Ipoh Old Town Walking Street officially launched amid on-site protests

Despite being hit with numerous ongoing setbacks, the people behind the Ipoh Old Town Walking Street project managed to officially launch their bold initiative last night.

The team of Ipoh Happenings was there, quietly watching the event from afar. We were not exactly expecting something grandeur but what we saw last night was quiet alarming. It doesn't look good, far from promising and we are quite worried, couldn't help wondering what would happen to the project in the near future.

We were told that at least 30 stalls would be available on site during the first few weeks after launch but when we were there last night, we only saw a few stalls. During launch last night, we saw stall keepers selling satay, meat floss, Chinese New Year goodies, pet fish, OldTown White Coffee merchandise, sports clothings, artworks and of course telco products/services. We are not quite sure what had happened, perhaps some of the missing stalls decided to open their businesses after launch night. In the meantime, let's not speculate anything right now.

It wouldn't be entirely wrong to say that a group of protesters, standing with their placards on the other side under the watchful eyes of RELA volunteers that were on duty last night that gained the attention of visitors. When they shout and chant their protests, everybody can hear them.

On-site protests against Ipoh Old Town Walking Street

Yes, there was a group of protesters last night. One of our team members approached them and found that they were quite friendly and more than willing to explain their concerns about the Ipoh Old Town Walking Street project to our team member.

We sincerely believe that any problems could be solved amicably if everybody work together. We hope that the people behind the Ipoh Old Town Walking Street project would find ways to solve whatever problems that could jeopardise their project that can actually bring a lot of good not only to Ipoh Old Town but to the whole City of Ipoh as well.

We left around 8:45 PM, feeling quite saddened to see an ambitious project such as Ipoh Old Town Walking Street is frowned upon by the locals in and around Jalan Market.