OPINION> Commentary
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OPINION> Commentary
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End the tale of two cities
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-23 07:43 Although the movie Slumdog Millionaire has snatched eight Academy Awards for the Indian city of Mumbai, Shanghai clearly does not want its slums to be known by the rest of the world, at least not for too long. That's why the city's Party secretary Yu Zhengsheng has paid many visits to the areas since he took office 16 months ago, trying to find solutions to wipe them off the city's landscape. Yu has been appalled by the poor living conditions he found in crumbling houses in such a modern international city, known for the country's tallest buildings and the fastest Maglev in the world. During a visit to an old town area in Zhabei district last week, he said Shanghai should not have mansions and high-rise buildings on one side but dilapidated houses and shanties on the other. On another trip, he had even used words like "complete darkness" to describe the life of people living in shacks. Most visitors to Shanghai are deeply impressed by the city's changing skyline but only a few venture into slum areas.
It is true that Shanghai has done a fantastic job in old-town redevelopment since the early 1990s. About 70 million square meters of dilapidated houses have been torn down to make way for new developments. Some 1.2 million families have been relocated from those ramshackle houses. The average living space in the city proper has shot up from 6.6 square meters in 1990 to 16.9 square meters in 2008. But redevelopment has dramatically slowed since 2003 when the cost for displacing households skyrocketed and the only remaining unkempt houses were in less commercially lucrative areas. Increasing demand from both local government and residents for more transparency and reasonable compensation in urban displacement has made old town redevelopment even tougher and more costly. Several million Shanghai people still live in some run-down houses. Many of them have dreamed for years, or decades, of moving into new apartments and benefiting from the city's supersonic economic growth. Unlike their peers in Mumbai, these people made headlines not for winning jackpots, but for fire disasters, burst water pipes and floods during the rainy season. It would be a shame for any government official to spend a day not thinking of the suffering of these local residents. Recent documents by the municipal government to speed redevelopment and the determination voiced by Party secretary Yu and Mayor Han Zheng to meet tough challenges are welcome signs. Yu is right in saying that Shanghai should not be a city of such stark contrasts. Urban slums do not belong to any harmonious society. Pushing forward old-town development with Shanghai's famed speed is the only right thing for the city to do. (China Daily 03/23/2009 page4) |
