Your Say

 |  December 25, 2013

This is an open forum for you, the reader, to express your opinions. Write to: editor@chiangmaicitylife.com. 

Subject: Your Say. Letters can be on any topic but priority will be given to those under 200 words. Letters may be edited for clarity or conciseness. Name and contact details must be supplied.

Cycling Safety 

It is becoming more and more apparent that bicycling in and around the old city has become hazardous. Whilst the local government put contraflow bicycle lanes in some one way streets (e.g. Loi Kroh, Ratchamanka, etc.), these have become almost unmarked and, seemingly, unknown to many motorists and bikers. 

It would be a good thing to re-mark these and put more prominent signage. In addition, along parts of the inner moat road there were excellent cat’s eye type lights flickering, giving some indication that bikes were in existence at night – these have almost all, sadly, died.

Many tourists now rent bikes and the new influx of Chinese tourists can be seen wobbling around the town, causing motorists to have heart attacks. Whilst most motorists are kind and thoughtful, giving way, some are not and seem to resent any cyclist who dare get in their way. Please be kind to cyclists, and remember they have little protection in any collision.

Chiang Mai is a great city to cycle around, so please, government department-in-charge, make it a safer experience by making more obvious bike lanes and crossings.

Andy Moss

Sky Pollution

There is a new huge Jumbotron TV screen over the Nawarat Bridge now, and from our condo it is the brightest thing in the sky!  The Nawarat Bridge is lit up with pretty lights, but this huge bright screen overpowers everything. It is polluting the sky!  If we can’t turn it off, can we at least turn the brightness down?

Granville Kirkup


Art, By Any Other Name

[Re: Your Say, December 2013:] Why pick on street artists by labelling them vandals? Their only crime is introducing expressive paintings into the public realm. Why not instead focus attention on real criminals who do illegal things, like the Wall Street types who have taken over our visual space and force us to view their corporate signs and logos, which are displayed everywhere? The 

urban environment is for everyone to share 

their message. Street artists are just taking their rightful place in the conversation.

D. Elden


Swooning for Sandwiches

As a product of the east coast of the United States, I grew up in sandwich culture and consider myself something of a snob when it comes to organising food between two pieces of bread, so I very much enjoyed your City7 sandwich roundup. I would like to add an honorable mention: the avocado mozzarella sandwich at Peppermint (Rachadamnoen Rd. Soi 5). Sure, the fruits, veggies, and cheese are great, but the bread they use (baked by a friend of the owner) is phenomenal and makes all the difference. It’s some of the best bread I’ve ever had in my life, especially when toasted to perfection.

Kyle

Traffic Tragedies 

Today on a Monday in early December at 11 a.m., northbound traffic on Nimmanhaemin Road was blocked and at a standstill from Suthep Road to Huay Kaew Road. A late morning Monday! How much worse can it get before the city will put it in a left turn lane from Nimmanhaemin to Huay Kaew? How much longer before our lovely city has the reputation that Bangkok does for immovable traffic? A simple solution to a big and growing problem.

A Nimmanhaemin Neighbour


Creative Consciousness

[Re: And the Creativity Oscar Goes To…, December 2013:] The reason we added packaging this year and hope to add merchandising display and retail design in 2014 are that we see many great products that are not well packaged or displayed. This is particularly the case with many craft businesses, but also other sectors (food packaging, for example). We are unlikely to include the interior design of malls. The opening of the many malls in Chiang Mai is a separate issue. We are not saying it is good or bad, we are just saying that there will be more shops designs to consider. We hope that well designed *independent* shops (not part of large chains) inside the malls can also be inspirations to shops outside of malls – be they in the old city centre, Nimman, Baan Tawai, or anywhere. We will open the process for application or nomination for the CDA 2014 in early 2014. As the article correctly states, Chiang Mai Creative City (CMCC) is a voluntary network and initiative with over 40 members coordinated by its secretariat, the 

Chiang Mai University of Science.

Martin Venzky-Stalling

Talk for the Animals

[Re: Where the Wild Things Are, December 2013]: Thank you for this very good story. Illegal wildlife trafficking is such a sad problem, and so stupid. Happy to see that some people are trying to make life better for the animals. They cannot speak for themselves! We must speak for them.

Khamon

[Ed. Thank you! We would also like to print a correction to the article, which has been fixed in the online version but not the printed one. The UK charity that has helped support Wildlife1 is called Hauser Bears, not House of Bears. To learn more about them, visit www.hauserbears.com.]

McRubbish 

After just over one week since opening on Mahidol Road, McDonalds is already showing us the way it will treat the local environment. This rubbish was left dumped outside the new store and is a worrying sign for things to come in Chiang Mai. In the UK, Keep Britain Tidy found that almost a third of all fast food waste dumped on the streets came from McDonalds. With the heavy rains in Chiang Mai today, this rubbish will no doubt end up in the water ways. I probably can’t stop McDonalds serving rubbish food, contributing to childhood obesity and putting local restaurant owners out of business, but I hope this photo will stop McDonalds rubbishing my local neighbourhood.

Steve