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1	Open observation decks on our big buildings. Especially the TOP of IFC (not the middle or wherever it is now) – and open them to all people, not just Mainlanders.
2	Everyone should have weekends off. If you work five days a week, you get a weekend off to decompress.
3	And there should be paid overtime for a 40-hour workweek.
4	And a mandatory minimum wage while we’re at it.
5	And how about staggering lunch hours? There are a million things to do in addition to eating lunch, and millions of people are in millions of lines waiting to do them. What if offices in different areas of the city all agreed to stagger lunch hours? Maybe you could actually have time to sit down for a bite.
6	Recycle. Actually recycle. Provide economic incentives to do so. Put bins in every residential and office building. Maybe even set up a daily schedule, as in Japan (Mondays for paper, Tuesdays for plastic and so on). Let us recycle glass as well. Encourage responsible waste disposal behavior (maybe it’d help if we learned to throw away our own trash at a McDonald’s).
Christine Loh, Civic Exchange:
7	“Ensure pedestrians can walk at ground level and not increasingly on footbridges and raised levels.”
8	“Create a Hong Kong Central Park on the reclaimed land in Central.”
9	“Ban trawling in in-shore waters.”
10	More concerts in the park.
11	We also need longer maternity leave (and the government complains about a declining birth rate.)
12	Bring back teatime (bonus: mid-afternoon blood sugar level boost).
13	No more pastel buildings, parks and sitting-out areas.
14	Lower the charges for the Western Tunnel.
Paul Zimmerman, Convenor, Designing Hong Kong Harbour District:
15	“Give Hong Kong a mayor. Someone in charge of planning and strategic development for the city, someone who cares about the streets, the parks, the harbor – a person who cares about living here and is willing to fix things himself rather than leaving it for his children to sort out.” 
16	“Put things in the right place: Parks and culture in Central, cruise terminals and commerce at West Kowloon, residential and recreation areas at Kai Tak.”
18	“Stop relying on land sales revenue and introduce a sales tax to broaden the tax base.”
19	“Organize Harbor Day every year.”
20	Make SoHo pedestrian-only. Or at least close it to traffic from 11am to 11pm. There’s barely enough room to navigate the sidewalks as it is.
21	Stop construction on Saturdays before 10am. There’s a time and a place, and Saturday morning is not hammer time.
22	Stringently enforce air pollution laws. There are plenty of them, but poison continues to belch from huge factories on the Mainland. We’re all part of China now, aren’t we?
23	Do more to honor Bruce Lee. And not just with some statue on the lame Avenue of Stars. How about Statue Square? That’s why we’ve got it. And while we’re at it, let’s start measuring up Stephen Chow.
24	The Mid-Levels escalator should go both ways, all the time (as it was supposed to before they ran out of money).
25	Extend banking hours past 4:30PM. Who finishes work that early except fishermen and newsagents?
26	Enforce rent control in Rat Alley. Must every square inch of a Hong Kong institution be wiped away to make room for another “concept” or “fusion” place?
27	Extend happy hour. Who finishes work before nine anyway?
Longhair Leung Kwok-leung, Legco Representative:
28	“Have an election by universal suffrage.”
29	“Abolish the idea of the West Kowloon Project.”
30	“Build a monument for the June 4th Tiananmen victims outside the Legco building.”
31	“Introduce a proper social security system.”
32	Cover all of Causeway Bay like they do in Osaka. And air-condition it.
33	Stop playing the theme song from “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” on TVB and 903FM. It doesn’t matter who had it first, we can’t stop thinking about “product” whenever it comes on.
34	More decent jukeboxes in bars. Take a page from Le Jardine.
35	A little less Twins.
36	A cleaner Mongkok.
Christina Li, Assistant Curator, ParaSite Art Space:
37	“More art magazines. I think people need to engage in regular critical discussions of the art scene. It might help inspire constructive solutions to the problems we currently face.”
38	Cheaper drinks in Lan Kwai Fong.
39	Start a public campaign against stench. The city does not NEED to smell like rotting cabbage everywhere. We know there’s already a pro-deodorant announcement in the Park N Shops, but we should do more.
40	Stop calling skinny girls “fat.”
41	Stop the police from disproportionably raiding gay parties.
42	Let’s get an equal age of consent for gays and heterosexuals. We’re ALMOST there.
43	While we’re at it, how about gay marriage too?
44	No mobile phones on buses and in cinemas.
45	More Mavis Fan. She plays a mean piano. (And she’s easy on the eyes.)
46	Cool it with the air conditioners.
47	Plant more trees. And replace all palm trees with banyan trees. Palms aren’t even native!
Jasper Donat and Michael Denmark, Co-founders, Branded (Marketing Agency):
48	“Build an 18-hole public golf course at Kai Tak, overseen by the Jockey Club.”
49	Redesign the police summer uniform - that putrid green must be the least flattering shade on the planet.
50	No TVs on the bus.
51	No plastic bags at 7-elevens and grocery stores.
52	No more carcasses hanging in windows.
53	More American football on TV. What other place in the world doesn’t televise the Super Bowl, the single most-watched televised event on earth? And since when did broadcasters decide we’re all cricket fans?
Yan Sham-Shackleton, Artist:
54	“Build a contemporary art museum or an international center of photography. We’re one of the few major cities in the world without a contemporary art museum.”
55	“Victoria’s Secret should come to Hong Kong because it’s cheap, sexy, high-quality lingerie.”
56	Tax-free wine.
57	Stop calling bus engines “environmentally friendly.” That’s just semantics (and bad semantics at that).
58	While we’re on semantics and buses, let’s rename the “Rehabus” – do the people in that situation really enjoy riding around in a mobile pun?
Cyd Ho, Chairman of the Human Rights Monitor:
59	“Everyone should join the December 4th rally. Get the government to listen to the people (3pm Victoria Park).”
60	Fast lanes for pedestrians on the sidewalks.
61	We need to enforce laws against spam calls and texts.
62	And let’s free Big Crook. Even Jackie Chan, who called for intellectual pirates to be “lined up along Tsim Sha Tsui and shot,” thinks the poor Bittorrent downloader was unfairly punished. (And, really, the only person who deserves to be behind bars for anything connected to “Miss Congeniality” is Sandra Bullock).
63	Give Hello Kitty a mouth.
64	Restore domestic helpers’ minimum wages to what they were before they were slashed during the economic downturn. And give them permanent residency if they’ve been here seven years continuously. Can someone explain why this has not happened yet?
Fruit Chan, Film Director:
65	“Support the local film industry more. Piracy ruined its foundations. The police should get more stringent. Their actions would help us make better films with higher budgets. And stop legal DVDs from coming out right after general release – give the audience a reason to go to the cinema.” 
66	Increase the speed limit on the Eastern Expressway to 90kmh – everybody does it anyway.
67	Enforce all the animal cruelty laws that are on the books.
68	Bring back Water World. Or at least install some wave machines in public pools.
Nick Willsher, Founder, Entertaining Asia:
69	“Build a 1,000-person capacity venue in the center of Hong Kong Island which could cater to dance music events and medium-sized concerts. The government should get advice from promoters before doing it on their own.” 
70	“The Hong Kong Tourist Board should get more involved in local underground events like the World Battle of the Bands and Rockit, and not just support the tourist events or sites.”
71	Improve the food at Ocean Park. It’s depressing that McDonald’s serves the best food in the entire park.
72	The government should put a little more effort into their public announcement campaigns. They look straight out of the 80s! That is, when they’re not cartoons.
73	No more triad movies, or pretentious stuff with a star-crossed Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung. How about more Hong Kong period dramas?
74	Cantopop stars should not feel obligated to act as well.
75	More benches on the MTR platforms for old folks. 
76	The South China Morning Post should go tabloid-size for easy gym reading.
77	Redesign the $10 note. No more purple latticework, golden ribbons and fractured Pegasuses. It should say on it clearly what it is: “Happy Lunar New Year from Granny!” While we’re at it, take the jumbo jet off the $500 note. And abolish the ten-cent piece.
78	Sunglasses at night should incur a $20 drink surcharge, except for bona fide Cantopop stars (who are properly documented).
Chris Slaughter, Managing Director, APV Production Company: 
79	“Clean up the traffic on Caine Road and Bonham Road. It’s easy: Caine should be one-way east and Bonham one-way west. Mid-Levels would be greatly improved.” 
80	“Build a truly great Mexican restaurant.”
81	“There should be government and public support to develop a real independent production movement here. How about real international standards for the television production industry here? Government support is all for the film industry and not for the TV industry.”
82	Let’s apologize to each other more. We live in a small place, so let’s be friendly.
83	Cheaper books. More people will read.
84	Public consultations should actually be advertised to the public.
85	Let’s have midnight movies at all major theaters.
86	And a more accessible make-out rock. We know there’s one somewhere in the New Territories. But sometimes love can’t wait.
Danny Yung, Artistic Director of cultural collective, Zuni Icosahedron: 
87	“Open a dialogue between cultural institutions and the government. We need a platform where people can be honest and frank. It’s easy - the government just needs to hand out a grant and let people create a mini-think tank for Hong Kong culture and give them opportunities for research and development.” 
88	And more balconies. The government should be specific about how safe they need to be and we’ll make them that way. More people died taking down balconies than died from faulty ones.
89	Get shoeshine guys at the airport (and a decent smoking area).
90	Legalize busking.
91	Extend the MTR to Kennedy Town faster.
92	And put an escalator in Sai Ying Pun. It’d revitalize the whole area.
93	Someone should teach Melvis the words to Elvis songs.
94	Build a connecting bike path on the harbor front. How long are we going to wait for this simple, yet huge improvement to city life?
95	Open a flea market on Gough Street on Sundays.
Benny Chia, Director of the Hong Kong Fringe Club:
96	“Privatize our performing arts venues. The Leisure and Cultural Services Department holds 95 percent of arts resources and venues and Hong Kong doesn’t have a level playing field in the arts. The LCSD have done a superb job over the past 20 years - we used to be a one-horse town with only City Hall as a venue. They have been building these facilities since the 1980s and were instrumental to their development. But it’s time to let go. The government set up the Cultural Heritage Commission whose main recommendation was that the LCSD privatize its venues. The government agreed, the LCSD agreed, but as they weren’t given a deadline, nothing has happened. They should privatize the venues, set them up as statutory bodies and then use the expertise of the LCSD employees to run them. It’s a great way to turn the venues back to the community, like the Arts Centre.”
97	Get new glasses on Li Ka-shing.
98	Make the roads out of jigsaw pieces so that they can be taken apart without drilling.
99	A proper law that restricts local monopolies.
100	More concerted efforts to preserve historical buildings in the city. Less kowtowing to land developers just because they have more dollars.
101	Fewer corporate spokespersons for companies to hide behind. And more corporate accountability when it comes to issues of public concern.
102	Gym memberships that are payable by the month for those that want them. Eliminate lengthy and protracted contract deals so this city can get in shape without being gouged.
103	Put more money into social services so people with psychiatric disorders can get the help they need. And support the people who need help. We need to eliminate the stigma for those who seek out support.
China Stylus Creative Studio:
104	“Make fairer landlord laws. They’re too slanted toward property owners.” 
105	“Eliminate the velvet rope mentality. It should be illegal not to allow anybody into any place or club if they want to go there.”
106	“Everybody should stop going on about how good design in London and New York is. Hong Kong has some great people who do talented things. Support your local independent people who have lots of talent instead of importing overseas talents who haven’t got a clue about what Hong Kong is about.”
107	There should also be mandatory fines for drivers who keep their engines idling - no matter who they are.
108 And more late-night eating establishments for those who want meals in the wee hours.
Paul Hsu, Owner, Elite Concepts restaurant group
109	“It should be easier to get an alfresco dining license. Right now it’s nearly impossible.”
110	Ban Mickey Mouse, Snoopy and Hello Kitty clothing for those over 25 years of age.
111	And design things properly BEFORE YOU BUILD.
112	More public art. They do it in Macau and Guangzhou.
113	And finally, bring walla-walla water taxis back to the piers already.


113 Ways to Improve Hong Kong

HK Staff compiles a list of suggestions, in no particular order.

Christine Loh, Civic Exchange:

113 Ways to Improve Hong Kong

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}HK Staff compiles a list of suggestions, in no particular order.

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Christine Loh, Civic Exchange:

HK Staff compiles a list of suggestions, in no particular order.

Christine Loh, Civic Exchange: