Communities awarded for improvement programs

Jing’an District has honored 20 grassroots initiatives for their improvements to local living conditions.

The awarded programs, selected from 48 candidates, show how creative grassroots activism can tackle neighborhood management issues. They also demonstrate that grassroots officials are responsive to the real needs of local residents, according to the Jing’an Civil Affairs Bureau.

One awarded program involved installing elevators into old low-rise apartment buildings. This has become a particularly pressing issues, as an increasingly aged population finds it difficult to climb stairs.

In the Linfen Road Subdistrict, there are 13,000 senior citizens living in old buildings without elevators. This issue was top of the area's improvement agenda this year.

Local officials spent time talking to residents and conducted surveys in 17 large residential complexes without elevators to see whether buildings were qualified to have them installed. They also simplified the application process for adding elevators.

After half of a year, installation of elevators in seven buildings is near completion. Another 84 buildings are in various stages of installation.

Meanwhile, local officials in the Zhijiang Road W. Subdistrict have renovated 49 bicycle parking sites. Again, officials spoke to local residents before embarking on renovations. Now, these parking sites are equipped with monitoring cameras, alarms and fire-fighting equipment.