WILL PENANG FOLK LOVE THE IDEA OF CLOSING LOVE LANE?
City council claims closing street to traffic will protect visitors, but others claim it will promote drinking and vice
APROPOSAL to close the bar-lined Love Lane in George Town’s Unesco World Heritage Site to traffic from dusk to the wee hours has elicited mixed reactions.
It has even led to a protest by politicians and non-governmental organisations, who claimed that the closure would promote public drinking and immoral activities.
They presented a memorandum to Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to voice their displeasure over the road’s closure.
For those unfamiliar with the issue, the Penang Island City Council has recently proposed that the 150m stretch of road in Love Lane, between Chulia Street and Muntri Street, be closed to traffic from 7pm to 4am daily.
The proposal was made for the safety of visitors who frequent the bars in that stretch of the road.
The brickbats had led Mayor Datuk Maimunah Mohd Shariff to announce that the city council had yet to finalise the plan.
The city council is obtaining feedback before implementing the proposal. More than 1,000 notices on the proposal have been sent to residents and businesses in the area.
A few nights ago, a few of us took a drive in Love Lane to check out the happenings there. As soon as we turned into Love Lane from Chulia Street, our car slowed down.
No, it was not because of the motorised traffic, but rather, it was because of patrons, the majority of whom were tourists, who thronged the bars there. They were drinking on tables and chairs put out on both sides of the narrow lane.
Some patrons, who were checking out which bars to have a drink, could not be bothered with the passing vehicles as they stood almost in the middle of the road.
To add colour to the night, there were also girls, dressed to the nines, possibly to attract the attention of patrons and onlookers.
To begin with, Penang folk are perplexed about how the proposal even came about.
They cannot comprehend why the road should be closed to traffic to cater to bar-goers.
To them, the plan is construed as “endorsing the partying”.
People are wondering why the city council has turned a blind eye to these bars and by letting them run freely, especially since it has been known to act against errant operators in other parts of the city.
Even DAP’s Tanjung member of parliament Ng Wei Aik had opposed the plan, stressing that locals must be given priority instead of tourists.
He said that under the bylaws, proprietors were not allowed to put tables and chairs on the street due to safety reasons.
Penang Front Party chairman Datuk Patrick Ooi said his visit to residences, businesses and hotels nearby revealed that other premises found the bars to be a nuisance.
He said 43 heritage shophouses had registered their unhappiness about the outdoor bars, which had been operating for more than a year, despite the fact that having tables and chairs by the roadside were against the law.
However, an anonymous retired Penangite wrote to several newspapers recently, saying that the closure of Love Lane made sense.
The retiree said Love Lane was ill-lit, almost dead by dusk and attracted undesirables, including drunks and drug addicts.
When the operators started renting the two-storey colonial shophouses and turning them into stylish pubs, diners and lounges, the writer said, things started to change.
Today, Love Lane has become a de rigueur stop on many tourists’ list of places to visit on the island.
It will be interesting to see how the council will approach this issue. All eyes will be on a final decision to be made early next month.
If the council forgoes its proposal, this will mean status quo, and the majority of the people will remain happy.
But, if it decides that the lane should be closed from dusk to dawn, then it has to ensure that the proposal does not inconvenience residents, businesses and hotels nearby.
What if a fire breaks out? Who will be responsible if firemen arrive late at the scene because their path has been blocked?
More importantly, the city council has to ensure that Love Lane does not turn into a “redlight” district.
Surely, people do not hope for Love Lane to live up to how it got its name.
One of the three theories is that the lane was where European sailors and soldiers hooked up with local ladies among bamboo groves, and that brothels were then established in Love Lane.
Later, as locals moved in, some businessmen kept their mistresses there.
Moving forward, the ball is in the city council’s court to make the right decision, a decision that should please the majority of the people.