DPP leads in local governance

Kaohsiung under Chen Chu is hosting a conference on Sustainable Transportation. With peak oil coming faster than everyone thinks, such events are really important. Drew Kerslake posted the news to his blog:

Just wanted to let you know about a transport-sharing conference and citywide carfree activities that will be held in Kaohsiung later this month.

We're just trying to spread the word about these very important events which will discuss an under-addressed mode of sustainable transportation. With the theme "Sharing is Cool!," the conference will feature a panel of international experts and researchers discussing the many different modes and faces of shared transport.

Mass-transit promotional activities planned for the city run through now until September 19, culminating in a carfree day with various activities and prizes for city residents. See more information here: http://www.dscc.url.tw/2010freecar/main.html

Sessions are free to attend for Kaohsiung residents and for students (advanced registration is required).

Attached please find a press release about the event. For more information, please visit http://kaohsiung.sharetransport.org (English) or http://www.kaohsiung-sharetransport.com.tw/ (Chinese).

Anything you can do to help get the word out would be much appreciated.

I'd be interested to see what a car-free day in Kaohsiung means in practice! But it's a great idea; Taiwan needs to do more stuff like this.

The existence of this progressive conference hosted in Kaohsiung highlights another issue, which is the superior local governance of the DPP as highlighted in a recent poll by Commonwealth magazine. The Taipei Times reported:

The poll, released on Tuesday, showed that local DPP administrators enjoyed higher approval ratings than their Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) counterparts. All six municipalities that received the top marks in the survey were governed by DPP politicians.

In contrast, 16 of the lowest rated municipalities were controlled by KMT members, the most notable being Taichung under Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) — which fell to 18th place this year from a top five place a year ago.

Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) was ranked in the bottom five with an approval rating of just over 50 percent.

......

The annual poll, which gave its lowest marks to KMT Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) — who is not running for re-election — wrote that KMT politicians had a lower rating overall because of factors including a failure to keep up with public opinion and concerns about rapid changes in cross-strait relations.

Topping the survey were Kaohsiung Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) with an approval rating of 80 percent, Yilan County Commissioner Lin Tsong-shyan (林聰賢) with 75 percent and Kaohsiung City Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) with 72 percent.

Rounding up the rest of the top six were Pingtung County, Tainan City and Chiayi County.

Of course, one factor is that the DPP administrators are mostly located in DPP areas, with the exception of Kaohsiung city, which is less pro-DPP than people think, and I-lan. Yet in overwhelmingly Blue Taipei, KMT mayor Hau can't get support, and the fall off in Taipei County from the DPP magistrates to the awful Chou Hsi-wei was palpable. The plummeting score of popular Taichung mayor Jason Hu is also very interesting and may signal a vulnerability in the coming election.

The poll also shows another thing -- that voters make that separation between party loyalty and perceptions of competent governance -- which means that at voting time, they might make that separation too -- competence might count for less than party loyalty.

UPDATE: Frozen Garlic on the Commonwealth Poll with a nifty table

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