More than 6,000 Households Realize Dream of New Residences
By Qi Chuanbin
On October 26, 2020, with the unveiling of 98.69% contracts signed, the East Yuhang Road (Phase I) Plot with the largest area in the reconstruction history of Hongkou district officially reached the standard. More than 6,000 households in old houses will move to their new houses. It also marks that the district has completed the reconstruction and land expropriation for 10,000 households in the old areas this year, far exceeding the target of 6,000 households in the whole year and setting a record high in the old areas’ reconstruction in Hongkou.
Wu Xinbao, chief of the CPC district committee, Zhu Jiajun, deputy chief of the Party committee and President of Shanghai Real Estate Group Co., Ltd., Hu Guangjie, deputy chief of the CPC district committee and district governor, Ma Ren, deputy director of the municipal commission of housing and urban rural development and executive deputy director of the municipal old areas’ reconstruction office, Wu Yanfeng, chair of the standing committee of the district people's congress, Shi Baozhen, chairman of the district CPPCC, Hong Liu, deputy chief of the CPC district committee and Zhao Dehe, chairman of Shanghai Urban Renewal and Construction Development Co., Ltd. attended the unveiling ceremony of the proportion of signing contracts on the house expropriation for the East Yuhang Road (Phase I) Reconstruction Project of Old Areas reaching the standard. Deputy District Governor Zhou Rong presided over the ceremony.
A Wish of Many Years Comes True
The East Yuhang Road (Phase I) plot is composed of No. 110, No. 111, No. 112, No. 113, No. 114 and No. 115 Blocks. It extends to Baoding Road in the East, Kunming Road in the South, Nongdi in the West and Zhoujiazui Road in the north, involving 6,417 households with 5,892 certificates. It is also the first large-scale reconstruction project of old areas launched after the establishment of the Shanghai Urban Renewal Center. Mr. Chen and his family live in a brick and wood house at Lane 113, Kunming Road.
After walking along the narrow and winding lane path, the reporter came to the old house built in the 1930s and 1940s, and opened the old red wooden door. A dark narrow living room was at the gate of the house, and the wooden stairs leading to the second floor attic were on one side. The width of the stairs was less than one meter, and the slope was nearly 75 degrees. Uncle Chen can only go upstairs and upstairs sideways to avoid falling down.
Unlike the reporter who walked cautiously on the stairs, Mr. Chen, who had lived here for 73 years, got used to it. Mr. Chen, pointing to the attic with an area of only a dozen square meters, said that he was born here, married and had children here. When the large family lived here together, he slept on the floor in the living room every night. Later, with their parents passing away and his daughter getting married, the house began to turn spacious. However, like the style of the old furniture at home, their life remained unchanged decades ago. Mr. Chen said that during the flood and typhoon seasons, this was one of the alleys with the hardest tasks in the sub-district and neighborhood committees, and pre-relocation has already become a normal practice. Everyone's desire for the reconstruction of old areas was very urgent.
Looking outside from the window on the northern wall of the attic, we could see rows of high-rises with elevators. Mr. Chen said that since the high-rises were just built over ten years ago, the rumor of reconstruction had spread. But it had never come true. Now, with the promotion of the reconstruction of old areas, the rumor has finally become a reality. "We chose to sign the contract in full currency, and in a place not far away from our daughter's home, we booked an elevator-quipped apartment. Now we are waiting for the money."
Multiple Plans Win Hearts of People
In addition to its large scale and large number of households involved, East Yuhang Road (Phase I) is still a typical old, small and chaotic area. 43.8% of the registered population is over 60 years old, and 5.89% of them are over 80 years old. Most of the houses were built in the 1920s and 1930s, with an average area of 27.44 square meters, and the minimum construction area is only 4 square meters. Poor infrastructure, dirty environment and complex personnel structure increased the difficulty and complexity of the land expropriation.
Project manager Chen Chao, who had worked in the reconstruction of old areas and land expropriation for 8 years, was in charge of the project for 474 certificates and 503 households this time, which was the largest amount in her career up to now. In her daily work, her most frequently used word is "plan". She told that because there were as many as 10 house sources in East Yuhang Road (Phase I), while each household's demand for house type, floor and orientation was different, it required the operator to consider all kinds of problems for the residents like an housekeeper, and formulate multiple plans for the maximum interests of residents and effectively deal with many situations for choosing houses randomly that might occur on the spot.
The expropriation work was not going smoothly. When Chen Chao firstly communicated with a 70-year-old educated youth going back to Shanghai, Chen was always rebuffed by him. In order to learn more about him, Chen actively said "Hi" to him and chatted whenever seeing him. After many sincere talks, the old man gradually lowered his guard against Chen, opened his heart and treated her as his own child. On the day of signing the contract, the old man and Chen took a photo. Later, according to the six plans that Chen Chao prepared for him in advance, the old man got two sets of resettlement houses in Fengxian District as his wish.
Chen Chao and other project managers, operators and sub-district cadres did not have a complete rest on the holidays of Mid-autumn Festival and the National Day from the launch of the second round of consultation on the land expropriation to reaching the standard above. As long as a resident called, they immediately arrived at the base and helped the resident resolve any conflicts in the family from the perspectives of emotions, reasons and laws, so as to facilitate the signing of contracts.
The speed at the North Bund
If the 6 neighborhoods of East Yuhang Road (Phase I) are done item by item, it will take at least 18 months. Now it only takes 3 months to reach the standard, creating the speed at the North Bund. Why is the progress so fast? "The pilot implementation of the new model for old areas’ reconstruction has raised the speed", said Yang Yesheng, executive deputy commander in chief of the district headquarters of old areas’ reconstruction.
It is learnt that in the North Bund area, the old areas’ reconstruction is characterized by small, various and high demand. Although local residents have been looking forward to the reconstruction of old areas for many years, the promotion of the reconstruction is often hindered. "Small" refers to the small scale of the plot, and the largest plot only involves about 1,200 households. "Various" refers to the variety of housing types, including new lanes, old lanes, and new department houses. "High demand" refers to the high requirement for preservation and protection of historical buildings.
In order to solve this practical problem, the district and the municipal real estate group innovated working methods on the basis of "City-district Cooperation, Government-enterprise Cooperation, and District-dominated Efforts". After the success pilot of the Shanshouli community, the reconstruction was started, promoted and developed intensively again in the form of group packing, so as to improve the living standard of residents in the North Bund area. Besides, for the first time, the district put the two collection offices into the base as a whole, and transferred elite personnel from all sub-districts and departments in the whole district to work on the East Yuhang Road (Phase I) project, forming a huge momentum of "thousand people battle".
"The development of the North Bund should be led by planning, and the reconstruction of old areas should be put first", an official of the district headquarters of old areas’ reconstruction said. He introduced that the district would continuously strengthen the cooperation with municipal state-owned enterprises, explore new models, and fully start the reconstruction work of old areas in the North Bund area before June 2021, in a bid to lay a solid foundation for achieving the goal of "creating an image in three years, generating functions in five years, and completing the project in ten years on the whole".