From the perspective of economic, social and urban development, one of the important backgrounds of the transformation of old urban communities is that China’s urbanization has entered the second half. In 2019, China’s urbanization rate has reached 60.60%, and the per capita GDP has exceeded 10,000 US dollars, which is higher than the average level of upper-middle-income countries. The process of urbanization in China has entered between the second turning point (urbanization rate is 50%) and the third turning point (urbanization rate is 70%), and the urban development has shifted from incremental expansion to the era of upgrading stocks. Urban governance needs to pay special attention to people’s livelihood issues and promote urban transformation and development.
The city is a living body, and urban renewal is an eternal topic. The renovation of old residential areas embodies the development idea of "making people more convenient, more comfortable and better in urban life". As early as the central city work conference held in 2015, the central government has proposed to speed up the transformation of old communities. The the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Conference held in July 2019 proposed to implement short-board projects such as the renovation of old urban communities, urban parking lots and the construction of urban and rural cold chain logistics facilities. The renovation of old residential areas has been accelerated.
According to the deployment, in 2020, the country plans to renovate 39,000 old urban communities, involving nearly 7 million residents, double the number in 2019, with the focus on residential areas completed before the end of 2000. This work has also become a new starting point for "stable investment" in urban and rural construction after the investment in shantytown renovation. The renovation of old residential areas can not only promote the organic renewal of the city, improve and upgrade the living environment of residents, but also create new investment and jobs, which is also of great significance to the current work of "six stabilities" and the implementation of "six guarantees".
At present, the year 2000 is generally used as the node to divide old communities and new communities. The residential quarters built before the end of 2000 generally have the demographic characteristics of "prominent aging phenomenon", the location characteristics of "adjacent to the old city center", the architectural entity characteristics of "five or six floors without elevators" and the social governance characteristics of "lack of property management". Therefore, there are housing safety problems, infrastructure problems, supporting services problems and community management problems in old residential areas that need to be solved.
Old residential areas have universal characteristics, and the reconstruction work needs to start with these universal characteristics and summarize the possible problems. The author believes that there are six main problems in the renovation of old residential areas: first, in community governance, residents’ cognition and demands for the renovation and upgrading of residential areas are different and difficult to coordinate; Second, in terms of updating hardware facilities, community supporting facilities are old, some facilities are lacking in functions, and some facilities even have hidden dangers; Third, the construction of public service facilities, land shortage and difficult to supplement; Fourth, in terms of standards and norms, relevant norms need to be further established and improved; Fifth, in the aspect of fund-raising, it is necessary to establish a fund mechanism that is reasonably shared by multiple subjects; Sixth, in terms of institutional mechanisms, relevant approvals need to strengthen coordination and cooperation.
The renovation of old residential areas needs system design, and the goal of "five modernizations" is clear: First, it is suitable for aging, including barrier-free design and installation of elevators; Second, greening, energy saving and consumption reduction, and integration with urban green development; Third, communization, promoting the leadership of party building and residents’ autonomy, and developing smart communities in governance; Fourth, the circle of life, including "15-minute life circle", "10-minute old people circle" and "5-minute children circle" and the construction of public charging piles and public laundry rooms; The fifth is human culture, which combines the transformation of old residential areas with the protection of local characteristics and the continuation of urban cultural context to promote urban organic renewal.
The renovation of old residential areas needs comprehensive planning, and the renovation objects and tasks can be classified. The renovation of old residential areas includes the following aspects: first, the renovation of single buildings to make them more solid and beautiful; The second is the transformation of residential environment, which makes residents’ life more quality; Third, all kinds of facilities are perfect, making residents’ lives more convenient; Fourth, the community management is perfect, which makes the community life more orderly.
According to this, the task of old residential area renovation can be divided into three categories: first, the basic category to meet the needs of safety and basic life, including municipal supporting infrastructure such as water, electricity and heating roads, and maintenance of public parts of buildings; The second is the improvement of life and convenience, including the improvement of residential environment and supporting facilities, the installation of elevators and the increase of parking facilities in conditional residential areas; The third is to improve the quality, which can be provided by the market, including the supply of community public service products, such as pension, nursery, health, etc. The provision of such public services must be based on the principle of adapting to local conditions and seeking truth from facts, and strive to provide residents with "menu-style" optional services.
The transformation of old residential areas needs the participation of social capital and the promotion of multi-subject and multi-source power. The executive meeting of the State Council held on April 14th this year proposed to establish a mechanism for the government, residents and social forces to share the reconstruction funds reasonably, with subsidies from the central government and special debts from local governments to encourage social capital to participate in the reconstruction operation. The transformation of old residential areas needs to solve the problem of "where does the funds come from", and it is necessary to establish a framework system of normalized maintenance and renewal funds.
Social governance must be innovated in the renovation of old residential areas. The transformation of old residential areas is an eternal theme in the process of urban development. Its core concept is to implement the people-centered development idea, the development concept of "innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing" and the transformation principle of "seeking truth from facts and adapting to local conditions". As a livelihood project, the renovation of old residential areas must encourage the public to actively participate, listen to the opinions of all sectors of society in time, and form a good working atmosphere. Efforts should be made to solve the outstanding problems strongly reflected by the masses, so that the masses can have more sense of gain in the transformation of old residential areas. This process is bound to be a social governance process of mutual consultation, co-construction, co-governance and sharing.
(The author is a professor-level senior urban planner, former vice president of China Urban Planning and Design Institute and deputy secretary of the Party Committee)