I read with interest that Hopewell Holdings is going ahead with the redevelopment of its hotel project on Kennedy Road ('Mega Tower scheme could be scaled back', September 21). There are always some objections when one has to build something for the public good, including the Mass Transit Railway when its construction was being planned. But one cannot please everyone. I am glad common sense has prevailed and the project is going ahead. Several years from now, people will look back and see what a wonderful thing the development was. There are similarities with the project to build Villa Lotto, in Broadwood Road [Happy Valley], where I have lived for some 20 years. It also happens to be a Hopewell project. Broadwood Road was a one-lane passageway linking Tai Hang Road and Link Road. I can only call it a passageway because parts of it were so narrow that only one car could pass at a time - carefully, so as not to scrape the barriers or the hillside. Drivers had to sound their horns, even at night, to make sure there was no oncoming traffic, otherwise one would have to reverse to make way for the other car. There were objections from some people at the time against the development. They objected for all sorts of reasons, but never gave the real reason - their own vested interests: 'go and build it anywhere but not in front of my home'. Now, the rundown houses there have been replaced by several major developments housing more than 1,000 homes. Broadwood Road is now a real two-lane road, which has been providing residents of Stubbs Road and Tai Hang easy access to Causeway Bay and Happy Valley for the past 20 years. And residents in the area generally are more happy that our development went up, enhancing the value of properties in the general area, not to mention the value of our own properties. Go ahead, Hopewell; please do not wait any longer. Go ahead and bring back to Wan Chai the vibrancy and happy life it once had. It will only be a win-win development for Hong Kong. Thomas Kwok, Happy Valley
