CityLab Daily: Shanghai To Raze Villages Blamed for Covid Lockdown
Also today: China’s otherworldly “Wormhole Library,” and the woman who built a superstar architect’s image.
For years, Shanghai has been razing and redeveloping densely populated villages to make room for new residential and commercial complexes.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/BloombergTens of thousands of migrant workers living on the margins of Shanghai are facing renewed threats of eviction after their villages were blamed for a major Covid-19 outbreak that led to a monthslong lockdown. Like many other big Chinese cities, Shanghai has been razing densely populated neighborhoods — known as “villages within a city” — to make room for new development. And while officials cite Covid as the reason for putting eight new villages on the chopping block, the strategy has been underway since 2014 as the metropolis races to become a global financial hub.
Such redevelopment, though, will force workers to move further away from the city center or back to their hometowns in search of affordable housing, raising the potential for social backlash or even unrest. Today on CityLab: Shanghai Villages Blamed for Covid Outbreak Face Demolition After Lockdowns