An excavator drove into my home – Yongchun case

Since 2000, residents in Yongchun Market (永春市場) area and Hulin St.( 虎林街), who are affectionately known as the Yongchun Tigers(永春虎), have been continuously engaged in disputes. Some residents finally compromised and agreed to leave the area, however a section of families still remain, unwilling to leave a place so rich in family history and full of emotional attachments.  Property developers use city regeneration laws that are continually being amended and have strayed further and further away from any kind of “justice”. Without consideration for the personal safety of local residents, these developers have repeatedly forced the demolition of houses. Recently, building work once again commenced on the rooftop of one building, where the vibration and banging threatened the structural integrity of the entire building. In addition to the building clamor and banging, which made it near on impossible for the residents to remain inside the building, the builders also destroyed a water tank on the roof leaving those remaining residents with no clean drinking water at their disposal. Chairman, Pung Lung-san(彭龍三) of the Victims of Urban Renewal Alliance(都市更新受害者聯盟) led the citizen journalist into the building to see the real story. It was hard to believe that the building, which was literally in ruins, was once home to many happy loving families.

Mr. Peng fervently stressed that the Urban Renewal Act is devoid of any kind of justice, and that the interests of real estate profiteers are always put before that of citizens. He cited Article 34, “Based on the rights transformation plan, the implementer's name (title) can be used to apply for a building license without submitting the land, building and other rights certifications. “. In ordinary language, this simply means that builders need not obtain the consent of all the residents before commencing work – the building will be demolished no matter whether you move or not! As a consequence of these kinds of ridiculous building regulations, there are residents still living in what is essentially a building site. On the 8th of August, the Victims of Urban Renewal Alliance rallied outside the Construction and Planning Agency(營建署) building. Leader of the Urban Renewal Team(都更組), Chen Hsing-long(陳興隆), admitted that the current legislation has some shortcomings, however he was unwilling to give any concrete answer as to whether he thought that construction should be suspended until the controversy had been settled.

An excavator drove into my home – Yongchun case

URL: http://www.peopo.org/news/81820

(以下為中文對照)

怪手開進我家 永春都更案 ( 大寶 )

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自民國89年開始都市更新的永春市場及虎林街一帶(人稱永春虎)，十多年來紛爭不斷，有的居民妥協搬離，卻仍有一部分的居民不願離開已經擁有深厚情感的 家。然而建商挾著不斷修改、漸走偏「正義」兩字的都市更新條例，罔顧居民人身安全，多次強行拆毀房屋。最近建商又逕行動工，在頂樓敲敲打打，整棟建築物結 構受威脅，無視於仍有居民住在房子裡，而頂樓被破壞的水塔，更讓剩下的居民擔憂未來將沒有乾淨水源可以使用。都市更新受害者聯盟理事長彭龍三帶領公民記者 實際走訪，這些幾乎變成廢墟的建築物，難以想像曾是溫暖的家。彭大哥激動地表示，都市更新條例毫無天理可言，當中許多條例皆是漠視居民人權，把建商利益擺 在第一。他舉例，第三十四條「依權利變換計畫申請建築執照，得以實施者名義為之，並免檢附土地、建物及他向權利證明文件」。白話地講，就是建商不必管有沒 有取的所有居民的同意，反正你不搬，他一樣來拆。因此，才會出現現在這種居民住在工地當中的離譜情況。都更受害者聯盟於8/8營建署外頭的抗議中，質問都 更組組長陳興隆法條的不正義，組長承認法規有缺失，但對於是否應暫緩現行具爭議案件之拆除行動，他卻含糊帶過。

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