Despite calls for unity, none of the four DPP candidates appear ready to drop out and endorse a rival  DPP lawmaker Lin Tai-hua (林岱樺)…

Once a magnet for young shoppers, Kaohsiung’s Yu-Chu district has spent years in decline. Lower rents and a wave of bars, music events and independent shops have brought people back at night, but the city still needs a credible plan to make the area work in daylight too.

The first section that has reopened is a marked improvement on what was there before. The city is asking residents to bear with the inconveniences of construction from now through about June, when hopefully the entire sections on both sides of the river will reopen.

After authorities issued orders halting soil removal, the operation allegedly escalated rather than stopped. Instead of restoring the land with clean fill, suspects are accused of dumping construction waste — including bricks, concrete debris, plastic refuse, and even tires — into the pits, covering them with thin soil to conceal the contamination.