3
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There is also a hillside area above
?
North Point of approximately 100 acres which could take 50,000 from the overcrowded parts of Hong Kong generally and provide homes for the workers at Tai Koo. These two figures will thus reduce the numbers of Hong Kong who would have to seek land in Kowloon: thus
Hong Kong overcrowding 156,670
requiring removal.
Less
80,000
Naval workmen & New Point Area.
Hong Kong balance
76,670
Kowloon overcrowding
29,250
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105,920 to be housed in new
Satellite in Kowloon.
A careful scrutiny has failed to discover any extensive areas available in the Island of Hong Kong. The Dairy Farm at Pok Fu Lam has been suggested ; but apart from its present valuable use, it is not very suitable. The flat land east of Aberdeen has also been considered; but if it changes its present use it will probably be for water supply. A tunnel through Mount Cameron would not be justified. The site of the Aerodrome at Kai Tak appears to be the most suitable and easily developed site for a short-term policy, to eliminate over-crowding from Hong Kong and Kowloon; it would comfortably take the 106,000 people involved and could be planned as an object lesson.
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It is not intended for a moment to minimise the extreme difficulty of reducing and moving the Victoria population which olings obstinately to familiar localities; these very generalised ideas are intended to show the magnitude of the work and to indicate the lines upon which a change may take place, whose pace will depend upon the legal powers conferred.
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4. Shops and Workshops.
It would be pedantie for the planner to condemn the practice which obtains in Hong Kong(and indeed is common in the East) of giving up the entire ground floor of the Residential area to Shops, Workshops, Warehouses, Stores etc. There appears to be demand for this continuous bazaar on the ground floor, which has the drawback of creating a narrow fronted dark tenement above. Mr. Owen has shown in his report (Type B Plan 3) how a wider frontage and a set back above the ground floor can produce much better living quarters.
3..
If a new Community is planned from the beginning, it might be worth while attempting to provide shopping centres at appropriate places (in conjunction with neighbourhood centres) and to set aside other areas for workshops and stores, as it were 'Domestic factory zones'. But there may be danger in interfering with a settled method of living and working, provided the workshops are kept within the domestic range of size and type of work.
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