Urban renewal should be the icing on the cake, but also to send charcoal in the snow| Li Tie talked about the city should not be compared with people-oriented

Through urban renewal, we will promote more employment for low- and middle-income people, improve their basic public services and living environment, rather than excluding them from the urbanization process

Text/Li Tie

In the past few years of reform and opening up, especially in the past 20 years, large-scale urban demolition has been carried out very quickly, and the improvement of the urban environment, the improvement of infrastructure and the renewal of public service facilities have completely changed the appearance of the city, all of which have benefited from real estate development.

The government has obtained a large amount of land transfer benefits due to the development of the real estate industry, and has sufficient financial funds to support urban construction. However, it needs to be seen that the era of urban renewal through large-scale real estate development and construction of new cities and new villages, or through the "one-size-fits-all" relocation mode of demolition, has passed.

In the future of urban renewal, there may be a new way of thinking. In the process of finding a new way of thinking, it is also necessary to rethink urban renewal, what is its role? What rules need to be followed?

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First of all, urban renewal is a process of long-term accumulation and improvement. Both developed and developing countries are facing the problem of urban renewal. From the experience of developed countries, urban renewal is a long-term process. Most countries have gone through hundreds of years to gradually become a process of scale. It can be seen that urban renewal is not a one-time process.

Second, urban renewal is a process of "point" development. Different regions and different cities are very different, each with regional characteristics and cultural customs, rather than promoting a large area in a "one-size-fits-all" manner. The correct approach is to proceed from the local area and advance point by point. Over time, when these localities and "points" are connected together, the process of urban renewal realizes the transformation from point to surface. Therefore, urban renewal pays more attention to details, changes that emphasize micro, and key features, so that urban renewal policies can be smoothly implemented.

Third, urban renewal should take into account the interests of all aspects to achieve a win-win situation. In the process of urban development in developed countries, the process of urban renewal is essentially a negotiation process between the development body and the land and house owners. In this process, the latter needs to negotiate with the city government, developers, etc. on issues such as compensation and resettlement for demolition to ensure that the benefits are as much as possible. In this sense, urban renewal is a process in which all relevant entities benefit together, especially the interests of the relocated persons need to be fully respected and guaranteed.

Fourth, urban renewal should follow market choices. To achieve urban renewal according to the characteristics of its own development, it is necessary to learn from international experience and conform to the characteristics of Chinese cities themselves. Is it that the urban renewal policy has been introduced, and all the cities are crowded up, and all of them must be urban renewal? Definitely not. Cities should implement renovation according to their own financial resources, realizable resources, urban forms and landscapes, and implement renovation of the "points" that need to be updated, and must not regard urban renewal as a matter of quick success, but must steadily advance, step by step, otherwise it may bring more and greater negative effects.

Fifth, urban renewal should be in line with the needs of diverse demographics. We all know that there are diverse populations in cities, with not only elite talents, high-income people, but also many low- and middle-income people. What kind of living space urban renewal should provide for these low- and middle-income people, naturally urban renewal cannot be implemented according to only one standard.

Now many cities are pursuing high standards of urban construction, which makes the cost of urban development and the cost of residents' living consumption significantly increased. For example, beijing's Qianmen main street has been transformed to a high standard, and a direct consequence is that the rent of the storefront has been raised, and the price of goods has risen accordingly. In fact, many urban center renovations have encountered this problem. After many cities transform the old commercial streets, the cost of renovation will naturally be spread to the store rent, etc., and the rent of the merchants will increase, which will naturally increase the sales price of the goods, and finally the consumer will pay the bill.

There are also many old commercial streets in many cities that have disappeared after renovation, and their popularity has disappeared, which is also a common phenomenon. This is because the houses in the old commercial street are relatively old, but the rent is cheap, and the things sold are also cheap. And the rent in the big shopping mall is expensive, and the things sold are naturally expensive. Some new cities and new areas can not see breakfast shops selling fritters and soy milk, which is the same reason, because the rental cost is too high, and small business can not afford it.

This means that if the standards proposed by urban renewal policies are too high, it will make cities less and less inclusive, and now some cities have such problems.

There are 850 million permanent residents in China's cities and towns, but there are more than 200 million foreign agricultural transfers, and there will be nearly 200 million new agricultural migrants who will soon enter the city in the future, most of whom belong to the middle and low income groups. Where will these people live in the future? How to get a job? For the large number of low- and middle-income people in the city, can they afford to buy expensive goods in large shopping malls?

There is now a common phenomenon that the various standards of the city are compared with each other, and no one is really providing living space for more low- and middle-income people. This may be a key issue that urban renewal policies must face, and it is necessary to avoid making policy requirements with one standard, one goal, and one goal.

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Urban development involves two groups of people: one is the original urban residents, their living standards need to be improved, and the other is the foreign population (mainly migrant workers) who enter the urban life and employment, and their living standards need to be improved. Both groups of residents have increasingly good expectations for the future of life.

Therefore, urban renewal needs to consider how to provide the livable space needed by each type of person for the needs of both types of people. One of the main contents of many urban renewals is the transformation of dangerous old houses in urban villages, which involves how to allow foreign populations to enjoy low-consumption, low-cost development space to achieve their urbanization transition.

There is a huge potential and space for urban renewal, there are still a large number of dangerous old houses in the city that need to be transformed, so how to reasonably handle the relationship with the relocated households in this process, and what kind of projects can be developed to make good use of this space, which is a problem for enterprises to think about, because enterprises must be profitable, so where does the profit come from? How large is the area of development? How to solve the cost of relocation, here are involved in economic costs and social costs.

What's more, most of the sources of funding for urban renewal are based on various types of revenues from real estate development. For the government, land transfer fees are needed, while for enterprises, large-scale and large-scale development is needed to form profits. However, real estate currently faces many restrictive policies, and how to identify future development opportunities in the real estate industry in urban renewal may need in-depth research.

How to use the opportunity of urban renewal to gradually get rid of the real estate-led development model and achieve transformation, we need to consider the following issues.

One is how to choose the space of urban renewal, where to take the city as the focus of renewal, different cities should have different choices; the second is how to choose the way of urban renewal. Is it in the form of demolition compensation, or is it in the form of cooperative development or joint participation? Or small-scale subject replacement, etc., which need to be solved through consultation between the government, enterprises and urban renewal involved in the relocation of the main body; the third is that the relevant departments should strengthen the research on urban renewal and focus on solving related problems, such as how to prevent real estate development from overheating, how to give full play to the potential of urban renewal, how to consider urban renewal from an economic and social point of view, rather than simply from the image, planning or landscape aspects, there are many topics that need to be studied The fourth is how to gradually solve various problems involved in urban renewal through long-term planning and urban development strategies. Some involve changes in the way of updating, some need to adjust policies, and some involve stakeholders, which need to establish a series of supporting policies through the idea of reform, and even form relevant institutional mechanisms.

It is also necessary to understand urban renewal from the following aspects.

First, it is necessary to solve the problem of the transformation of a large number of dangerous old houses. Because the infrastructure in the old city is relatively poor, the housing conditions of residents are very poor, and it is inevitable to improve the environment and quality of urban residents' lives through urban renewal.

The second is the upgrading and transformation of infrastructure and public service facilities, which is the shortcoming of the city and the content that urban renewal needs to solve.

Third, urban renewal should implement the concept of green, ecological and low-carbon. In the past, cities were all reinforced concrete, with less green space, and there was a widespread extensive development model of wide roads and large squares. In the future, there must be a change of concept, and urban renewal practice should consider how to reduce carbon emissions, improve efficiency, and how to make people's lives more convenient.

Fourth, urban renewal should pay more attention to the middle and low income population. Through the process of urbanization, more people can complete the transition of urbanization, which is a long-term process, but it is also a real problem. Therefore, the process of urban renewal is more about sending charcoal in the snow, not just adding icing on the cake. For example, through urban renewal, we will promote more employment for low- and middle-income people and improve their basic public services and living environment, rather than excluding them from the urbanization process.

Fifth, urban renewal should consider economic costs and social costs, which will directly affect the choice of a variety of urban renewal models. Is the large-scale, large-scale urban renewal model of the past sustainable, and is the source of investment required for urban renewal sustainable? It is a problem that we must face and that urgently need to be solved.

All in all, the key to urban renewal lies in how to achieve "people-oriented".

The author is an independent economist, former director of the China Center for Urban and Small Town Reform and Development, and edited by Zhu Tao