The following is a new feature, two weeks old now, at the Pattaya News where every Sunday we take a look at the prior weeks top local stories, events and things that you should know locally in Pattaya, Thailand. Our primary focus here at The Pattaya News is to support our local community and those who live and work in the Pattaya area. As we publish over a dozen articles a day daily we will use this to highlight and simplify the things that our editors and staff, both Thai and foreign, feel are most important to our local readers. If you would like all our news sent to you daily in a newsletter format, with no spam and one morning mail daily (like your own personal daily newspaper) you can subscribe below. It’s free!
Here is a look at the top local stories, chosen by our team, from last week, August 23rd to the 29th with some commentary. They are not in any particular level of importance. These are the top LOCAL stories not national, that is a separate article coming soon based on reader request.
1. Beach chair, umbrella and bed vendors on Pattaya Beach return to seven days a week
Following a request made by vendors on Pattaya Beach, the long-standing “Wednesday no umbrella” day has been removed by Pattaya City Hall, allowing beach vendors to work every day of the week if they wish. Additionally, they are also given two extra hours a day to be open if they wish. This comes as Pattaya City Hall brainstorms ways to draw more tourists to Pattaya Beach versus nearby Jomtien Beach, with critics saying the city needs to relax many rules and allow street parking in order to start to allow people to return. This is the first step and City Hall has said they are actively looking at the street parking situation as well as other concerns. See point 5 for more on this.
2. Pattaya City provides support to escalating homeless problem in the city
An issue that we have covered multiple times over the past month, the homeless population in Pattaya, saw Pattaya City officials take some action this week by assisting those in need in the community. However, just a few days after these actions, two more stories of homeless, one who smashed a windshield with a brick and another who allegedly ate the ice cream of a customer, went viral on social media. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lack of foreign tourists the homeless population has increased significantly in Pattaya. Only a small minority are aggressive or have caused issues, however, Pattaya City has now recognized the issue and are working on resolving it, according to them.
Pattaya City officials provide support to dozens of homeless on city streets
3. Eastern Economic Corridor committee approves a 80 million baht budget for improvements to Pattaya piers, Koh Larn and Pattaya/Pratumnak hill
As part of a larger project to improve the overall Eastern part of Thailand for projects designed to benefit the area as a whole, Pattaya City will get 80 million baht towards several major projects. Part of this is an environmental feasibility study towards a proposal to build a second pier, on either Jomtien and/or Krating Lai beach. This pier would relieve pressure, presumably, on Bali Hai Pier and allow additional routes for tourists to reach the outlying islands and water activities. Other parts of the project include refurbishment of the Koh Larn piers and a cleanup/refurbishment of the Pattaya Hill area.
4. Pattaya launches a full time mobile sterilization and vaccination truck for stray animals
As well as the homeless, an increasing population of Soi dogs and cats have filled the streets around the city. According to Pattaya City Hall, this is due to multiple reasons such as lack of tourists and foot traffic so the animals have more confidence as well as many people abandoning animals due to lack of funds and money due to the Covid-19 Coronavirus pandemic. Many people returned to their home provinces and released animals on the streets, adding to the population according to Pattaya City. Some areas such as Jomtien Beach and Pratumnak hill have large populations of animals. This project will help the population from expanding further while still being kind and considerate towards the animals and not filling pounds further.
5. Our Thai readers give feedback on how to make Pattaya Beach attractive to domestic tourists
As promised above, this is a total list from our Thai readers at thepattayanews.co.th, on how to improve Pattaya Beach. City Hall has evidently read the suggestions and have already moved forward on some of the items while taking into consideration others.
That’s it for this week. As always thank you for reading us! We work hard to deliver you original, self written and sourced Pattaya news.
Adam Judd, co-founder
User Review
( votes)
