Thursday, December 18, 2008

Community Development

Nothing brings neighbors together better than an unscrupulous business trying to skirt the community regulations.

For the past couple months, an old business has emptied out on the ground floor of my building, making way for new businesses. They're opening up a high-class tea house and language training center (neither of which are quite what most people back home would expect). A few weeks ago, there was a notice posted at the entrance to the building scolding the tea house for not obtaining approval for some of its construction, namely some new gas pipes for its kitchen.

The business was kind enough to poll every resident in the building (24 floors with five units per floor) on whether they should be allowed to construct new gas pipes in the building. It was a unanimous "no."

Yesterday, there appeared to be an argument outside when I arrived home. Jia later asked a guard about it. It seems the tea house doesn't care about our opinions (what a surprise), and is going ahead with construction. The building management is rather peeved, as are many residents.

This morning on my way out, I noticed half a dozen new security guards in military fatigues in the lobby. Not sure if the management or business hired them.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ah, good old Shenzhen :-) I miss it, used to travel there often when I lived in HK, for golf. I'm now living and lost in Beijing :-)