OLYMPICS /
News
Beijing rules out post-Games livability setback, despite challenges ahead
Xinhua
Updated: 2008-09-01 23:32
There were other residents who didn't need to move. In 600 hutongs or alleys inside the Second Ring Road, all apartments have been refurbished, the walls and doors renovated in the style of early last century. Even roads were repaved.
Song Xiulan who had been living in the Shoushuihe hutong in Xicheng District for more than 40 years couldn't recognize her home. Pointing at her apartment equipped with new kitchenware and floor, she said it was the Olympics that brought her the "good fortune."
"Look at the glowing faces of Beijingers on the streets. The vigor comes from the bottom of their heart and their confidence of their life getting better," said academic Wang. He identified the rising awareness of the public in city building and environment as another precious legacy of the Games.
Soon after the closure of the Olympics, more than 400,000 Beijingers joined an online discussion about whether to keep a pre-Games car ban. Nearly half supported a permanent car restriction -- an alternating odd-even license plate system from July 20. Others, mostly car owners, understandably opposed.
Another random survey released by the headquarter office revealed 21 percent of the 6,009 polled households were still unsatisfied with the city's livability in the second quarter, the lowest response since the survey was launched a year earlier.
They expected the government to solve problems such as construction noise at night, unlicensed businesses, illegitimate construction, open-air barbecues and leafleting. Garbage collection, street cleaning and public restroom maintenance, however, were viewed as "improving a lot."
"Without the participation and understanding of the citizens, the New Beijing dream would be utopia," Tan said. "The municipality should seize on the legacies left by the Olympics on its management system and the public to march forward."
