CHINA BLOG: Hong Kong's issues resemble Seattle'sPuget Sound Business Journal (Seattle)
In terms of its relationship to the environment, Hong Kong seems to have more in common with Seattle than with mainland Chinese cities just a few hours away.
Surveys show that a quality environment is near the top of Hong Kong residents’ concerns, and they consistently demonstrate this in ways that would seem familiar in Seattle.
Hong Kong consists of a group of islands and peninsulas, 424 square miles of land surrounded by salt water. But the former British rulers and now the present administrators have hardened their situation by compressing human habitation into about 20 percent of the total land, leaving the balance mostly green parkland.
While the city’s narrow streets seethe with people, many say what makes this workable is that people know they can escape to Hong Kong’s trails and beaches.
And despite mainland China’s reputation of little regard for individuals’ rights when authorities want land to develop, Hong Kong citizens are active, and often successful, in derailing government development projects.
A case in point is the proposed Central Wanchai Bypass, a Hong Kong waterfront highway proposal that is the near-brother of Seattle’s viaduct.
Hong Kong officials want to build a 2.2-mile tunnel along the downtown waterfront, and have conducted several studies since 1980 indicating the need, but the $2.6 billion project has repeatedly been stopped by activists.
And while the city is building the 50-acre Tamar Development Center on filled-in land on Hong Kong’s harbor to house city government offices, several other proposed “reclamation” projects have been halted by environmental protests by individuals and groups such as the Friends of the Harbour.
Meanwhile, the city has just launched a program to retrofit 1,000 Hong Kong-owned factories in the nearby Pearl River Delta region with pollution-easing equipment. Part of the reason is that when the wind is from the north, pollution from those factories obscures Hong Kong’s relatively clear skies.
And within the city, all taxis run on liquefied natural gas, while the city has passed a law requiring supermarkets and drugstores to next year start charging people 6 cents a bag for plastic bags.
Sound familiar?