As is well known, with the acceleration of urbanization in China, many old residential areas have been demolished and rebuilt under the requirements of the "shantytown renovation" policy. However, at the end of 2020, relevant departments stated that "shantytown renovation" would be adjusted to "old renovation", which means renovating old residential buildings. This regulation has revitalized many old residential areas.
According to data from relevant institutions, 58000 old residential areas in urban areas have been renovated and upgraded between 2019 and 2020. Whether it is the maintenance of water and electricity pipelines or the addition of various supporting measures, they have greatly improved the living experience of residents in old residential areas. However, one of these old renovation measures has been opposed by many people. What's going on?
Lower level residents oppose the installation of elevators
In fact, the opposed old renovation measure is to install elevators, because many old residential areas were built in a relatively distant era and did not have good conditions to install elevators at that time. Therefore, many 6th and 7th floor residential buildings do not have elevators, and people can only climb stairs up and down. This was okay when they were young, but as time goes by, many residents in old residential areas are getting older, and climbing stairs is a very inconvenient thing for them. Therefore, installing elevators becomes very necessary.
However, many residents living on lower floors such as the 1st and 2nd floors have expressed opposition. The specific reasons for opposition are mainly twofold. On the one hand, these residents live on lower floors and can easily travel without the need for elevators. Installing elevators not only does not bring any benefits, but may also affect the ventilation and lighting of their own houses. Moreover, the noise generated by elevator operation will greatly affect the living experience of lower floor residents.
On the other hand, it is because the renovation funds for installing elevators need to be shared equally by all residents, and the maintenance and repair of the installed elevators also require the use of the maintenance fund belonging to all residents. This means that residents on lower floors such as the 1st and 2nd floors not only do not enjoy the convenience brought by elevators, but also have to spend extra money. Naturally, the installation of elevators will be greatly opposed.
Sharp conflicts between low and high-rise residents
In order to persuade residents on lower floors such as the 1st and 2nd floors to agree to install elevators, some people have put forward an opinion that residents on the 1st floor are not responsible for the maintenance costs of the elevators, and users on other floors should compensate residents on the 1st floor with a portion of the money. The higher the floor, the more compensation will be given, but this opinion has been opposed by residents on the 6th floor.
Because the cost of installing an elevator itself is high, installing an elevator in an old community usually costs hundreds of thousands of yuan. Even with relevant subsidies from the government, residents still need to contribute tens of thousands of yuan. Moreover, the cost of installing an elevator is charged according to the floor, and residents on the 6th floor pay the most. If compensation is also given to residents on the 1st floor, the cost will be too high. Therefore, this opinion has been shelved, and both sides are unwilling to give in.
So installing elevators has become a difficult problem encountered by many old residential areas during renovation. Fortunately, in 2021, experts proposed another solution to this problem, which is "shared elevators".
The emergence of "shared elevators"
The so-called "shared elevator" refers to an elevator that does not require residents to bear the construction cost, but requires payment for subsequent use. The elevator mainly uses materials such as glass curtain walls during construction, which not only solves the dissatisfaction of low floor residents such as the 1st and 2nd floors with the cost of installing elevators, but also solves the lighting problem of low floor residents as much as possible.
The charging standard for this "shared elevator" is relatively low. For example, Yunnan Province states that in addition to the free use of the first floor, the fee for each use of the second and third floors is 0.2 yuan, the fee for each use of the fourth and fifth floors is 0.25 yuan, and the fee for each use of the sixth and seventh floors is 0.3 yuan. In addition to charging per use, residents can also choose to apply for monthly or annual cards, and in addition to swiping cards, they can also take the "shared elevator" through methods such as scanning codes and facial recognition.
However, many people have expressed that residents do not need to bear the cost of elevator construction, in other words, the construction cost will be entirely borne by the enterprise. Will this lead to the behavior of "stealing the weight and shortening the two" when enterprises install elevators? In fact, this concern is unnecessary because the government will provide large subsidies to enterprises during the construction of these "shared elevators". For example, Beijing has stated that after the audit of residential elevator installation, each unit will be subsidized to enterprises up to 640000 yuan, so the quality of residential elevator installation can be guaranteed.
It can be said that the emergence of "shared elevators" has made the conflict between low rise and high-rise residents when installing elevators in old residential areas less acute. Although it does cause certain lighting and ventilation problems for first floor residents, it is believed that providing them with certain economic compensation before using elevators for free can make them make certain concessions and agree to install elevators.
If you were a resident on the first floor, would you agree to install a "shared elevator"?
