On the waterfront
Kowloon’s harbour front is changing rapidly with plans for open spaces, public walkways and al fresco dining areas. Rosanne Barrett reports
Walk along the Hung Hom waterfront promenade and you will experience a thick slice of Hong Kong life. There are people fishing, foolhardy swimmers taking a dip in Victoria Harbour, children learning how to ride their bicycles and residents practising tai chi. Then you reach the Hung Hom ferry pier and it all stops, your walk cut short by a barbed-wire fence blocking the harbour front. But this is soon to change with the Hong Kong government’s revitalisation of the south Kowloon waterfront area.
Soon you will be able to walk along the entire southern harbour front from Hung Hom to Tsim Sha Tsui. Along the way you’ll experience the diversity of the city – the family-friendly atmosphere of Whampoa, the industrial energy of East Tsim Sha Tsui, the hustle and bustle of Tsim Sha Tsui — and then it will be only a short stroll to the public art hub of West Kowloon that should begin construction in 2012.
By the end of next year, the government says the Hung Hom promenade will be “beautified” and extended to link up with the East Tsim Sha Tsui walkway at the Harbourfront Horizon Hotel. There are also plans to develop a block currently used as a car park into a dining precinct, complete with raised walkways connecting through to performing arts venue the Coliseum. Local councillor Cheung Yan-hong declined to comment on the project or a possible timeframe. But although these developments are welcomed by locals, on the western side of Kowloon’s waterfront, some proposed changes are causing controversy.
In May the Hong Kong government formally approved a plan for the Tsim Sha Tsui Star Ferry bus terminus to be “revitalised” into a piazza and open space, which officials say will encourage tourism. Assistant tourism commissioner Winifred Chung says the Star Ferry pier, the already relocated clock tower, the flagpoles and graffiti by local artist Tsang Tsou-choi, ‘the Kong of Kowloon’, must remain. She said in a statement the piazza would improve pedestrian traffic flow through the area and improve “connectivity” with other parts of Tsim Sha Tsui.
But many locals are not impressed, saying it will make everyday people less inclined to use the ferry and force them to walk about 15 minutes to the proposed new terminus at Mody Road. On August 1, two action groups, Our Bus Terminal and the Public Transportation Concern Alliance, presented a petition with more than 6,000 signatures at the government headquarters in Central. “When the bus terminus is removed, the piazza will become another Golden Bauhinia Square, which only tourists will visit. They will come, take pictures, and leave by coach again,” says chairman of Our Bus Terminal, Leslie Chan Ka-long. The Star Ferry company has also raised concerns, saying its forecasts suggest a drop of between 8 percent and 11 percent once the bus terminus is relocated.
Some commentators have criticised the plans as haphazard and lacking vision. The Hung Hom plan was approved by the Town Planning Board in 2007 but major reconstruction has yet to happen. Likewise, the West Kowloon cultural precinct development saga has dragged on for years. But change may be on the way.
The South China Morning Post recently reported that the Harbourfront Enhancement Committee may seek to change its structure and “gain more teeth” by forming a committee headed by the Chief Secretary. In this way the commission would have broader oversight and be able to allocate budgets. The Development Bureau has yet to determine an outcome for this proposal. Hopefully it will lead to smarter harbour-front plans in the future.
|
