Two parking lots serving Saigon’s Nguyen Van Binh Book Street are the latest collateral damage of District 1’s ongoing sidewalk-clearing crusade.
In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks and don’t know, Doan Ngoc Hai, deputy chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, is back on Saigon's streets to continue wiping out sidewalk obstructions after a four-month hiatus.
The most recent items on his hit list: a few parking lots on the pavements of Cong Xa Paris and Hai Ba Trung Streets, according to Tuoi Tre. While pedestrians in the neighborhood might be happy to take a stroll on these freshly cleared thoroughfares, fans of the Nguyen Van Binh Book Street are struggling to find parking places when they visit.
The two parking lots have been serving book street customers ever since the venue was established in January 2016. Deputy Chairman Hai and his team of public order officials descended on the lots early last Sunday and commanded that both facilities cease operation from 6pm that day.
Since Hai’s decision, both the management team and visitors to the book street have had difficulties ironing out the venue’s parking situation as the nearest alternatives – Diamond Plaza or the Youth Cultural House – are also quite far away.
Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Book Street Company Le Hoang met with Hai and his team on Monday afternoon in an attempt to appeal the latter’s decision to remove the parking lots.
Hoang said the parking lots at either end of Nguyen Van Binh were zoned in the master plan which included the book street and was approved by Hua Ngoc Thuan, deputy chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City administration.
“Parking areas are an essential part of the book street,” Hoang said at the meeting, Tuoi Tre reports. “The book street welcomes some 5,000 visitors on a daily basis, and double that amount at the weekends, so having the parking space close to the venue makes it more convenient for the public.”
Hai, meanwhile, was adamant that the lot on Cong Xa Paris Street should close as its license expired in 2015. Moreover, attendants at the lot had violated regulations by collecting fees, as both parking facilities are supposed to be free. However, the deputy chairman agreed that the Hai Ba Trung parking zone could reopen as a free public lot.
Saigoneer is conducting a short survey on District 1’s sidewalk-clearing campaign. Let us know your thoughts on the topic here.
[Photo via Zing]
