community Development Center is Tsai’s private property, which he offers to neighbors for public use.
“The center has 104 members who pay a NT$200 annual fee and get a free plant each year if they come to the tree-planting event. In return, the community gets extra pairs of eyes and ears to tell the government where road or street-light repairs are needed,” Tsai said. “They also clean up the sidewalks.”
The tree-planting is just part of the center’s effort to make the community green and pretty, as Zhonghe Community also falls under the bureau’s Community Forestry program, which provides subsidies to purchase tree seedlings year-round, bureau specialist Wu Chia-chen (吳家禎) said.
Since the creation of the center in 1994, Zhonghe Community has received a long list of community development awards, winning, among others, the Model Community of Taipei City in 2006, Wu said.
“While 12 communities have received subsidies to host community tree-planting events this year, Zhonghe is the neighborhood with the most potted plants,” Wu said.
Under the Community Forestry program, greening efforts have two phases, Tsai said.
“First, we approach the community section by section by summoning volunteers to tend to public trees and flowers one small zone at a time. Second, we give residents of the community tree seedlings to plant at home,” he said.
While some seedlings are subsidized by the bureau, a large share comes directly from Tsai’s seedling garden, which lies at the foot of Datun Mountain (大屯山).
“The [seedling garden] used to be a completely barren field, with piles of discarded marble and tiles dumped in it,” a local resident surnamed Fu (傅) said.
Fu said that after applying with the Taipei City Government to adopt the state-owned land, Tsai plowed through rock and dirt to turn it into an urban garden.
“He named the place ‘Garden of Dreams,’” she said.
Five years ago, Tsai began to grow cherry tree seedlings and handed them out to whoever wanted them, she said.
“I envision a community where streets are lined with cherry blossoms in February, so that Taiwanese need not go abroad to see the natural beauty. We want to build a cherry blossom alley,” Tsai said.
Pointing at cherry blossoms, camellias, camphor and other plants in the 1,800-household community, Tsai proudly chronicles which trees in his neighbor’s gardens or sidewalks were provided by the association and when each was planted. For stores on Zhonghe Street that do not have soil for plantation, the association provides two pots of plants each to decorate storefronts.
“This way, everyone can participate in the greening,” Tsai said.
“The community park at the corner used to be full of dog droppings and the trees and flowers were a mess … After the association was created, our volunteers began to take ownership of our neighborhood by adopting public plants, watering and pruning them to make our community beautiful. The park is now a popular date destination,” he said.
By involving people in tree planting, they get a sense of accomplishment, Tsai said.
“They can point at a tree in the community park or on a sidewalk and say: ‘I planted this.’ It’s like raising children,” he said.
But the energetic Tsai’s work does not end at greening his community.
“Five years ago, I started a community patrol system where volunteers walk rounds in the neighborhood at night,” Tsai said.
Although the patrols were discontinued last year for lack of funds, many residents still speak appreciatively of the service.
Volunteers from the association also write proposals to various government agencies every year to apply for funds to improve the neighborhood.
“We have an entertainment program for the elderly where people can come to the center to sing karaoke or chat. This is made possible through funding from the Ministry of the Interior,” he said.
“This year, we plan to start a home care program for the elderly,” with funding from the Taipei City Department of Social Welfare, he said.
“We have invited speakers from the Society of Wilderness [an environmental group] to teach volunteers about water and soil conservation and tree planting. We have also sent volunteers to take courses at the Taipei City Department of Social Welfare as well,” he said.
All the hard work seems to have paid off. Not only are neighbors bonding, but the community is getting increasingly pleasant to live in, Tsai said, adding that “real estate prices have gone up about 30 percent since we began clean-up the neighborhood. People who purchase a house here do not want to sell.”
“So far, we have a five-star community. Add a home for the elderly and we’ll be a six-star one,” Tsai said.
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