Self-help guides this unique community
Print Edition
IT is commonly thought that traditional housing communities feature poor security and bad environment as well as lack modern facilities. But Maotaixinyuan Community on Xianxia Road is different, winning accolades for its broad, flat road and park-like environment.
The residential community, despite lacking budget, managed to raise funds among themselves to repair walls, change water pipes and broaden the roads. Volunteers take part in supervising the construction and help maintain the green projects in the community. The seniors who live alone trust neighbors with their keys for any emergencies.
“The environment here makes us feel refreshed. The whole residential community is our home,” say residents, proud of their community.
Maotaixinyuan residential community has 10 buildings and more than 1,500 blocks. It merges two residential areas, Furonghuayuan and Maotaixiaoqu, thus two committees are in charge of this community. Both of them have a volunteer station where the committee can communicate with the home owners.
The staff working in the stations are all residents elected by the committee. The volunteers are the “bookkeepers” of the owners’ maintenance fund, the “coordinators” in times of conflicts and the “supervisors” of project implementations.
The aging facilities can affect the residents’ wellbeing and often need maintenance and repair, such as leaking roofs, outworn walls and aging pipes, among others.
Raising maintenance fund
Before every renovation and reconstruction, the committees insist on research, ask for a review of the project plan and budget, as well as supervise the reconstruction project.
Like all other old residential communities, Maotaixinyuan also struggles with insufficient maintenance fund and property management fees. The funds for several renovation projects are usually covered by the community itself.
Lack of money can be a big issue at times but the committee tries to resolve them by cutting costs or saving from elsewhere.
In 2010, the two committees agreed to do away with staff for the elevators. Instead, they installed electronic security doors in 10 buildings and surveillance cameras in the elevators.
THE committees also make money from parking lots and houses and use the funds for maintenance.
In 2007, they raised 500,000 yuan (US$80,645) and deposited it into a maintenance fund account that even surprised the bank, which said it had rarely seen people deposit money into a maintenance account.
No footprints on the road
As the environment improves over time, more homeowners have started to take interest in management and construction.
In 2012, the community broadened the roads that involved 100 days of reconstruction work.
In those three months, every day some committee members or other residents would come to supervise the construction work.
Some volunteers kept vehicles away from the newly built cement road to keep the road clean and flat, ensuring that there are no footprints on the 4,700-meter-long road. They even did the landscaping. The property management company is now given the responsibility to plant sweet-scented osmanthus, boxwood and camphor.
Composing local theater
The neighborhood committee, the owner committee, the property management company and the community police work together to manage Maotaixinyuan residential community. Jointly, they organize cultural and sports activities.
Founded in 2004, Maotaixinyuan Culture and Sports Club is one of the earliest clubs in Xianxia Community. They hold regular activities that include poetry and painting, singing, comedy, dancing, fitness and traveling, among others. Because of the club, the residents feel more connected to each other.
Retired residents joined the club and composed a traditional Huju Opera called “A Restless Person” that is based on the story of water-saving master Wang Xueda.
Giving out the keys
Will you trust your keys with others? Chances are, in most cases, it would be no. But in Maotaixinyuan, there are several “golden keys” that are used in case of emergencies.
The keys are used when seniors and elders, who live alone, get into some sort of trouble. The residents keep the keys with some neighbors whom they trust to help out in the time of need.
The residents know the importance of the keys as well as the great responsibility and trust they represent.
Yan Xiaomei has four of these “golden keys,” one of which belongs to Wang Yagu, a senior who lives alone.
One day when Wang went out to run some errands, he forgot that he had put a pot of beef stew on the stove. The community gave him a call but because he could not make it back in time, he asked Yan, who had the keys, to turn off the stove. Yan helped avoid a big fire scare.
After Wang moved to a different building, he still kept a key with Yan.
“I handed out trust, and what I receive in return is responsibility,” he says.
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