- consistent electricity, clean running hot/cold/warm water, internet, tv cable
- fresh produce market
- 24-hour convenience store
- mass transit (metro station, bus stop, light rail stop, commuter rail station, etc)
- food stalls
- bank
- large retail store (the ones that sell literally everything, and cheap)
- hospital/clinic
- parks
- schools (if I have children)
- interactive/chill neighbors
- family/friends
After observing the manor for a couple of hours, the following from my list could NOT be found:
- fresh produce market
- 24-hour convenience store (the Korean mart I saw wasn't open 24 hours...I think)
- mass transit (although this problem is more city-wide than just the manor)
- food stalls (bougie-ass restaurants and chains ain't stalls!)
- large retail store
- hospital/clinic
- parks (the small plot of land for children's playground and the deserted sculpture area ain't parks either)
- interactive/chill neighbors (the place is deserted, no one outside except security)
- family/friends (need permission from security to have friends over...wtf)
The manor only has 3 things from my list! Therefore it is an unlivable place for me.
What stood out the most was how utterly quiet, deserted, and regulated the area was. There was no one walking around (except security guards, cleaning people, and us), no healthy noises of chattering or laughing anywhere, and the rules and regulations of the place were too many to remember. We were all shooed by the front-gate security guard as no visitors were allowed (since the inhabitants "paid" for their privacy), so we split up and entered the luxury prison through other gates. When inside, while we didn't get chased away, the multiple security guards did tell us no photographs and no barging into the living headquarters. We took several photos anyway, and my group managed to get inside the living compounds since the door wasn't even locked! We went up to the top floor (6th floor) and roamed the deserted hallways. I was very tempted to knock on one of the doors, just to see how the inhabitants would react upon seeing a stranger in this enclosed compound. Would they totally freak out because I'm not bougie and high-class like them but I somehow managed to encroach upon their paid privacy and spread my non-upper class filth among their privileged spaces? Or would they be happy to finally have a visitor since they can't have any visitors without permission? Also from the 6th floor we could gaze upon the artificial courtyard of the compound, and we saw a moderate-size and bougie-looking swimming pool and an extremely small playground with only 4 tiny sets of play structures. What a nightmare for the children! There is no outlet for imagination and socialization!
Another shocking place I visited was the garden department store. Again, nearly deserted and no photographs allowed. What bullshit! In the department stores and shopping centers in Taiwan or the u.s., the spaces are for people to gather and socialize in addition to mass-consuming products. Sometimes we don't even buy anything as we just chill with friends and walk around. In the garden, such socialization is not allowed since, well, we can't even take pictures! Granted, most of the stores haven't opened yet, but I have doubts that this place will ever be full and lively with people even when it's completely finished because it's so regulated and controlled and shit.
The lack of cheap restaurants, markets, open spaces for socialization, and people make the manor an exclusionary location where only rich people who loathe non-rich people like the majority of the people here desire to live. It is unsettling to think that many future projects of similar scale and kind may/will be implemented, further dividing the city along oppressive lines of class and status. When people become divided, mutual support and understanding cease. Friendly exchanges of good will and cultural information halt. Then, resentment and hatred against the other group rise. Ultimately, the pot will boil over and a class war shall begin.
Entrance to The Manor
The security guard attempting to kick us out
Western style architecture. Absolutely no reference to local culture and traditions
The swimming pool and the pathetic playground
Dayum hella bougie!
The Garden, the deserted department store
It's like 1984, but with more multinational chains. A good friend likes to refer to this form of control as "distributed-hedo-totalitarianism." Remind me about this next time I'm drinking beer and you're drinking... something else.
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