City Life vs Living in the City(b)|寻找城市魅力新典范──师大商圈启示录

　　How is it that the Shida shopping area grew so rapidly? Lin Chien-yuan, a former vice-mayor of Taipei and now a professor in the Graduate Institute of Building and Planning at National Taiwan University (NTU), notes that the shop owners were simply responding to the presence of shoppers in the neighborhood. The Shida shopping area is also a night market, and in urban areas, people increasingly move their leisure behavior from the daytime later and later into the night, meaning night markets are likely to have an ever-larger consumer base. The expansion of the MRT system has also made it easy for people who live outside of the downtown area to stay there after work or to come in from the suburbs for food, shopping, and leisure. Finally, central and local government tourism bureaus have been promoting night markets and cultural zones to tourists, further stimulating growth in such neighborhoods.

　　It is nothing new to Taiwanese people to have convenience store chains, mom-and-pop stores, bakeries, and the like a little more than a short walk from their front doors. Almost all the neighborhoods in Taiwanese cities are mixed districts in this sense. The Taiwanese lifestyle built around mixed zoning has provided fertile ground for the rise of shangquan, including the Shida shopping area. This factor alone, however, cannot explain how businesses have saturated every lane and alley in entire neighborhoods.

　　Hsia Chu-joe, a former professor in the Graduate Institute of Building and Planning at NTU, believes the problem cannot be solved simply by having the city government come in and close down all the illegal shops. He advises the city government to commission a third party that can mediate between the residents and shop owners. For example, the shop owners could promise to reduce their operating hours and keep the environment clean, while the residents would have to show flexibility and good will, leaving the city government to merely handle public issues like trash removal and traffic control. A whole new model of urban management could emerge from such a process.

　　师大商圈为何会扩张得如此迅速呢？前台北市副市长、目前担任台湾大学建筑与城乡研究所教授的林建元指出，店家只是因应消费者存在而生。师大商圈同时也是夜市所在地，而在此都会区，城市休闲风不断从白天延伸到夜晚，这意味着很可能会有愈来愈多消费者前往夜市。而捷运系统的扩张也使得不是住在市区的人们在下班后要前往市区或是从郊区到市区吃东西、逛街和从事休闲活动都变得更方便了。最后，中央及地方政府观光部门向游客营销夜市及推动文创街区，都进一步刺激了商圈的成长。

　　对台湾民众而言，走几步路就有一家的便利商店、杂货店及面包店等早已不是新鲜事。台湾几乎每一个城市都有这种住商混合的区域。而这种围绕于住商混合区域的台湾式生活模式，也使得这些包括师大商圈在内的商圈繁荣发展。然而，光是这项因素并不能解释所有小区巷弄间店家都已饱和的原因。

　　前台大城乡所教授夏铸九认为，光靠市府勒令违法店家停业的方式并不能解决问题，他建议市府应该委托第三方来调停居民和店家之间的争议。举例来说，店家要自律规范营业时间并保持环境整洁，而居民也要表现出沟通的弹性及善意，这样一来市政府便只需负责处理垃圾搬运及交通管制等公共问题。这样的过程可以作为全新都市管理机制的典范。