The hawker centers were created by the government to make things ‘newer, cleaner, safer and more modern’ (which sounds like it could be the official motto of Singapore govt., well done) and to get food hawkers off of the streets, which were seen as dirty and disorderly by the government. There was always great food to be had on the streets, and the centers were lamented by some for the same reasons you are stating, and not everyone (e.g., most) could afford the costs of building a kitchen and rent. I still have nostalgia for the days when Raffles was a run-down relic, and long afternoons sipping gin drinks at the Long Bar was an affordable luxury. But life in Singapore has been a forced march into ‘progress’ for quite a while now. Not all bad, but a strong bias toward sterile, as opposed to organic.
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