Know a little bit more about BUGIS

In order to find out a way to allow elderly to travel easily within the community, Bugis, I have to know more about Bugis. Let's start with knowing some of it's history.

Bugis, in Singapore, was renowned internationally from the 1950s to the 1980s for its nightly gathering of trans women, a phenomenon which made it one of Singapore's top tourist destinations during that period.


Back to Pre- 1950, the Bugis, an ethnic group from South Sulawesi sailed up to this place and carried out trading with Singaporean merchants. 
The Cantonese, however, referred to the street as Hak Gaai or Hei Jie in Mandarin (黑街; black street) as there were many clubs catering to the Japanese invaders in the 1940s. During the first half of the 20th century.

After World War II, hawkers gathered there to sell food and goods. There was initially also a small number of outdoor bars set up beside rat-infested drains.

When transvestites began to rendezvous in the area in the 1950s, they attracted increasing numbers of Western tourists who came for the booze, the food, the pasar malam shopping and the "girls". Business boomed and Bugis Street became an extremely lively and bustling area.

In the mid-1980s, Bugis Street underwent major urban redevelopment into a retail complex of modern shopping malls, restaurants and nightspots mixed with regulated back-alley roadside vendors. Underground digging to construct the Bugis MRT station prior to that also caused the upheaval and termination of nightly transgender sex bazaar culture, marking the end of a colourful and unique era in Singapore's history.

Bugis, Downtown Core,Wikipedia, The Free Enclopedia, Accessed on 5 Febuary 2016, Last revised on 15 January 2016, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugis,_Downtown_Core

Well, as a foreigner, I never know that I m studying in a place where full with colourful history. Good to know that. It is clearly shown that Bugis is a place where has been developed since more than half decade ago. The facilities and buildings around are built one followed by another. The area is less organised and seems to be crowded because of its position as downtown core. However, we cannot forget that there are a numbers of elderly are staying there since they were young.

Reconstruct the city?

Invent an amazing tool?

What should we do to make it easier for elderly to travel within this community?

I am overwhelmed with these questions.