https://www.scmp.com/rss/322069/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Go to just about any park in Hong Kong, and you will find a long list of banned activities listed outside. No bicycles, no skateboards, no ball games, no dogs, and don’t even think about walking on the grass. These rules are easy to mock – “no fun allowed!” – but the public’s attitudes may have something to do with it. In a poll we conducted earlier this year, people were asked which, if any, of nine frequently banned activities they thought could be allowed in most open spaces. About half the... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2172506/how-put-fun-back-hong-kongs-parks-flexible?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2172506/how-put-fun-back-hong-kongs-parks-flexible?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 11 Nov 2018 03:30:15 +0000 Imagine that, on your way home one evening, you stop at the neighbourhood fruit stall – the stallholder recommends the strawberries. You pass the outdoor cafe where you sometimes eat lunch, squeeze past a row of mobile phone subscription salesmen, and make your way down the street, dodging delivery trolleys. Finding a stack of beauty salon pamphlets suddenly shoved into your hands, you locate an overflowing bin and carefully deposit them inside. To your surprise as you reach the MTR station, a... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2142647/how-poor-regulation-killing-vibe-hong-kongs-streets?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2142647/how-poor-regulation-killing-vibe-hong-kongs-streets?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 21 Apr 2018 03:33:57 +0000 Did you know that, in Hong Kong, open space does not have to be open to the public? The government’s “Planning Standards and Guidelines” requires 2 square metres of open space per person – but it is never called “public open space”. Instead, it is “recreation open space”, and need only be accessible to an “identifiable residential or worker population”. Not only are shopping mall piazzas counted as open space, so are private gardens in large residential developments that are only for residents’... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1913300/how-hongkongers-are-being-cheated-out-vital-open-space?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1913300/how-hongkongers-are-being-cheated-out-vital-open-space?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 15 Feb 2016 10:45:52 +0000 In his policy address, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying made housing and land supply a priority. He said the government is pursuing numerous measures to increase land supply, including rezoning green belt and other sites, building or extending new towns in the northern New Territories and on Lantau, using brownfield sites and carrying out reclamation outside the harbour. These will effect ecology, water quality and urban air ventilation to varying degrees, which means we must ensure housing is... https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1903829/why-hong-kong-governments-housing-targets-are-based-more?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1903829/why-hong-kong-governments-housing-targets-are-based-more?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 24 Jan 2016 01:30:33 +0000