Making Bangkok greener?

[MrHammer]

One of my biggest annoyances with Bangkok is the lack of trees and green areas in most of the city. Outside a few (affluent) areas, the city is entirely made of concrete and very ugly.

Are there any government agencies actually tasked with making the city more green, planting trees and such? I would imagine one of the major problems would be that all electric cables are in the air instead of in the ground, so if you plant trees that might cause problems some years down the line.

Even though, if there was more green in Bangkok I think it would improve quality of life immensely and also act as a natural noise blocker.

[FalangBaa]

At the moment they're trying to make it yellower, hadn't you noticed? But I suppose all of those green Army camouflage tents are adding a verdant countrified air to the concrete jungle. Trouble is they erected most of them in the park where there's no shortage of greenery anyway. If where you're living right now is noisy, ugly and treeless, you could consider moving to an affluent area. But I suppose wanting to live in a cheap apartment and then expecting the surrounds to be pleasant is like wanting to have your cake and eat it.

Edited February 24, 2014 by FalangBaa

[moradave]

At the moment they're trying to make it yellower, hadn't you noticed? But I suppose all of those green Army camouflage tents are adding a verdant countrified air to the concrete jungle. Trouble is they erected most of them in the park where there's no shortage of greenery anyway. If where you're living right now is noisy, ugly and treeless, you could consider moving to an affluent area. But I suppose wanting to live in a cheap apartment and then expecting the surrounds to be pleasant is like wanting to have your cake and eat it.

Not necessarily so. I live in On-nut in a cheap, old, but nice apartment on the edge of the SaranNuch fresh market. Lots of greenery in all directions off my balcony away from Sukhumvit facing towards the south-east. Very quiet too.

[MrHammer]

At the moment they're trying to make it yellower, hadn't you noticed? But I suppose all of those green Army camouflage tents are adding a verdant countrified air to the concrete jungle. Trouble is they erected most of them in the park where there's no shortage of greenery anyway. If where you're living right now is noisy, ugly and treeless, you could consider moving to an affluent area. But I suppose wanting to live in a cheap apartment and then expecting the surrounds to be pleasant is like wanting to have your cake and eat it.

Lol, I live in the middle of Thonglor, so your comment is on the mark. It is when I need to live the rich man ghetto that the uglyness overwhelms me.

[mmh8]

careful what you ask for , perhaps everything will be painted green

[sunsamourai]

Hey, look at this :

http://plantatreebangkok.blogspot.com/

[little mary sunshine]

Lots of MOLD and MILDEW all over BKK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[soalbundy]

Anything green that can survive in the air of Bangkok has got to be a mutant plant

[FalangBaa]

Anything green that can survive in the air of Bangkok has got to be a mutant plant

You have gotta be joking. The air in BKK is pristine in comparison to most other large Asian cities I have regularly visited: Beijing (worst by far), Jakarta (2nd worst), Shanghai (3rd), Ho Chi Minh (4th), Hong Kong (5th), Kuala Lumpur (6th), Denpasar/Kuta (7th). The only Asian cities I can think of where I noticed noticeably better air quality than BKK were various Japanese cities, and Seoul and Singapore. BKK generally has VERY good air compared to most others. You can see for miles on most days. Only about 1 month ago, it was bad for a week or so due to climate conditions and fires somewhere, quite hazy and you could detect a heaviness to the air. I would even say that when I've been in Chiang Mai or Pattaya, the air always seems worse than BKK, especially in Chiang Mai. Way too many cars crammed into a very small city centre, same problem in Patts. I live in lower Sukhumvit and only very rarely do I notice a bad odour at roadside at busy traffic times.

[Kaoboi Bebobp]

Making Bangkok a more pleasant environment would take such a monumental effort that they'd have to start with levelling the city. There seemed to be no controls, especially on setbacks, pedestrian ways, green space, the list goes on. That's just the ground level. The buildings there set new standards of bland and ugly. Bangkok is not fixable.

[soalbundy]

Anything green that can survive in the air of Bangkok has got to be a mutant plant

You have gotta be joking. The air in BKK is pristine in comparison to most other large Asian cities I have regularly visited: Beijing (worst by far), Jakarta (2nd worst), Shanghai (3rd), Ho Chi Minh (4th), Hong Kong (5th), Kuala Lumpur (6th), Denpasar/Kuta (7th). The only Asian cities I can think of where I noticed noticeably better air quality than BKK were various Japanese cities, and Seoul and Singapore. BKK generally has VERY good air compared to most others. You can see for miles on most days. Only about 1 month ago, it was bad for a week or so due to climate conditions and fires somewhere, quite hazy and you could detect a heaviness to the air. I would even say that when I've been in Chiang Mai or Pattaya, the air always seems worse than BKK, especially in Chiang Mai. Way too many cars crammed into a very small city centre, same problem in Patts. I live in lower Sukhumvit and only very rarely do I notice a bad odour at roadside at busy traffic times.

living in the county side i am spoilt. When i walk about for half a day in Bangkok i have to shower afterwards and the filth just flows of. Bangkok has a smell of its own (which is not unpleasant) a mixture of soot,car fumes and the sweet smell of rotten fruit is the best way i can describe it. I used to live in Chiang Mai and yes its worse there.

[Sayonarax]

That's all we need people telling us what we can and cant build.

My estate has plenty of trees and everything green.

[rak sa_ngop]

Anything green that can survive in the air of Bangkok has got to be a mutant plant

You have gotta be joking. The air in BKK is pristine in comparison to most other large Asian cities I have regularly visited: Beijing (worst by far), Jakarta (2nd worst), Shanghai (3rd), Ho Chi Minh (4th), Hong Kong (5th), Kuala Lumpur (6th), Denpasar/Kuta (7th). The only Asian cities I can think of where I noticed noticeably better air quality than BKK were various Japanese cities, and Seoul and Singapore. BKK generally has VERY good air compared to most others. You can see for miles on most days. Only about 1 month ago, it was bad for a week or so due to climate conditions and fires somewhere, quite hazy and you could detect a heaviness to the air. I would even say that when I've been in Chiang Mai or Pattaya, the air always seems worse than BKK, especially in Chiang Mai. Way too many cars crammed into a very small city centre, same problem in Patts. I live in lower Sukhumvit and only very rarely do I notice a bad odour at roadside at busy traffic times.

I agree.

14 years ago when I was working in Yangon I was always so surprised when walking along Silom Road on my work breaks, how clean the air was in comparison. Yangon with little industry and wide open roads still stank from dirty diesel and smoky bus exhausts.

Some days in Bangkok are a bit muggy and polluted but in my opinion nice clear days are far from uncommon.

Edited February 26, 2014 by rak sa_ngop

[taony]

Hey, look at this :

http://plantatreebangkok.blogspot.com/

I can't, with your avatar being right there.

[FalangBaa]

Making Bangkok a more pleasant environment would take such a monumental effort that they'd have to start with levelling the city. There seemed to be no controls, especially on setbacks, pedestrian ways, green space, the list goes on. That's just the ground level. The buildings there set new standards of bland and ugly. Bangkok is not fixable.

Isn't that what they mean by "Restart Bangkok"? Restart = nuke

[MrHammer]

I disagree that Bangkok can't be made more pleasent. A good beginning would be to dig down all the cables that are currently cluttering. When they are gone, trees can be planted everywhere and give them 5-10 years and you will have good sized trees that block the sun and make for good looking boulevards. Next up would be digging some tunnels for cars passing through Bangkok to lessen the traffic on Suk and the various Ramas, Ratchada, Lat Prao etc. If they really wanted to, they could convert some government owned buildings to parks and move out of the city. There's a project where rich Thais and royalty could score some brownie points, but instead they insist on adding another 50 story condo to a soi that is 3 meters wide.

It is not impossible, they did manage to build a pretty decent skytrain and metro system after all which is a much bigger project.

[Morakot]

Making Bangkok greener?

Seed bombs?