Re: "Saphan Taksin takes a stroll into the future" (Opinion, June 21). The removal of the Saphan Taksin BTS station is not an optimal, or even a good, solution to the problem of the train traffic bottleneck at the river.
A satellite image shows the current location of the Saphan Taksin skytrain station (arrow) and the proposed new location (dashed box) for its platforms.
Taksin station is an important point for access to the river transportation system as well as the businesses and hotels on Charoen Krung Road. Requiring passengers to travel almost 1km by sliding sidewalk would be inconvenient and time-consuming.
A better (and maybe even cheaper) alternative is to move the train platforms east, towards Surasak station, by about 150m. Thus the platforms would be higher than the Sathorn and Charoen Krung Road traffic.
This would also provide a pedestrian overpass above both of these roads for improved safety and decreased congestion at the intersection.
KURT RUDAHL, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi
Fight for green space
Re: ''The Fight to Stay Green,'' (Life, June 26)
Bangkok desperately needs more open spaces to help improve the livability of this congested city and it will take a very strong-willed and well-supported person to drive it.
In the US, it was a dedicated person, Fredrick Law Olmstead (1870-1957), the ''father of American Landscape Architecture'', who helped bring to existence the two most famous of the city-scale parks, Central Park in New York and the Emerald Necklace in Boston.
In developing Central Park, Olmstead fought very hard as the lords of Tammany Hall could only see skyscrapers and restaurants. He faced much less opposition in Boston.
Another park in the US, but of a much larger scale, is the Cape Cod National Seashore that stretches more than 60km along the Atlantic Ocean coast.
Bangkok has a shortage of open spaces, parks and recreation areas for free use by the public. Land costs are escalating every year and soon, if not already, there will be no land, private or public to be had. The top seven existing parks in the greater Bangkok area cover a total of only 1,800 rai. The ratio of park and open space for Bangkok residents is 1.82 sq m per person, compared to over 20 sq m per person in nearby Singapore. The small island state is only 647 sq km in area. Within this area are city and heritage parks covering 1,332,744 sq m, or 832,965 rai, not counting rural and seaside parks. Singapore's green cover has increased from 36% to 47% of the total land area since 2008.
Many Thai government agencies own vast tracts of land throughout the country, and in the cities in particular. Examples would be the State Railway of Thailand's ownership of about 500 rai at Makkasan, the former Suan Lum Night Bazaar land on Rama IV Road owned by the Crown Property Bureau, the Tobacco Monopoly's land at the end of Sukhumvit Soi 3, and many more parcels around the city.
There are groups living in high-density condominium areas such as Bangkok's Soi Mahadlek Luang that want the last remaining pieces of vacant land to be turned into parks. Unfortunately if the land is zoned for condos, the neighbours have little recourse except to petition the government to buy the land and convert it to a park, or form some sort of tenants' group that would raise funds to buy the land. I would imagine Thailand has some sort of eminent domain process to buy land at fair market value when its use will be for the public good. To think the developer is going to just donate the land is pretty far-fetched. To the best of my knowledge, even Chuvit Kamolvisit's park on Sukhumvit Road is private and has never been deeded over to the city, even though he says it is a public park.
In 1961, US President John F Kennedy, signed a bill authorising the establishment of Cape Cod National Seashore. The goal, he wrote, was ''to preserve the natural and historic values of a portion of Cape Cod for the inspiration and enjoyment of people all over the United States''.
This was the first time the federal government had created a national park out of land that was primarily in private hands. Months of hearings and meetings were required to produce a bill that balanced private and public interests.
All of the land was taken by eminent domain after many years of battles with local landowners. It was surmised by this statement : ''I think the time has passed when we old-timers can hope that Cape Cod will stay the way it is ... we have absolute proof it is going to change, and then the issue is, should it be done by bulldozers? By money-mad people? By banks wanting to lend? By builders wanting quick jobs? By loan sharks? Or is it to be done by the US government in another manner?''
Doesn't this make you think of the SRT? It should.
I am not 100% certain of the actual ownership of some of the properties I mentioned, but I am sure that all of them are in whole or part in the government sector, which makes them public land, not for the SRT et al to continue to waste their money and then take the land back to get more. Time is long past to wake up.
All of these issues take years of hard work and battles. There is no question in anyone's mind as to the need for more green space. The question is whether Bangkok has anyone with the guts to fight this necessary battle.
I hope this gets some minds working overtime to help solve these problems.
BOSTON BURGLAR
Fools won't keep coming
Re: ''Our own 'Phuket''' (PostBag, June 24).
Mr Arnone is correct about the Nana taxi mafia and like all others the Bangkok problem is systemic.
However, in Bangkok this does not just apply to tourists, as general attitudes to all passengers are clearly getting worse each year.
Thailand appears to live on the dream that the fools will keep coming, so we will keep doing. Many previously favoured destinations have eventually suffered with this approach.
PERRY
Wrapped up in secrecy
According to CNN, British Foreign Secretary William Hague defended UK-US secret operations in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, on Tuesday.
He reportedly said: ''We should always remember that terrorists plan to harm us in secret, criminal networks plan to steal from us in secret, foreign intelligence agencies plot to spy on us in secret, and new weapons systems are devised in secret. [Note non sequitur.] So we cannot protect the people of our countries without devising some of the response to those threats in secret.''
How many times can a man put the word ''secret'' into one paragraph?
Wait, don't tell me, as it might be a secret.
GUY BAKER
Leave and let prosper
Re: ''Haze blame lies with us'' (PostBag, June 27).
I used to live and work in Balikpapan on the east coast of Borneo, where I regularly travelled north to our operations sites in the Mahakam delta. The landscape on the journey was denuded hills with only the occasional burnt tree stump to break the vista. Wildlife was never encountered. This area was not cleared for plantations, as the only discernible farming activities were the odd smallholding growing cassava or pineapples and a few chicken sheds.
When I moved to another job in Handil, again in the Mahakam delta, the staff stayed in secure accommodation which had, in its grounds, a small section of mangrove forest. Here, wildlife was abundant, with plenty of birds, macaques and proboscis monkeys.
Instead of the Norwegian government throwing money at the Indonesian government to not cut down the forest, which doesn't appear to be effective, my proposal, however naive it may seem, would be to lease large tracts of rainforest to, for instance, large multinational corporations, in order to study the biodiversity.
The lease period would have to be long enough to make it worthwhile as a profitable venture.
The proviso, of course, is that the fauna and flora are not disturbed and no clear cutting is undertaken.
BERNIE HODGES
BRN keeping it local
Re: ''The BRN's giant bluff,'' (BP, June 26).
Wassana Nanuam wrote that the fact that the BRN's YouTube messages are in the Malay language ''showed that the BRN aims to communicate with the international community instead of the government'', which may be accurate but is a rather narrow interpretation.
The fact that the BRN is using YouTube at all makes it unlikely that their message is aimed at the Thai government, as presumably the Malaysian facilitators are providing official channels for communications between the two parties.
Certainly Malaysia and Indonesia are parts of the ''international community'' that speak Malay but isn't it just as likely that the BRN are aiming to communicate with the people of southern Thailand and using Malay rather than Thai because it is the mother tongue of many southern people, many of whom speak little or no Thai.
Might it not also be that the BRN is making the point that Malay is the local language and Thai is the language of what they refer to as the ''Siamese colonisers''.
DOM DUNN
Hit them where it hurts
Re: ''Time to tame tourist scams'' (Opinion, June 26).
After the ambassadors from 18 EU countries met with the mayor of Phuket about the tuk-tuk and taxi price fixing and associated violence (among other tourist scams), the next logical step would be to caution their nationals to simply boycott Phuket - an act that would deprive Phuket of revenue.
When those involved in the tourist industry begin to suffer, believe me, they will take matters into their own hands.
BERELEH
Is govt really one for all?
Re: ''Boonsong tipped to get the boot'' (BP, June 27).
Hopefully, the new Yingluck Shinawatra cabinet will consist of people with brain power rather than those who just keep talking, as has been the case over the past two years.
The government should also adopt a new concept of working toward the betterment of all Thais, not just any one person or group.
When any of these ministers under Prime Minister Yingluck utters the words ''our people'', we want to see they sincerely mean all the people in this country, not just the red shirts or those linked to the Pheu Thai Party.
VINT CHAVALA
Nattawut out of step
Re: ''Nattawut's 'Superman' clip crashes to earth'' (BP, June 27)
It appears that Deputy Commerce Minister Nattawut Saikuar has a case of cultural amnesia as he goes on YouTube promoting ''traditional'' stories. Once again, his song and dance demonstrates how out of step the Pheu Thai-led government is with the feelings and aspirations of most Thai people.
When Tesco Lotus, Big C and Carrefour started arriving here in the late '90s, numerous PostBag contributors were relieved to get out from under the yoke of oppression offered by traditional stores which often featured a lack of choice in food and goods, poor maintenance and stony-faced indifference from the owner-operators if any foodstuffs were past their expiry dates.
My hunch is this deputy minister does not do his own grocery shopping. If he did, he would never have wasted government time and money on this promotion.
LINCOLN REDUX
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