Jurong West resident says area ‘overwhelmed’ by 7 coffee shops, raises concerns about noise, odours and pests
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Is there such a thing as too many coffee shops?
Stomper Jimmy, who lives at Jurong West Street 41, seems to think so. By his count, his neighbourhood has seven coffee shops as of April 7, including a new one at Block 495 that is about to open.
Blocks 493 and 494 have one each, Tahoe Garden and Meetup@494 respectively.
Block 496 has two with Kimly Coffee Shop and FoodHub. Block 498 offers another two, 7 Stars and Chang Cheng Mee Wah Coffee Shop.
“It is small residential enclave overwhelmed by seven coffee shops,” said Jimmy. “I guess this is a first in Singapore.”
He wondered if such a high concentration of coffee shops would negatively impact residents’ quality of life and well-being.
“Common issues such as high noise levels from patrons and kitchen operations, persistent cooking odours, pests and increased smoking can affect those living in the HDB flats above or directly adjacent to the coffee shops,” said the Stomper.
“As a matter of fact, the two recent fire cases which involved kitchen exhaust ducts do warrant grave concerns.”
The Stomper was referring to a March 19 blaze in a Queen Street coffee shop and a March 29 fire at Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre.
Jimmy wanted to know why the authorities are letting market forces dictate the number of coffee shops in the area instead of controlling it.
“Similar to bubble tea shops?” he asked.
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