Pattaya: City reveals plans for Walking Street - major "mall" style makeover for Thailand's "world class resort"

[Paiman]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

He sent the engineers away to come up with some revised designs ahead of the next discussion on the issue.

That sounds like trouble.

[kingofthemountain]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Gone is the grotty road, broken pavements and out of date frontages - now there is an easy to navigate walking area fit for families.

 

The futuristic designs and bright new look makes the notorious red light district resemble a shopping street - some critics online said it resembled just another mall.

 

There is not a hanging wire - or street walker - in sight!

....blablabla

 

Meanwhile in the real life

 

https://www.pattayamail.com/featured/pattaya-walking-street-electric-cables-snagged-by-truck-bursts-into-flames-302145

[TacoKhun]

1 hour ago, Oldie said:

This is just another red light district. Really nothing special. Many Chinese walk there. But they come from the Bali Hai pier and need to get to their busses or from the busses to one of the boat restaurants using the pier. I don't have the feeling that they walk there because of the nightlife. Some perhaps but not all of them. 

 

you know there is parking space for buses on the pier, right?

Edited June 3, 2020 by TacoKhun

[Skallywag]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

He stressed that any makeover must ensure that the "special smell and flavor" of Walking Street must be maintained.

 

Sounds like he is talking about the many lovely thai ladies' p$$sy's????

[Kerryd]

Lol.
Like people who buy a cheap house near an airport and then lobby to have the airport closed because it's too noisy and their property values aren't going up.

Or the ones who come here, see an area that's been running for 40(+) years and think it should all be moved somewhere else so a small stretch of beach will be opened that they'd never go to anyways because it would be full of boats, jet skis, soi dogs, new piers and sand contaminated with 40(+) years of all manner of filth.

Walking Street isn't going anywhere anytime soon. Every couple of years someone comes up with a new "grand plan" for it that usually involves trying to turn it into a glorified outdoor shopping mall and a couple weeks later that "grand plan" is quietly put on the back shelf to gather dust with all the previous grand plans.

The only way things are going to change is if someone (or some group) with very, very deep pockets comes along and buys up the majority of the properties along there. And I mean "buys" them. Not rents or leases them. 

Only then would they be able to do a wholesale renovation of the area and get rid of the bars and go-gos.
Why hasn't it happened ? Because people (or groups) with that kind of money would have experts who would figure out the cost of such a venture compared to the potential returns and decide if it was worth the expense. If someone thought they could do it and make money on the deal, it would have probably already been done years ago.

And if it ever did happen, the people selling those properties would probably take that windfall of cash and invest it into buying up large hunks of properties somewhere else like maybe Jomtien (for example) and setting up new bars along all those sois where all those tiny little shanty and shophouse bars are now. Kind of like Beach Road used to be.

Why ? Because sex sells and alcohol = profit. Combine the two and it's almost like a ticket to print money (especially for the property owners).

Of course that would cause numerous other businesses in Pattaya to collapse. All the ones supporting all those bars and go-gos and the ones that the patrons and workers in those bars and go-gos spend their money at. Some would relocate. Most would miss the boat and shut down because by the time they realized they should move, there'd be nowhere to move to (that they could afford). All those small businesses aren't going to get many customers from the "tour group" crowds or the "working for minimum wage" clerks in the malls and shops. 

But no worries, I'm sure the "just another mall across from a crappy beach" will attract more than enough customers to keep all the hotels, restaurants, gold shops, karaokes, salons and (normal) massage shops running like before. You know, with all those tour groups that gaggle from the bus to the designated restaurant to the designated mall to the designated tourist attraction and then back on the bus to the designated hotel before heading to the next designated location without ever stopping to shop or eat anywhere else along the way.

One just has to look at how crowded all the other malls are everyday to see that yet another mall would surely have at least dozens of customers crowding it all day long ! Even if most of them are just "window shopping" until it's time to get back on the bus, while the rest are just there for the free air-con. 

And then we could hear all the whining from all the "beach" people about how there's nowhere to drink at the "Walking Street Beach". Nowhere to eat. Shops won't let them in wearing their speedos and flipflops (and sweating like they're under a faucet) just to use the toilet. The sand is dirty. The water is dirty. The ladyboy pickpockets are too expensive.

Or nothing will change except for some old businesses closing or getting new names and maybe some new businesses replacing older ones (but still doing the same kind of business). Just like it has been for the last 40ish years.

And a couple years from now someone will come up with another "grand new vision" of how Walking Street should be changed.
And another thread will be started. And the end result will most likely be the same.
Again.

 

[Neeranam]

good news

[overherebc]

1 hour ago, fruitman said:

Well here's some pictures of examples...mind you these are cheaper, closer to home and much better than anything in asia so far.

 

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=promenade+italy&iax=images&ia=images

All very nice but where is the litter?

[KhunKenAP]

Someone has forgotten why you, use too see, so many people on Walking Street. Guess they don't want tourists to ever come back.

[bkk6060]

 

Bali Hai is such a waste.  A water front bus stop with a tartan track base..

Tear down that tall joke shell condo and put a casino there.

Revamp the entire area keeping some of the male entertainment venues and build some family places also.

Build shops, restaurants, outdoor type mall setting where people and even families could walk.

It could be the jewel of Asia and would invigorate the stale economy.

[holy cow cm]

If it takes prices up more than they are it will be a world class failure. Part of the allure is having the Golden taco affordable to the normal folk. 

[NCC1701A]

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend

The end
Of our elaborate plans
The end
Of everything that stands
The end
No safety or surprise
The end
I'll never look into your eyes
Again

Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need of some stranger's hand
In a desperate land

Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain
And all the children are insane
All the children are insane
Waiting for the summer rain, yeah

[luckyluke]

7 minutes ago, Kerryd said:

And the end result will most likely be the same.
Again.

Maybe,

 

or than Walking Street, in its actual concept, will once disappear as did

 

Clinton Plaza

Soi 0

Sukhumvit  Square Soi 10

Washington Square...

 

in Bangkok.

[anchadian]

2 hours ago, Oldie said:

The whole filthy nightlife of the Walking Street should be moved to a different location. Nightlife doesn't need a very expensive beach location. In addition many buildings seem to be not legal anyway as often discussed. 

The whole filthy nightlife of Walking street should be removed.  Now that's better.

 

or to expand, the whole filthy nightlife in Thailand should be removed.....now that's even better.

Edited June 3, 2020 by anchadian

[essox essox]

will be completed just in time for the 9 kms monorail.....!!!

or was it TRAM ???

[time2093]

The new walking street will be ready as same time as Nan Plaza in the year 2061.

[Kerryd]

7 minutes ago, anchadian said:

or to expand, the whole filthy nightlife in Thailand should be removed.....now that's even better.

Why stop there ? What about the "whole filthy nightlife" in the rest of the world ? 

Man, I'm still waiting for all these puritans to point out the "perfect" place in the world where there's no sin of any kind and the skies are always blue and everyone is polite and honest and the weather is always perfect and the cost of living is dirt cheap and the food is awesome and everything works perfectly all the time.

You know, supposedly just like the places they all came from. Which surely must be mighty bastions of purity, such that it makes one wonder why they ever left !

 

[smedly]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

After all, said the mayor, Pattaya is a renowned world class resort

oh dear

[smedly]

2 hours ago, redwood1 said:

If walking street is going to be a family destination they need to make the ping-pong shows family friendly too...

give the kids a bat so they can return the balls 

 

soi 6 7 8 need to be bulldozed and walking street also and give the west sea side back to the beach

[shy coconut]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

There is not a hanging wire - or street walker - in sight!

No street walkers on walking street?

 

 

[fruitman]

1 hour ago, anchadian said:

The whole filthy nightlife of Walking street should be removed.  Now that's better.

 

or to expand, the whole filthy nightlife in Thailand should be removed.....now that's even better.

Can you mention one place in thailand which is not filthy, crappy, messy, broken, underdeveloped? I can mention hundreds of good  places, it's EVERY single big city in Europe.

[fruitman]

1 hour ago, overherebc said:

All very nice but where is the litter?

dunnow mate, it also isn't here...https://duckduckgo.com/?q=promenade+spain&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

[jacko45k]

2 hours ago, Henryford said:

Exactly, would they walk down the street in droves if it was just another plastic Mall.

Probably..... 

[bendejo]

2 hours ago, Justgrazing said:

 The place is dirty and dodgy and that's part of its attraction .. start sanitising it and it'll lose that attraction .. 

You got it, just like what happened to NYC's Times Square. 

Compare the way it is now to an old Kojak episode, or "Taxi Driver."  Now it's practically an open source piece of Disneyland.

 

 

Edited June 3, 2020 by bendejo

[Oldie]

2 hours ago, TacoKhun said:

you know there is parking space for buses on the pier, right?

I know but perhaps too expensive or not enough. 

[kingofthemountain]

2 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend

The end
Of our elaborate plans
The end
Of everything that stands
The end
No safety or surprise
The end
I'll never look into your eyes
Again

Can you picture what will be
So limitless and free
Desperately in need of some stranger's hand
In a desperate land

Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain
And all the children are insane
All the children are insane
Waiting for the summer rain, yeah

''Apocalypse now'' comes to my mind

[Rookiescot]

4 hours ago, Silent Number said:

.? Smaller tables and Bats for the kids.

Dont mention bats to the Chinese.

I did but I think I got away with it.

[herwin1234]

58 minutes ago, fruitman said:

Can you mention one place in thailand which is not filthy, crappy, messy, broken, underdeveloped? I can mention hundreds of good  places, it's EVERY single big city in Europe.

Udon Thani city is where i live and no its not filthy crappy messy or  underdeveloped. Not sure but you ever visited many Thai cities or you form yr opinion based on internet.

 

Big European cities. Visited some, like Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam and a few others. Filthy and dangerous places, with, unlike Thai cities, have no-go zones, and, unlike Thai cities, nighttime is not safe. 

 

True, European cities are more historical and beautiful and have plenty of worldclass museums, but i prefer Thai cities wh0ch are much safer and friendlier.

[Megasin1]

The problem will remain, love it or hate it, Walking Street is organic built, to try and design it will simply become a tepid water colour with far too much water in it.... just another landmark lost to insipid 21st Century politically correct stupidity....roll on the world where we all conform to the same corporate ideal image....

[Oldie]

I might sound always negative when it comes to the Walking Street and the nightlife. But I have to admit it is a unique tourist attraction and should be protected as world heritage by the UNESCO. It is perhaps the only red light district without any prostitution. I think this makes it very special in the whole world. And something like this needs to be protected. 

[kingstonkid]

Okay first question who do they think is going to pay for this upgrade of the buildings.  

 

There is no way you can take go go bars and discos and make them family friendly. 

I agree that a makeover would do wonders but I wonder who is going to pay for it now that the market and tourist business is slow and most of these bars are just if at all going to pay their rent let alone anything else.

 

It would make more sense to move walking street to a different area and bring in more tourist friendly things like maybe a convention center/casino.

 

I think that there is more money going to be available both to the government and to the city businesses if they brought in a real casino that was not corrupt or rigged.