Locals hit out at Miami inspired beautification of Pattaya

[webfact]

 

 

 

Picture: Thai PBS

 

Environmentalists have slammed Pattaya's decision to uproot old trees on Beach Road and replace with neat palms.

 

Thai PBS were the latest Thai media to report on the "beautification" plans of Pattaya's mayor Sontaya Kunplome.

 

He is spending 116 million baht uprooting trees that have been in place for more than 50 years and replacing them with palms and date palms.

 

Nong Nooch Gardens are involved having been contracted to remove the Indian Almond trees known as Hoo Kwang (ear of deer) trees in Thai. Such trees are a common site at Thai beach resorts including Pattaya.

 

A Facebook post by Ponthep Meunpong said that the mayor had said that the old trees deposited branches in the wind that fell down causing the municipal authority to have to collect them continually.

 

The authority have also said that some fell on tourists. The mayor wanted beautification.

 

Pornthep said that when he heard such things he would sigh inwardly. 

 

The suggestion was that he totally disagreed and came up with nine reasons why the old trees should stay and the new ones were a waste of money.

 

Picture: Thai PBS

 

He said the old trees were planted in 1965 and 1969 so had been in place 56 and 52 years. 

 

Their root systems were far better especially as they had been planted as saplings. They helped in preventing erosion.

 

The palm replacements would be much more trouble, he said, as they would need bracing more and more as they got taller to stop them falling over in the wind. 

 

Additionally the nature in how the old trees shed leaves made them easier to collect rather than the constant problem with palm fronds. 

 

He said that most Thais preferred the Hoo Kwang trees as they provided more shade for both traders on the beach and people walking along Beach Road. 

 

Most people didn't want Pattaya to look just like Miami, he said, as he disputed the idea that the old trees break easily.

 

He called them the heritage trees of Pattaya that were being cut down in the name of beautification and manicuring.

 

The media said that comments such as these were creating widespread debate about the issue among environmentalists and arborists. 

 

ASEAN NOW published a story a few days back in which the owner of Nong Nooch gardens - a popular tourist attraction in the Pattaya area - was presiding over the cutting of a particularly large tree. 

 

-- © Copyright  ASEAN NOW 2021-08-26

 

- Whatever you're going through, the Samaritans are here for you

- Follow ASEAN NOW on LINE for breaking COVID-19 updates

[Will B Good]

Someone (maybe on this forum, so all credit to you) said the aim was to reduce the availability of free shade and seating, forcing people to rent seats and sunshades from the traders on the beach.

 

Sounds plausible?

[johng]

28 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

Someone (maybe on this forum, so all credit to you) said the aim was to reduce the availability of free shade

I for one  put forward that suggestion..even before the chainsaw massacre  you could notice that most of the umbrella and deckchair vendors where situated under the shady tree areas leaving few shady places to sit for free.

[Will B Good]

1 minute ago, johng said:

I for one  put forward that suggestion..even before the chainsaw massacre  you could notice that most of the umbrella and deckchair vendors where situated under the shady tree areas leaving few shady places to sit for free.

It may well have been your comment I could recall. All credit to you.

[jacko45k]

1 hour ago, Will B Good said:

Someone (maybe on this forum, so all credit to you) said the aim was to reduce the availability of free shade and seating, forcing people to rent seats and sunshades from the traders on the beach.

 

Sounds plausible?

I mentioned it, but was not the only one.

[chicowoodduck]

Good Lord....just bring in the Chinese road crew......they can build 24 miles of super highway in a day....let them make it a ten lane fast track to Walking Street.....no shade, no problem.....????????????????

[Will B Good]

Just now, chicowoodduck said:

Good Lord....just bring in the Chinese road crew......they can build 24 miles of super highway in a day....let them make it a ten lane fast track to Walking Street.....no shade, no problem.....????????????????

I was watching them yesterday. About ten Thais (could have been Myanmars?) cleaning up the sand with rakes around where a tree had been uprooted. It was a like watching a slow motion movie.

 

Having said that, ten minutes hard work in that heat would kill me.

[BangkokReady]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Pornthep said that when he heard such things he would sigh inwardly. 

So he breathed in?

[kingstonkid]

If a tree is dying then replace it but most of those trees are still growing and doing what they are supposed to  do.

 

The money that is going to be wasted in this tree thing is ridiculous.

 

I do not think it is the people with the umbrellas that are motivating this but the people that are selling the new trees and the money they will make.

[Iforbach]

One @uck up after another ..why dont sort pavements in city 1st ..its like rock climbing as you walk 

[Will B Good]

1 minute ago, Iforbach said:

One @uck up after another ..why dont sort pavements in city 1st ..its like rock climbing as you walk 

Where I live they have not long finished around 250m of paving either side of the soi.

 

Loose slabs, missing slabs, missing drain covers, water pipes and water meters sticking out. The worst ones are the loose slabs. They harbor water from the rain and then squirt it up your legs and into your trainers.

[Guderian]

It will all look nice and neat and tidy for the air-conditioned coach loads of Chinese tourists driving past on Beach Road, while the farangs and Thais wanting to enjoy a shady spot by the sea for an hour will simply have to roast in the sun, or grease the palms of the deck chair mafia. But as long as the Chinese tourists are happy, that's all the mayor cares about, the Pattaya City vaccination programme (as opposed to the national one) shows that he's completely unaware that there are such creatures as farangs actually living in his city.

Edited August 26, 2021 by Guderian

[Will B Good]

3 minutes ago, Guderian said:

It will all look nice and neat and tidy for the air-conditioned coach loads of Chinese tourists driving past on Beach Road, while the farangs and Thais wanting to enjoy a shady spot by the sea for an hour will simply have to roast in the sun, or grease the palms of the deck chair mafia. But as long as the Chinese tourists are happy, that's all the mayor cares about, the Pattaya City vaccination programme (as opposed to the national one) shows that he's completely unaware that there are such creatures as farangs actually living in his city.

And I can't see the Chinese coming back in a numbers for some time.

 

China reimposes restrictions on overseas travel amid crackdown to control jump in Covid cases

4 Aug, 2021 16:26

[ronster]

Pretty low aspiration if trying to look like Miami !

One of the biggest overrated dumps I have ever been to . ????

[PETERTHEEATER]

44 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

Where I live they have not long finished around 250m of paving either side of the soi.

 

Loose slabs, missing slabs, missing drain covers, water pipes and water meters sticking out. The worst ones are the loose slabs. They harbor water from the rain and then squirt it up your legs and into your trainers.

Tell your trainers to walk behind you.....

[RichardColeman]

If anyone thinks the actual Thai paving will look and be as flat as the photo, they have never visited Thailand

[Xonax]

In Thailand many new expensive projects are launched, with the main goal to line the pockets of the involved politicians.

[aussienam]

1 hour ago, chicowoodduck said:

Good Lord....just bring in the Chinese road crew......they can build 24 miles of super highway in a day....let them make it a ten lane fast track to Walking Street.....no shade, no problem.....????????????????

Just bring your sun shade portable umbrellas, flags and megaphones to lead the pack of Chinese tourists.  Just don't stand in their way ... they'll walk over you and crush you to death!! 

[Gold Star]

The coconut bar will always be just as popular with or without palm trees. Let the ladies have some shade so their makeup and plastics don’t melt.

[smedly]

the only infrastructure in Pattaya that is world class are the foreign built and owned hotels and grounds.  The city itself maintained by local authority is an utter disgrace - nepostism greed and corruptions sees to that in a never ending catalog of budgets and failures going back decades

[bougnat]

Everything for the show and what is visible. We will always have wild waste in the adjacent streets, like in Krabi, Ao nang, ect

[Gandtee]

Why would anyone want to come to a carbon copy of any plastic resort in the world, when they have exactly the same thing on their doorsteps? A taste of the orient? Where? Thank goodness I came here when you could get a taste of the orient. These planners are clowns. Destroying everything !! ????

[Almer]

44 minutes ago, ronster said:

Pretty low aspiration if trying to look like Miami !

One of the biggest overrated dumps I have ever been to . ????

Thats why it wants tidying up, its a mess a third world  slum, yes do the Miami makeover and the place will automatically clean itself up, but allow the street food back and tarpaulins slung between the new trees and your back to square one minus the healthy old 50 year old tree's, a suggestion when/if the tourist come back do a survey by an independent company with no leading questions to find out what the tourists think, and give then a free cocktail voucher for there trouble, or let a gov official arrange the survey and they can tell you the results in advance. 

[ben2talk]

3 hours ago, Will B Good said:

Someone (maybe on this forum, so all credit to you) said the aim was to reduce the availability of free shade and seating, forcing people to rent seats and sunshades from the traders on the beach.

 

Sounds plausible?

My son (9 years old) said - wow, looks hot!!!!

Maybe a sign that he's far more intelligent than Thai Authorities (not that we needed any confirmation on this front).

 

Surely a scam, everyone going to the beach huddles under the trees - unless they're paying to sit at tables.

[newnative]

    So sad.  I hardly recognize north Pattaya Beach Road.  Every 'artist rendering' looks worse than the one before--this latest one is ghastly.  Notice most of the people in the rendering are trying to stand in the tiny bit of shade provided by the palm trees.  

[ThaiFelix]

11 minutes ago, Almer said:

Thats why it wants tidying up, its a mess a third world  slum, yes do the Miami makeover and the place will automatically clean itself up, but allow the street food back and tarpaulins slung between the new trees and your back to square one minus the healthy old 50 year old tree's, a suggestion when/if the tourist come back do a survey by an independent company with no leading questions to find out what the tourists think, and give then a free cocktail voucher for there trouble, or let a gov official arrange the survey and they can tell you the results in advance. 

A survey to determine what the tourists want in a tourist resort?  That would be far too logical.

[MrJ2U]

Just maybe this will be the one that works!

 

 

[GStewart70]

From memory, reminds me of the lack of shade in Nice, south of France.

I would think this would be unwalkable in the glare of afternoon sun.

No doubt you will have to avoid the psycho cyclists as well.

The pictures look nice,  but that doesn't normally get executed by Thai contractors.

 

[Burma Bill]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

the mayor had said that the old trees deposited branches in the wind that fell down

 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

The authority have also said that some fell on tourists.

 What if the new palm trees are of the coconut variety?????

 

[Tarteso]

A lot of lady-bars sealing cocos in the beach… I guess