The run-down lane houses of Laoximen are the latest to fall to the wrecker’s ball in China’s biggest city, where fans of its old buildings hope more can be done to renovate those worth saving so residents can stay put and live better
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“These older buildings usually belong to the government. The people who live there don’t own the building, they rent from the government, so they don’t care about the house and its upkeep.
“From the point of view of the government, this is the fastest way to regenerate this kind of area and the best way economically. The real estate developers like to buy the land and develop a totally new area. Of course, there are lots of experts calling for the government to find another way, a middle way to do that.
It’s this so-called middle way that preservation advocates in Shanghai now largely advocate – a balance between development and protection of the city’s history, personality and sense of community.
“All these old neighbourhoods, they are all run down. I like to be very clear about this: nobody wants to see people continue to have to live in the conditions that exist in the lane neighbourhoods, regardless of whose fault it is that they were never maintained,”
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