I hope I don't bore you with another piece related to the lead story of today's Asia Focus, but I have to say that it's high time we all demanded our right to be able to move freely on the footpaths of Bangkok.
Walk on any of the capital's main roads, be it Silom, Sathon, Sukhumvit, or in suburban areas such as Bang Na, Rangsit or Bang Kae, and you can't fail to notice how difficult life is for pedestrians. For people with disabilities, getting from A to B can be impossible.
Some local businesses have taken the development of pedestrian walkways into their own hands. CentralWorld, for example, spent close to 200 million baht to build the skywalk that connects its business to the Siam BTS station and across the road to the Gaysorn shopping complex.
The Emporium on Sukhumvit also has created an expanded elevated walkway network, as have the businesses around the Asok intersection. Similar walkways exist near the National Stadium and at Victory Monument. Most of this construction has been undertaken and funded by the private sector with the blessing of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA).
Now the Ratchaprasong Square Trade Association (RSTA) is planning a 400-million-baht Skyline to run north from Gaysorn to Big C and then to Platinum Mall in Pratunam.
It all sounds good and as an avid walker, I welcome the chance to avoid the ground-level obstacle course of crooked, loose paving stones and fruit or pork belly sellers that occupy most of the footpath.
But I have to ask the RSTA members if they really think that another snazzy skywalk will help them compete with the likes of Orchard Road in Singapore or Ginza in Tokyo? These business owners have no doubt visited Asia's top shopping areas, and probably the Champs-Elysees in Paris, Fifth Avenue in New York and a few others. But let's stick to Asia, and consider whether pouring billions more baht into Ratchaprasong will create a world-class strollers' paradise as long as the ground-level pavements resemble a minefield.
The RSTA needs to rethink what it's doing. Maybe building yet another concrete structure in the concrete jungle of central Bangkok is not the answer. Could it be that the RSTA members are missing the whole point of a shopping destination?
Is walking in a mall the total experience for shoppers, or is it the life going on around the entire shopping district that attracts them?
Can the RSTA tell me what is so different about shopping at, say, Gaysorn, that I could not find on Orchard Road in Singapore or Ginza in Tokyo? One thing I can say for certain is that the high-end products would surely be cheaper in those two cities than they are in Bangkok. But the malls themselves in those two cities would not be that different from Gaysorn.
If I was a tourist and had my way, I would prefer shopping on the Ginza and Orchard Road any day over Bangkok. Why? Well, because I can enjoy walking on a level, unobstructed footpath, nibbling on snacks sold from permanent stalls and open-air coffee shops and dessert nooks all along these streets. I can enter and exit the shopping complexes when I'm in the mood. But in Bangkok, people head into the malls simply because they can't stand the crush and chaos outside.
With so much money being spent by various businesses to redo the entire area, maybe the RSTA could take its cue from other top shopping destinations all across the world and learn and use the space in front of their businesses more effectively. They could build walkways at ground level with some attractions to pull visitors in, perhaps offering a glimpse of Thai culture along with the shopping experience.
In any business, creating an experience is the key to maintaining customers. As long as we do not create that niche shopping experience we will not go very far because all the major shopping destinations are in competition with each other for the same market segment and dollar.
Maybe it is time for the BMA and the businesses to take these basic concepts seriously. They need to clean up the ground-level mess and create a real shopping area for Thais and tourists alike. Where there is a will there is a way (as the military has shown with its beach cleanup campaigns). Let's hear no more excuses from officials that they can't control the sale of pineapple, kai yang or knock-off Prada bags because they know they can.