By Shen Chunchen
Many people found Qiujiang Road much cleaner lately when they passed Baoshan Road Station on Metro Line 3, because a stack of waste electromechanical products, which had been there for more than a decade, seemed to have been rooted up overnight.
Reports say, as the call for “creating a district of civility” was launched in Shanghai in late 2014, North Sichuan Road Community embarked on tackling the long-existing trouble. After 3-odd months of efforts, it was cleared away in early February, marking a satisfying opening to urban appearance rectification on Qiujiang Road.
Hidden trouble under viaduct
Qiujiang Road is now the largest comprehensive second-hand market in Shanghai, providing complete lines of used products for living and production and services covering buying, selling and repair. You can get almost anything you want there. “In the years of war, there was even some helicopter brought down being dismantled and sold here”, according to an old Shanghainese. For most Shanghai people, “Qiujiang Road” has been the synonym for “second-hand market”.
However, what hides behind such a prosperity is the difficulties for urban management. Located at the joint of Hongkou District and Zhabei District, the area used to be on Songhu Railway, along which there were shantytowns, thus forming an area beyond all levels of administration which witnessed peddler’s gathering and messy environment.
The stack of waste electromechanical products has been placed under the viaduct for more than 10 years, taking up an area of nearly 2,000 square meters. Used machine tools and large mechanical equipment leaned on the viaduct’s piers, with loud noises and high danger in processing, arousing wide discontent amid the local people. What’s more, oversized and overweighted mechanical equipment are very likely to cause surface subsidence, thus posing hidden threat to the operation of metro lines.
“Recent years saw a faster adjustment and upgrade of industrial structure, so that a large amount of waste machinery has swarmed into Qiujiang Road. Without intense rectification, things can get worse and worse.” A community staff remarked.
Dealing with “Hulk”
In late 2014, relevant departments of urban management in North Sichuan Road Community collaborated to pitch into joint rectification to the stack of waste electromechanical products on Qiujiang Road. A community director claimed, “We worked careful preparations before we actually acted so as to ensure smooth operation of the whole campaign.” They posted notices, had interviews with business owners and put down relevant records to get full knowledge of the whole situation and inform owners concerned to do their jobs in time. Meanwhile, the community cooperated with Qiujiang Road market management to instruct small business owners to move earlier. Notices have been widely issued at the three stages of “rectification at discretion, closedown and wipeout”, so that all business owners involved can be clearly informed of relevant rules and take actions as required as soon as possible.
“The target of our rectification this time is no longer some fruit stands or night food stalls, but real hulk weighing tons.” Wang Guoqiang, Director of Urban Appearance Joint Management Team, deemed this action a new challenge in his career.
Luckily they’ve got fully ready. The community appointed a forklift special for those heavy and messy cargoes, which cleaned away the cargoes that blockaded passages, thereby opening up through channels within the stack yard and largely speeding up cargo handling.
Then two watch boxes were set at the north and south exits of the market, with guards there to dissuade business owners to continue their operation and allow only exit of goods but no entry.
Soon a large area was spared in the market to serve as cargo loading spot of large trucks so that removal of electromechanical goods could be accelerated. Booths cleaned must be immediately dismantled to avoid any stoppage in the whole action and pose psychological hints to remaining business owners, thus speeding up the clearing of the whole market.
2,380 tons of cargoes removed
According to related personnel, after 3 months of efforts, 33 booths in the market have been dismantled, with 2,380 tons of cargoes moved out on 213 vehicle trips, and 158 tons of garbage cleared away. By early February, all booths in the market had been removed and stacked machine tools and heavy goods have been cleared up.
North Sichuan Road Community claimed that it would enhance investment in infrastructure building, including fencing the overlapping area of Hongkou and Zhabei Districts along Metro Line 3 and greening the isolated flower bed. In addition, entrance guards were set up on Xinguang Road and Qiujiang Road to prevent entry and exit of vehicles and improve urban appearance in the overlapping area.
By virtue of this action, the community planned to further exert its aftereffect to strengthen control over areas critical for urban appearance around Qiujiang Road and contribute to creating an urban district of real civility.