Next to the Hung Hom ferry terminal is a three-hectare plot that offers exceptional views of Hong Kong Island. This year, it was used by Zingaro, an equestrian circus troupe from France, and for a few weeks the land had some cultural value for the densely populated neighbourhood. Since then, access to the waterfront has been blocked and the government-owned site has been surrounded by a forbidding fence. There are plans to build two 30-storey buildings there but that is not scheduled to happen for a while. Thus residents were excited when temporary construction began on the site several weeks ago. They imagined a park or some other kind of leisure facility that would allow them to enjoy the extraordinary vistas. What they got was a temporary parking lot for tour buses. The government dumped bitumen on the site and reinforced the fence to ensure nobody without a 60-seater coach could get near the waterfront. That's the kind of madness that gives our urban planners such a bad name.