Bookshop was not replaced by any business
In Happy Valley’s Sing Woo Road some years ago, we were so pleased to see the opening of a Dymocks bookstore. This was well frequented it seemed, and a very welcome change from the creeping band of banks and real estate agents elsewhere in our streets.
Two years later it closed, declaring a 30 per cent rent increase as the main reason.
Now this may be something that we have to endure in this city of Mammon, but what sticks in the craw is the fact that the very same unit has remained empty ever since, a gaping concrete yawn covered by an open steel grille. This is not an aesthetic nor encouraging sight.
Other cities curtail this unsightly and wasteful empty unit problem with penalties – perhaps Hong Kong could consider the same.
It may not bring back our beloved bookshops but it might limit some landlords’ seeming preference to stick two fingers up at their fellow citizens.
