Post-training session, I was caught in that sweet limbo between dog-tired and strangely exhilarated, so decided to walk off the adrenaline around the old school Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) flats at Dakota Crescent.
Classic circular stone tables and chairs that are better for yabbers with neighbours
than the current HDB preference for benches.
Original wooden doors, some painted cheerful colours – the signal flag of gentrification by yuppies and hipsters? ;-o
It was quiet there with a good breeze coming between the flats. But this wasn’t the eerie quietness of abandonment, decay, and death. There was evidence of life – a chalk drawing on the strangely-new badminton court, a boy on a skate-scooter wheeling past to chat and ask to see my photos, and then, music and dancing!
This “nostalgic playground” was was designed by HDB’s Khor Ean Ghee in 1979. It is immensely charming and built to last, unlike the fading and cracking plastic stuff in fashion now. Aesthetics aside, the whole construction is spread-out enough so that children have the freedom to choose how they want to use the structure without getting on top of each other or having to wait their turn:
There were quite a few old cats around, chilling in the shade:
And a place isn’t old school and retro enough if it doesn’t attract a hipster coffee shop! So here’s Tian Kee & Co. (12 Dakota Crescent, facebook) – they took over the premises of a provision shop that’d been there for the last 54 years.
- beans: didn’t ask, but the internet says it is a Dutch Colony blend
- crema x microfoam: cappucino-thick
- flavour x body: full-bodied cocoa with faint hint of caramel
- aftertaste: medium
Dakota Free Library:
Taking a leaf from Rawls, it was quite a novel thing not to instinctively accuse the authorities of always spoiling things and then to hunt for that petition to sign to prevent the redevelopment of Dakota Crescent, but to:
- assume that HDB has the welfare of the residents at heart, even if these residents are merely renting the flats;
- find out the rationale for the relocation. A quick Google brought up this article where the Member of Parliament for Mountbatten, Mr Lim Biow Chuan said this was “ to improve the living conditions of the residents there”. Regular lift breakdowns in the blocks there and the age of the flats meant that moving to a newer flat with the mod cons would be more beneficial to the old folks in the long-term.
I suspect we are so sinful that we have forgotten that speaking ill of another without verification is slander, and slander (“a malicious, false, and defamatory statement or report”) is wrong, whether or not someone sues you for it in a human court of law.
