Developers avoid ‘Old Pattaya’: Developers avoid ‘Old Pattaya’

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THEY SAY money blinds people. In this sense, Pattaya has been suffering from impaired vision as its limited facilities buckle under the weight of mass tourism and migrant workers. The once-pristine beach resort is reeling from traffic congestion, pollution and worsening health conditions. But foreign visitors still pack into it as a poorly educated work-force tries to make a quick baht.

It is little wonder that real-estate developers today are avoiding the central city area and building in faraway sites such as Jomtien and Wong Amat beaches. Grande Asset and Wise Power Land, two top developers, are quick to distance themselves as such chronic problems worsen by the day.

The developers tell buyers they need not concern themselves with the miserable journeys from the main road to the resort, with all three roads leading to the city center always jammed as vehicles can park anywhere. Both their sites have small sois connecting them to the main road. Asset has more than 28 rai, big enough to create little townships. Traffic police should tow away all the parked vehicles on main thoroughfares but fail to perform their duties, said the developers.

Even Raimon Land, which is developing a 13-rai beachfront condominium project called North point, makes the distinction of informing buyers it is located at Wong Amat, nak Lua. The beach is far away from the bar-infested zones that stretch from North or South Pattaya. Its seaside is protected from the dirty vendors that camp on Beach Road. Again, the Raimon project’s large size will project it from unpleasant forces.

The explosion of bars, however, is not the worst of Pattaya’s woes, developers warn. It is the absence of hygiene and the city’s inability to recognize it when an enlarged population brigs with it unprecedented dangers of infections urban pests.

The city’s most prestigious stretch is Beach Road. But the road has been ruined by shoddy and reckless construction work and was left to rot for much of last year. It is now overrun by rats, with the rodent population feeding on the refuse thrown by filthy workers from the provinces. A civic re-education programme is badly needed to curb the growth of pestilence, but as usual, nothing is done. It is clear the town’s authorities are ignorant about the dangers of rat colonies breeding on the esplanade.

A second problem is the cockroach colonies spreading in old hotel buildings. Because health checks are seldom property conducted, hotels can get away by cheating on pest-control costs.

All these worsening conditions are already affecting the quality of services in the city. It is not secret that Grande Asset hails The Sails as being located in the “New Pattaya Zone”, where residents need not feel the indignity of living under the Third World conditions of Old Pattaya. Likewise, La Royale makes a point of telling buyers they are protected from the unsavoury aspects of tourist dumps that fill up much of Central and South Pattaya.

Much of walking Street is a joke, packed with traffic till late in the evening. The street is closed to traffic for only a few hours, and even during those times, motorcycle taxis abuse the law and ride inside the zone.

The new projects in Pattaya now command up to Bt 70,000-BT 75,000 a square meter for floor space, as such unruly behavior is banned on their grounds.

The one aspect of Pattaya that has not changed in the past 40 years is that the town takes its cue from the more forward-looking private sector. The public sector is just too slow and too ignorant to take action. In the future, the safest place to be in Pattaya will be private enclaves as public areas get more crowded, dirtier and more disease-ridden.

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Developers avoid ‘Old Pattaya’

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Developers avoid ‘Old Pattaya’

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