Just Like Playing the Piano, Only by Overall Plans and Coordination, Can We Hit All the Right Notes in Renovation Work of Old Urban Area

(Reporter: Wang Yanyan/ Photographer: Yu Ruwen) “I have 4 meetings tomorrow. The day after tomorrow? Sorry, I am also busy that day. I am going to see several renovation bases...” The reporter contacted Ling Bin several times to fix a date for an interview, but failed every time because of his full schedules. Finally, on a Sunday afternoon, we saw the “busy bee” in the site office of Huaxing New Town renovation base. Ling Bin, sitting in front of us, was tanned and thin, with a hint of fatigue in his smile. We were told that he had participated in the activity of distributing compensations to residents at land acquisition base of Changpinglu Bridge at 8 in the morning, and then hurried to Huaxing New Town renovation base to sort various renovation materials of this week and arrange the work of next week. It was a hot and dizzy Sunday, but for Ling Bin, it was just another workday.

Work overload: working around the clock regardless of days or nights, and workdays or weekends

Ling Bin has quite full schedules every day: regular meetings about old urban area renovation once a week; promotion meetings for tail-in work of bases once a week; preparation meetings for new base projects once a week; spot inspection at renovation bases under demolition at least three days a week; receiving petitioners; mediating conflicts; visiting residents; introducing policies, and so on. Some time ago, the land acquisition project of Changpinglu Bridge entered home stretch. Ling Bin and his team devoted themselves to the work in spite of intense heat and high temperature. The land acquisition project of Changpinglu Bridge is now in the final stage, but Ling Bin still cannot rest for a moment, and has begun to prepare for next renovation project which is about to be initiated.

It is learned that the district plans to initiate expropriation work of renovation bases in the next half year, including Street 237 and Street 91 of the west plot of Central Hospital, and Alley 649 of Yongxing Road. Each new project requires more than 50 compulsory operations, respectively involving communication and coordination of various functional departments. The time is calculated by the day. In the meantime, the district currently has 17 closing and carry-over projects, involving over 600 households. Ling Bin carries Progress Chart on Renovation Projects Initiated in the Next Half Year, Promotion Chart on Tasks of Closing and Carry-Over Bases, Household Information Sheet of Closing and Carry-Over Bases, Procedure Promotion Sheet of Renovation Bases, Progress Chart on Units Expropriation and other materials in his carry-on briefcase. Ling Bin told the reporter, it was necessary to know well about the situation of the hundreds of households as a worker for old urban area renovation, and visiting them one by one was one of his and his teams’ job duties. In spite of huge workload, he must finish the task patiently and continuously so as to win trust and support of the residents.

Innovative approaches: effectively promoting the renovation of old urban area

Approved by the Federation of Trade Unions of the district, “Ling Bin Studio for Renovation Innovation” was founded in March 2016. The team pools professional talents in expropriation promotion, housing resource management, handling of letters and calls as well as other aspects, and creatively adopts the working method of “system + technology + style + service” to promote the work of old urban area renovation. Rely on scientific and technological means to refine information disclosure, strengthen system construction, promote unified management, and guarantee justice and equity with "technology + system"; advocate good working style and service consciousness, promote normalized expropriation, and resolve conflicts with "style + service".

The land acquisition project of Changpinglu Bridge is the first to apply the south-north unified compensation scheme after the merger of Jing’an District and Zhabei District. In the promotion process of this project, the general office of old urban area renovation innovated ways and means in a targeted manner, and played a good role in overall coordination and general promotion. As the backbone force and the core leader, Ling Bin and his team coordinated and mobilized all aspects of work, thus effectively promoting the signing and removal of residents with houses expropriated. For this reason, the base has set up joint reception room. A team composed of sub-district staff, cadres of residents committees, people's mediators of Justice Bureau, lawyers and so on, jointly received residents involved with old urban area renovation, learned about their appeals, timely collected the information and then delivered to the Progress Promotion Department of general office of old urban area renovation led by Ling Bin. The department would give responses and instructions in a timely manner. The sub-district has also set up “Secretary Studio”, and invited senior secretaries of residents committees with experience in old urban area renovation to join the studio and participate in the coordination and promotion work. In the meantime, the Promotion Department of general office of old urban area renovation regularly convenes coordination meetings with sub-district staff, cadres of residents committees and others, to understand work bottlenecks and difficulties, guide business, carry out coordination and communication, and formulate specific solutions for each case.

Every renovation project involves a multitude of miscellaneous tasks, a variety of departments, and lots of things that need to be coordinated in its whole process, from early-stage preparations to initiation and even closure. Ling Bin said, just like playing the piano, only by overall plans and coordination, could we hit all the right notes in construction work of old urban area. Due to effective promotion mechanism and targeted working methods, from the release of expropriation announcement on June 22, to centralized removal of part residents who have signed contracts on August 1, the signing rate of the project has reached 99.37% as of that day, and the municipal engineering project of Changpinglu Bridge has hit a record high in signing speed and signing rate.

Care for people: patiently and meticulously solving people’s worries and difficulties

Since working at the Promotion Department of general office of old urban area renovation in October 2011, Ling Bin has always developed the spirit of “day and night” and “5+2”, worked on the front line of old urban area renovation, visited residents with houses relocated around one thousand times, received such residents more than one thousand times, participated in the signing work of over 500 households, and established a good reputation among these residents. Ling Bin once was awarded Merit Citation Class II in the theme practical activity of striving to be a satisfying civil servant themed by “creating first-rate performance and building the image as a public servant” in Shanghai, “Outstanding Constructor in the Meritorious Competition of Critical Projects in Shanghai” as well as other honors; he was rated as “Shanghai Advanced Worker” in 2011-2015 and Shanghai Outstanding Party Member in 2016, was awarded Shanghai May 1st Labor Medal in 2016, and was recommended by the organization and staff as the Party Representative of the Eleventh Congress of the Communist Party of China in Shanghai.

At the beginning of 2016, Huaxing New Town renovation base, the renovation project for the last old urban area in Suhe creek was initiated. There were many aged residents in the residential area. They had lived here for decades, and refused to relocate. Before signing contracts, Ling Bin repeatedly held meetings with residents living in the residential area, to listen to their thoughts and appeals, patiently and carefully introduce policies to them, and actively communicate with and explain to them. He determined real estate agency in a short time, and provided suitable housing information for them at any time to eliminate their extra worries. In the efforts of Ling Bin and his colleagues, the contract signing rate of Huaxing New Town renovation base exceeded 90% on the first day.

“As a Party member, my greatest wish and pursuit are people's satisfaction rather than superficial forms, and are popular support rather than political achievements.” With wisdom and efforts, Ling Bin strives to meet people’s needs, unties the knots in people's minds one by one, and finally earns the trust of residents involved with old urban area renovation.