Facelift provides household boost
A resident walks a baby at the central park of Heyang Community.
Putuo District’s plans to renovate 600,000 square meters of old residential buildings this year will provide a much-needed boost to 10,000 households in 12 communities.
Zhou Minhao, the director of Putuo District, says the renovation project, a total of 1.8 million square meters of residential property, will be revamped within three years.
The restoration projects have been expanded from the improvements on building structures, fire prevention facilities, parking spaces and greenery in previous years to subtle and bespoke renovations based on the requirements of each community.
The Putuo government invited professional designers and planners from the Shanghai Urban Planning and Design Research Institute and Shanghai Urban Construction Designing Institute to take charge of the micro-revamping projects for public space at 10 communities in the district.
The efforts aim to revitalize the old communities with exchanges between the planners and the residents, Zhou said. The planners will enter the neighborhoods and will take charge of and talk with residents about their major concerns and demands.
The new round of community revamping projects also features the wider applications of new technology, skills, materials and facilities, especially the involvement of cutting-edge intelligence technology.
The underground bicycle parking areas will be equipped with intelligence access control and monitoring systems as well as automatic electric bike charging systems.
Residents, young and old, enjoy themselves at a public space of Taishan No.2 Community of Yichuan Subdistrict.
Garbage sorting
The Taishan No.2 Community of Yichuan Subdistrict, for instance, has initially upgraded surveillance cameras, which can identify the car plate numbers, LED information screens, broadcasting system and a parking area.
The Putuo government also plans to better promote the garbage sorting among its residents during the community renovation campaigns.
Categorized garbage sorting rooms are being built in the old residential communities.
Putuo aims to implement garbage sorting by 2020.
Around 90 percent of Putuo neighborhoods will carry out garbage sorting verifications by then along with the promotion of “green account” incentives to encourage residents to sort their refuse by category.
By the end of 2018, 70 percent of the communities in Putuo will implement the garbage sorting initiatives and 80 percent of its residents will take part in the “green account” program, the district government said.
The government bodies and companies, along with eateries and street-side fruit and vegetable stores, will take a lead to implement the garbage sorting.
In the Meisi Community in Changzheng Town, for instance, garbage sorting bins have been handed out to each household, while over 650 resident households have signed a promise to implement garbage sorting at home. Volunteers and third-party companies are guiding and reminding residents to properly sort out their garbage.
Residents, young and old, enjoy themselves at a public space of Taishan No.2 Community of Yichuan Subdistrict.
Public space
Putuo also aims to create more public and exercise space during the community revamping campaign to encourage residents take more active part in sports activities.
The renovation project on the Heyang Community of Ganquan Road Subdistrict, for example, has repaired nearly 9,000 square meters roads and expanded about 3,000 square meters of walking paths.
A 2,500-square-meter central garden has been revamped for the community along with a 1,250-square-meter public plaza. The authority has also installed 108 sets of laundry racks for the convenience of residents to improve the image of the community.
The Putuo residents are encouraged to take part in the revamping campaign to paint public areas, decorate stairways or build public reading rooms.
The Zhenguang and Qingjian communities in historical Zhenru Town launched a program for residents to paint on the community’s public walls.
Seniors, children, college students and white-collared workers all decorated the walls alongside each other and got acquainted through the program.
In the central garden of Zhenguang community, residents were encouraged to showcase their family mottoes.
Twenty-four mottoes have been selected to be painted in the garden to create a better cultural ambiance in the neighborhood.
‘Civic halls’
The Putuo government has encouraged communities to establish “civic halls,” and invited residents to take part in the community autonomy. Residents can discuss and find solutions to common concerns and issues in the civic halls.
The Wuyi Community of Changshou Road Subdistrict, for instance, has established a civic meeting program to hold a conference regularly among the general Party branch, residents’ committee, property management, police, Party members and residents’ representatives.
A community after-school care center has been established to take care of children between 6pm and 8pm every day after many residents proposed to the civic meeting.
“The residential houses in some communities are old, but we hope they remain tidy, comfortable and cozy for our residents,” said Zhou.
