Shabby 50s-era homes become thing of the past
Print Edition
YANGPU District is home to a large number of residential buildings dating to the 1950s. Over the past year, many of these communities have been transformed into incubators for local startups or demolished to make way for riverfront public areas.
The district has about 50,000 households from the 1950s, which cover about 1.3 million square meters. The local government aims to relocate about 7,000 households annually by 2020 to improve residents’ living conditions while also revamping the city’s northeast downtown region. Over 6,500 households have been relocated this year.
The last batch of 360 households at the 228 block of Changbai Sub-district on Yanji Road E., for instance, has been relocated to modern residential high-rises in outlying districts with additional subsidies from the government.
The 1950s-era community had fallen into disrepair when the relocation efforts began. It originally had over 700 households, half of which were relocated in 2002 and 2010, while the rest stayed to live in decrepit conditions, according to the district government.
The government firstly demolished over 3,850 square meters of illegal structures in the community and then dispatched officials to explain subsidy offers to residents in each household.
“We finally made all the residents agree to sign contracts and relocate,” said Chen Jie, Party secretary with the Changbai sub-district government.
To celebrate the relocation, residents arranged a banquet in the central yard of the community in June. Officials from the district and sub-district governments were also invited. Some residents who had been living in the community for decades burst into tears when they said farewell to their neighbors.
A dozen of the community’s Soviet-style houses built in the 1950s will be preserved and turned into innovative stores, offices and exhibition halls, the city’s top planning body has said.
The buildings in the Changbai community were initially built as homes for model workers, but today these few remaining Soviet-style structures are in poor condition. They will be renovated without changing their original appearance, according to the Shanghai Planning, Land and Resources Administration.
The two-story buildings are known as the “20,000 households,” because the city government built a total of 2,000 such buildings in downtown Putuo, Yangpu, Xuhui and Changning districts for 20,000 households in 1952 and 1953.
The former Soviet Union developed this type of two-story building for farm workers. The ground floor was used to accommodate livestock, while farmers and workers lived on the upper level. The buildings were introduced to Shanghai to house local workers.
Real communities
People were proud to live in such communities because only model workers could get such apartments at that time, said Xue Liyong, a senior local historian.
However, living conditions in the buildings worsened over the decades as their wood and brick structures deteriorated. Roofs leaked and mice and termites moved in, said Ju Chunying, a former resident.
Ju and others living in the community buildings have been relocated to modern residential communities. “We still hope the buildings can be kept as a memory,” she said.
Han Yongwei, who was born in one such building in 1960, said the buildings symbolized friendship between neighbors. His parents planted a tree in front of their house when he was born, which had since grown as tall as the building.
Han said neighbors cooked in a shared kitchen and often dined together. They always chatted and visited each others’ homes. They did not need to lock their doors as neighbors kept an eye on each others’ houses.
According to the plan, parking lots, children’s playgrounds, a wet market and public toilets will also be built in the community to replace residential buildings that have been demolished.
Apart from the Changbai Community, the district government also managed to relocate the last batch of 3,627 households in the West Pingliang Community this year.
The lines of brick and wood houses in the community on Yulin Road were built around the 1940s. They were in shabby condition and old electrical wiring was a major problem. The residents had to share kitchens and bathrooms.
Most said they were willing to move to improve their living conditions when the government launched its relocation campaign in March.
“I’ve been waiting for over a decade to get relocated from this shabby house,” said the 65-year-old Yin Chunping who has lived in the community for almost half a century.
Yin lived alone in a small apartment with a loft. To better serve old residents like Yin, the government has dispatched over 50 shuttle buses every day to take residents to the new communities where they were about to be relocated.
It also held lectures and sent pamphlets to the residents about relocation plans and subsidy policies.
Upon the completion of the relocation campaign in Pingliang, the area will be developed into new residential communities, office buildings, as well as public and commercial facilities for Yangpu’s riverside development blueprint, according to the government.
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