Recently Reading: Toward the Livable City cum ramblings on Melbourne and HK
The book I bought back from July finally arrives my mailbox: MERCI yuen :)
I didn’t have much energy left after work, so I didn’t intend to give it a deep read. I casually flipped to a chapter called “Divorcing the City” written by Lynda Morgenroth. In the beginning of this chapter, she shared her experience of how she traded her culture-rich life in Cambridge MA with off-street parking, porche, etc – basically the package deal you get from a suburban house:
I traded life in Massachusett’s cultural hub – the nexus of Boston’s and Cambrdige’s museums, bookstores, concert halls, cinemas, and libraries, and over a dozen local ethnic neighbourhoods rich with people and their diverse customs, including their restaurants, groceries and bakeries – for a pretty, pleasant town without a movie theater, museum, art gallery or wine or liquor store.
When I was reading this paragraph, I couldn’t help but relate the situation of the demolition of Central’s Star Ferry Pier. Similar to Morgenroth experience, we are both trading things. She traded her cultural life with suburban physical environment, we traded our heritage and culture with potential economic development. The only difference between the two cases maybe only that she chose to do it, and we’re forced to accept the fate because our government listens to opinion selectively.
Then, it got me to think about Melbourne. When I was shopping with Dalia at Chadstone (the biggest shopping mall in Melbourne) last week, we both agreed that the downside of Melbourne is the shops are the same in every shopping mall – What you could find in Melbourne Central could be also found in Chadstone, Box Hill Centro, and Doncaster Shopping Mall, etc.
What is the underlying cause you ask?
I believe it is mainly the underlying nature of a shopping mall. Trace back to the origin of suburban shopping mall, their tenants are often chain stores because the owner of the shopping mall were not willing to risk their rental income. Therefore, you will find most stores in a shopping mall are chain stores with stable financial background. For example, you find Giodanoes in almost every major shopping centres in Hong Kong, and you find Just Jeans in numerous shopping malls across Metropolitan Melbourne. Moreover, inevitably, chain stores are often of few variations because they have to satisfy the need of general public to achieve a stable revenue. Small indie stores, on the other hand, seldom follows general pop cultures. They attract fewer customer, have a less stable income; and hence are not so welcome by shopping malls. These all thus explains why you found stores available at different shopping malls are almost identical to each others.
The lack of variation of shops brings me to my another point. I recently participated in a research project and was interviewed by Dr Kate Shaw. She asked me what do I find stimulating in Melbourne – and my answers were laneways, little cafes and shops which aren’t part of a retail chain. The critical difference between a chain store and an independent indie store is that when you are shopping in a little tiny indie store, you look at things and think about it; whereas in a Myer (equivalent to a Macy in the States), you just see things and it never enters your system – because it’s the same everywhere, you see it all the time, and it has nothing special to do to you. And the chances are, majority of the people will get more dumb as time goes because they do NOT think anymore. (Seriously, look at A country that is proliferated with suburban shopping malls.)
Of course, no recent planning or city entries of mine are going to end without a relation with the case of Star Ferry Pier. What is happening to the Star Ferry Pier in Hong Kong is stifling all the stimulations that little indie stores can give us. The combination of THE newstand, THE rickshaws, THE clock tower, THE Edinburgh Plaza, THE town hall and THE star ferry pier is not something we can find everywhere in Hong Kong. They are all unique to us and are irreplaceble. Contrastingly, a mall like the proposed Mody Mall is all over Hong Kong. In short, the demolition of the star ferry pier is NOT only altering the physical environment, but also seeding negetive sociological and spiritual effect in our society.
NB. Phew, this is much much longer than what I’ve intended to write! And yes, I eventually have given up on the ABP Essay Competition but then I come up here to ramble for more than 5 paragraphs. Just GREAT.
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