John Bingham wrote:As above, it's the area I've highlighted in orange. That really sucks, what are they going to do, build a fucking mall or something. Cunts.

As a whole it's way bigger than the quoted areas. More likely he's been given two slices where the carparks are, at Sihanouk opp. Roku and the pencil carpark.

epidemiks wrote:It's the Krom Ngoy garden, between Pencil and Cambodiana. The southern end is the old royal stable? Nice park, massive old bodhi tree.

But that area isn't anywhere near 5000m2. Unless it includes the area south of the park (but even then it looks smaller). That's what's confusing, seems like several bits of land here and there. I wonder if they need royal approval for that. I guess HE gets what HE wants...

Bitte_Kein_Lexus wrote:

epidemiks wrote:It's the Krom Ngoy garden, between Pencil and Cambodiana. The southern end is the old royal stable? Nice park, massive old bodhi tree.

But that area isn't anywhere near 5000m2. Unless it includes the area south of the park (but even then it looks smaller). That's what's confusing, seems like several bits of land here and there. I wonder if they need royal approval for that. I guess HE gets what HE wants...

This part

My best guess...

2300 square meters opposite Naga (police station and public toilets)



5000 square meters opposite Cambodiana

Could be a mix as indeed the southern part has a police station I think. Or maybe northern part of the park along with the southern part which includes the policy station. Either way, it's extremely bizarre to sell off land like that though, they must be running out of land to give to their friends as I don't see how selling any of these plots could be considered "of urgency for the state". Do the grandkids need a new toy or something? Either a sliver along Sihanouk, an old park, or a combination of both? What's the point/benefit to the state and citizens?

It's pretty sad how backward thinking the (older) ones in power still are when it comes to city planning and general urban development. My city back home is converting a huge street downtown to an urban forest with promenades, bicycle lanes and totally pedestrianized. Meanwhile, here they're turning every inch into some sort of lame concrete structure of little architectural interest with zero parking space or greenery.

Thankfully, local citizens are sort of cluing in. More and more private businesses have started going a bit "green", and seem to have realized that some trees/bushes and so on are sort of good for the soul. I see an increasing number of coffee shops, malls, small stores and so who are integrating gardens into their designs, and people are flocking to them for good reason. It's still woefully depressing though to see how the state is either totally blind to it all, or morally corrupt to the bone (or both?). Even in the 19th century people had better urban planning ideas...

A fence has now gone up around the entire park..

Get rid of the grass it's a eye sore, much prefer an emty mall and apartments