Letter from the Editor

by Jessica Fan

A problem will prevail when we simply get used to it.

We find commercial promotion stands block our ways in pedestrian zones and footbridges and cause an eye-sore to our city, but we have become immune
to the phenomenon and indifferent to such direct sales methods.

The problem of street sales promotion activities has persisted for a few years. Pull-up stands, posters and banners are put up along pedestrian zones, which are designated to improve the environment for public leisure, in crowded and busy districts like Mong Kok and Causeway Bay .

Companies use the public areas to carry out commercial activities for free. Their salespeople hassle pedestrians who pass by and thrust their leaflets into the pedestrians’ hands while reciting their company marketing scripts in a rapid-fire manner. They cause nuisance and obstructions. But since they are not selling tangible goods, they will not be treated and controlled as illegal hawking. Legal loopholes give privilege to street sales and promotion.

Our community cannot take such activities as a characteristic while seeing decades-old street stalls that have witnessed the city’s past and are part of our culture being driven out for the sake of redevelopment. Half of the licensed stalls in Wan Chai’s Tai Yuen Street market are being forced to go and give way to a new residential complex under construction. Stallholders affected are given limited compensation and removal options.

This street is popular. Residents in the neighbourhood consider this old-style open market as part of their daily life and see the stall owners as friends. Visitors find the stalls full of local flavour.

Old versus new, past against future, heritage alongside development - we need to find a balance and embrace the co-existence of all these elements to keep the city vibrant and unique. In this issue, we give a special coverage of our streets – we look into the problem of street sales promotion, the dispute over the Tai Yuen Street market clearance and the attractiveness of streets in Sham Shui Po. Hong Kong ’s streets are full of their characters.