A meeting at city hall yesterday discussed what to do about the mess that Pattaya has become recently. They talked about environment, culture, and other ways of making Pattaya more hospitable.Can I make some suggestions folks?
- Double the distance new buildings have to be from the street in order to create wider sidewalks with places for plants and grass. Insist residential construction limit the house footprint to 66% of lot size in order to create more grass and greenery and open space.
- Request new buildings reflect Thai architecture a little more... somehow. Discourage any more construction of those awful cement row houses.
- Clean up the hundreds of electrical and telephone wires that cause visual clutter. Disallow signage that stands perpendicular to a building facade. Enforce a law that 75% of a sidewalk in front of businesses must be left free for pedestrians. Tear down massive billboards and create a maximum signage area law.
- Take some of the city tax money to buy empty lots (especially on Beach Road and Second Road) and turn them into parks, or at least garden-like shopping promenades, where the focus is on plant-life first, and retail second.
- Ban tour buses from Beach Road at all hours. Make Beach Road a limited access road after sunset for motorcycle taxis and baht buses only... same for the Sois between Beach Road and Second Road.
- Finish work on the highway that bypasses Pattaya. Finish work on the bypass road alongside the railroad tracks. Keep traffic as far East of Sukhumvit Road as possible.
- Ticket people who double park. Create more parking garages... free parking garages. Restrict the ability to park or stand on narrow roads like Soi Diana.
- Create noise ordinances. Do something about the "chainsaw" motorcycles. Enforce vehicle emissions laws. Have beer bars and shops and restaurants and vendors and everyone else turn down their music.
- Create market areas, with a thought towards cleanliness, airiness, and reflecting Thai culture a little more. Move the food carts away from the sidewalks. Create parking places for vendors and carts and deliveries and pick-ups.
- Set up parking meters to pay for some of it. Create a small city property tax to pay for some of it. Use traffic fines to pay for some of it. Create a city hotel tax to pay for some of it.
8 comments:
well they sound like all great ideas to me.
As we all know here that common sense isn't the strongest points of a lot of Thais.
You should run for a government position down there, like a volunteer position and clean the Beach Road up.
Brunty
But wouldn't that bring pattaya just that little bit closer to being just another western style resort town...
I believe the beauty and style of Thailand is to some degree the kaos.
I would hate for it to become homogeonized too much.
What next....Taco Bell
I think you have some great ideas. I woudl use them here in our small town but the older people over rule all(even me who is a council member)
David:
I can't really agree with you. Saying that "the beauty and style of Thailand is to some degree the chaos" is like saying that "the beauty and style of New York is to some degree the crime", or "the beauty and style of Los Angeles is to some degree the smog."
Pattaya can take down cluttering overhead power lines, silence loud bars and motorcycles, take a bit of care and thought in building new hotels, and control traffic a little better and still be Thai... if not moreso without those distracting nuiscances.
I think that for you to believe that Thailand would be "less Thai" if it was cleaner, quieter, more orderly, and more environmentally conscious demeans Thailand and belittles what it could be and should strive to be.
kaos is disorder.
In my opinion there is nothing drasticly wrong with some forms of disorder as long as it is not infringing too much on other people.Kaos is the traffic, load music, smells, sanook of the people parking all over the place on a sunday at the beach.
There rights as they see it.
Murder, violence,smog etc is not kaos it is crime which i never mentioned.
I did not say it would be less Thai and i certainly did not demean the country...Quite the opposite in fact.
And what should Thailand "strive to be"?
Yes, I realize you didn't mention murder, violence, smog, but I used them as examples because they can be considered "part and parcel" to New York or Los Angeles, and yet still detract from it... much like the problems Pattaya has... solutions to which I mentioned... in this post.
Thai people are free to develop their country in whatever direction they want (at least inasmuch as, to use your words, it doesn't infringe too much on other countries). However, environmental stewardship; the peace, health, safety and well-being of its citizens; the culture that Thailand so drastically wishes to preserve; and the tourist industry they so enthusiastically wish to embrace... these are all things that are threatened by pollution, congestion, disorder, unchecked development, and yes, even this "kaos" you mention.
This is not my call to tear down Walking Street, or to shut down all bars and turn off all music, or strip Thailand of it's excitement and edgy reputation... but instead is my call to use urban planning, community development, civic maintenance, construction and traffic laws, taxation and cultural nurturing in order to improve Pattaya.
I suppose you can argue that more traffic, more ugly buildings, more crowding, more treacherous sidewalks, more noise, more pollution and such somehow will improve Pattaya... or make it somehow more "Thai", based on the fact that Thailand is currently crowded, treacherous, noisy and polluted... (which is what you seem to be stating) but I definitely disagree with you.
And thers 1 more thing...
As they are creating all this new beurocrisy (spelling?)the prices for everything must rise.
Soon to be even more out of reach for the average Thai who also enjoys Pattaya.
Remember it is us who is creating the demand and in turn the supply for all this.
Parking meters,Parking inspectors and infringment notices...sounds like Singapore to me..
P.s i enjoy your blog...Bruntys too as is i spend much time in Ubon.
It goes without saying that things will be more expensive in Pattaya with new civic improvements. Nicer places have been more expensive than crappy ones ever since the Garden of Eden. (Besides, Pattaya is already a whole lot more expensive than Thailand in general... and still much less expensive than Phuket, Hua Hin, or Ko Samui. One might as well complain about those places as well for pricing out Thai people.)
Singapore? Perhaps. Probably. It's up to the Thai people. They're the ones having meetings to improve the environment, preserve Thai culture, and make Pattaya a major tourist destination (kind of like Singapore is now). They've already decided to clean up the place... I think my suggestions are a good place to start.
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