COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK
THE MAKING OF PUBLIC OPEN SPACE ACCESSIBLE TO UNDERSERVED POPULATIONS IN URBAN VILLAGE
A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of Architecture and Planning
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Science in Urban Planning
by
XIAOWAN ZHANG
May 2012
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK
Abstract
Urban village, as a unique form of slum in China have developed from rural settlements, representing an existing conflict in the allocation of public resources to different social groups. Public resources, such as public infrastructure and social services, have been poorly provided in these areas. The majority of residents in urban villages are low-income, migrant workers. Unfortunately, the needs of these migrant tenants for a fine living environment have not been sufficiently incorporated in cities’ urban planning policies. The purpose of this study is to explore the usage of Public Open Space by urban villages’ residents, using a case study of Baishizhou Village, the largest urban village in Shenzhen, China. I have conducted a questionnaire survey towards 150 POS visitors and in-depth interviews with public officials, residents, and related design professionals My findings suggest that, in the planning process of POS, policymakers have considered only the needs of the landlords, while neglecting the fact that the majority users of the POS are in fact migrant tenants. Thus, incremental planning of urban villages that incorporates the need of urban migrants is necessary during the process of urbanization. I further argue that “incremental upgrading” rather than “comprehensive redevelopment” of UVs should be better understood and be pursued by Chinese planners, and citizenization of residents in Urban Village should be the pioneering transformation approach.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK
Table of Contents
Introduction ...... 1 Literature review ...... 3 The relatively better approach to manage UVs ...... 3 The integration of mixed-income groups in urban patterns ...... 4 The influential aspects related to public open space usage ...... 4 The need and usage of public open space in low-income communities ...... 6 The planning tools used to resolve existing planning conflict ...... 6 Setting and Methodology ...... 7 The Land Tenure System in Baishizhou Village ...... 10 The composition of residents in Baishizhou Village ...... 12 Methodology ...... 15 Data collection – observation & documentary ...... 16 Data collection – questionnaire ...... 17 Data collection – interview ...... 17 Descriptive findings ...... 19 Socio-demographic characteristic ...... 19 Recreational characteristics ...... 21 Motives ...... 22 Behavior change...... 24 Specific counterpoint ...... 25 Specific group ...... 26 Discussion...... 31 Hypothesis...... 31 Verification ...... 34 Conclusion ...... 36 The usage and planning of POS in Urban Village ...... 36 The strategy of Urban Village redevelopment in Shenzhen ...... 37 Bibliography ...... 39 Appendix ...... 45
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK
Introduction
Urban villages are a unique form of slums in China as a consequence of China’s dual land ownership arrangement and urbanization(He et al., 2009). The existence of slums is incompatible with the formal urban planning due to a series of physical and social problems, such as overcrowding, violation of building code, substandard living conditions, etc. However, slums also provide affordable housing for low-income households. In the case of urban villages, the majority of residents are migrant workers. Urban village (referred to as “UV”), or Chengzhongcun in Chinese, are developed from rural settlements and become transitional neighborhoods under rapid urbanization. Urban Villages are characterized overall by narrow roads, face-to-face buildings and inner streets packed with shops, grocery stores and service outlet (Liu, He, Wu, & Webster, 2010). It is an existing planning conflict concerning the original production relations against the new economic relations in urban development(PAN & WEI, 2012), as well as the allocation of public resources to the different social groups in the city. The primary residents in Urban Villages are low-income people, the majority of whom are migrated workers living as tenants. Current urban planning system and policies in China often ignore the need of this type of social group, concentrating solely on the development of the city as a whole. Public resources provided by the city, including public infrastructure, cultural resource, and social intervention, are distributed poorly, if any, to this social group.
The majority of existing research on the UVs in China mainly focuses on the formation and transformation of the Urban Village regarding its incompatibility with urban development. Through empirical studies, the binary urban-rural structure of China and the land expropriation policy orienting at benefit-maximization by the government are believed to be the most crucial element for the formation of urban UVs(J. Zhang & Zhao, 2007; S. Zhang, 1998). From the perspective of formation process, however, UVs are derived from the combination of diverse demands of interest from different stakeholders, especially in terms of the needs of low housing price from residents in UVs and the vision of future city from local government (Jia & Zheng, 2011). Along with the deepening of urbanization, UVs are under transformation. The general approaches of transforming UVs are eliminating the conflict through relocating residents of UVs into public housings, and rebuilding UVs into urban areas by simply tearing them down. Taking a different perspective, this study examines how the planning and development of cities accommodate existing Urban Villages. The planning conflict regarding the incompatibility of urban resource allocation to Urban Village should be remedied through planning tools offered by city planners, rather than brutal measures(Weinstein, 2009), for example, knocking down the UV entirely and removing the residents.
The purpose of this study is to explore the big question: how do planners use planning tools to make public resources accessible to underserved populations in cities? More specifically, I will examine the usage of the public open space (referred to as “POS”) by UV residents, using a case study of Baishizhou Village in Shenzhen, China, as it is an example of how planners make recreational resources to low-income residents in UVs, who are marginalized through the process of rapid urbanization.
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Baishizhou Village, one of the largest UVs in Shenzhen, China, is located right next to the Overseas Chinese Town in Nanshan District. The contrast and planning conflict have been highlighted since the Overseas Chinese Town is the most developed community with high-level social groups. The residents in this village, however, are not only people originated from the village but people from other cities in China, which are not as developed as Shenzhen. This phenomenon is attributed to the unique character of Shenzhen. This article is going to dedicate through empirical research of how the residents in Baishizhou Village make use of the recreational resources, especially the POS in the city, and what planning tools were used and should be used to encourage their usage of surrounding POS. The POS in surrounding neighborhood, however, is largely based on the development and allocation of public infrastructure.
The thesis will refer to the planning tools used in the management of Affordable Housing, Slums, Self-help Housing and Informal Settlement in foreign cities (Wang, Wang, Zeng, & Xie, 2009), which have the similar incompatibility with urban development with UVs in China . The conflict concretely referred as the isolation of groups, class division, as well as social conflicts in these communities and the issue of UV is the proposition of humanistic space regarding social just, spatial justice and cultural equity (Wang et al., 2009), a subject that is also closely related to community and regional resilience (Morrow, 2008).
The unconventional perspective of this thesis is based on the basic hypothesis that the planning conflict, which is specified as the incompatibility of urban resource allocation to UVs in this paper, can be managed through integrative planning tools rather than brutal measures.
Figure 1 OUTLINE OF THE RESEARCH PROCESS
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Literature review
The relatively better approach to manage UVs
As UV is a special form of slums, the status of urban slums and the evolution of slum upgrading approaches can serve as guidance for the transformation of UVs.
Up until 1970s, slums were treated through eviction and bulldozing by the local government. The eviction often cause social issues and violence as slum clearance is often not the slum- dwellers’ chosen course of action(Royal Geographical Society, 2003). Slum clearance often come together with resettlement which aimed to solve conflicts but often excluded the low income groups due to clienteles-based allocation(World Bank, 2008). Since 1972, scholars raised the notion of tacking all of the components in the slum area rather than single housing problems(Turner & Fichter, 1972), which enlightened the idea of slum upgrading. The Cities Alliance defined Slum Upgrading in 1991 and national approaches towards slums started to shift from negative policies, benign neglect and involuntary resettlement, to more positive policies(Icaza, 2006). David Satterthwaite’s definition that “upgrading” is a term given to measures to improve the quality of housing and the provision of housing-related infrastructure and services to settlements denotes and represents the general shifted attitudes and practices in slum redevelopment(Satterthwaite, 2012).
The shift of attitudes and approaches towards slums based on the unintended benefits it provided to the city. The UN-HABITAT report “The Challenge of Slums” demonstrates one of the potential benefits of the urban slum as low cost affordable housing mainly exists in the slums, enables the new migrants to save enough money for their eventual absorption into urban society(The Chanllenge of Slums, 2003). Another benefit related to the mixing of different cultures which often produces new forms of artistic expression and contributing to the diversity of human life(Warah, 2003).
Despite its well-known unruliness and disorder, in a sense the UV in China also plays a positive role in China’s rapid urban development (Liu et al., 2010). UV is an initial nodal region for villagers to integrate into the city life in several aspects, including the accessibility of urban communities, the approachability of city life space, and especially the opportunity for them to get access to urban resource and the containment of diverse community culture (Wang et al., 2009). It is also serves as a shelter for low-income citizens, including the original local villagers and the non-native floating people. UVs not only provide cheap accommodation for low-income migrants to live in cities, but also release the pressure on the government to develop costly programs to house migrant laborers (Liu et al., 2010; Wang et al., 2009; Yan&Wei, 2004; Zhang,2001). What’s more, the interaction of living space and economic space make up for the limitations of urban economic space (Wang et al., 2009). The role of transitional neighborhood is generated from the Chinese context and should be allowed to exist for a long time (Liu et al., 2010).
The focus of planning and renovation of UVs should be laid on boosting its urbanization (PAN & WEI, 2012). The planning tools related to UVs should not be brutal measures (Weinstein, 2009),
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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK or restricted to the renovation of urban village afterwards, but looking for a comprehensive community management strategy based on current policies. The proper approaches should concern about various restrictions in reality by targeting at specific UVs case by case, and implementing incremental planning (Meng, Zhou, & Zhu, 2008; PAN & WEI, 2012).
In previous studies, the opportunity of UV to get access to urban resources focuses more on the economic resources and the opportunity to other resources. In this thesis, I will try to figure out how to turn the opportunity to other resources into real access. The better access to the public urban resource is part of citizenization1 of the residents in UV, which can be regarded as another form of urbanization. The boost of UV urbanization is one goal of the paper. The issue of UVs is the proposition of humanistic space regarding social just, spatial justice and cultural equity which should be taken into serious consideration of how to “urbanize” it in a proper way(Wang et al., 2009).
The integration of mixed-income groups in urban patterns
Henri Lefevbre’s notion of the “right to the city” calls for ending the segregation between social classes that is inscribed in the urban spatial order(Lefebvre, 1996). While the line between the freedom to use and enjoy neighborhood space, and the point at which such enjoyment infringes on the rights and enjoyment of others, is the critical focus to manage and settle through planning and development (Chaskin & Joseph, 2010).
Community dynamics around behavior norms, social control, and the usage of space generated through bringing together residents of diverse socioeconomic background in certain contexts (Chaskin & Joseph, 2010). It is the contradiction to the new social movement theory which emphasizes that in order to be transformative, a social movement needs sustained collective identity, with relatively well-defined boundaries(Dian & Porta, 2006). In order to integrating groups into social context, the well-defined boundaries should be eliminated and the collective identity should be attenuated.
UV, however, is a result of the demands for diversified spaces along the urban growth in China (PAN & WEI, 2012). The research of the recreational resource allocation in UV has significant meanings in facilitating the diversification of cities in China. Rehabilitation, revitalization and restoration of a neighborhood’s physical environment, including its public space get a facelift and social mixing increases, thus supporting the multiplication and diversification of activities (Bélanger, 2011; Carr et al. 1992; Vles 2004), as well as the integration of social groups.
The influential aspects related to public open space usage
Scholars give different meanings to public space. According to Belanger, definitions of public space fall into two categories, and one of which is the public sphere representing a debate among members of a community or society (Low & Smith, 2006); the second deals with physical spaces that are open to the public (Iveson, 2007; Low & Smith, 2006). Friedman, however,
1 Research Institute of Economy, Trade & Industry, IAA. Urbanization as a New Growth Engine:”Citizenization” of rural migrant workers is the key. 2013.1 http://www.rieti.go.jp/en/china/13011101.html
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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK defines public space as places to fostering a sense of community identity and creating opportunities for social interaction(Friedman, 2013). Other scholar also classified public spaces as either “patch” or “linear” space. According to Wei, the patch space is characterized by a strong sense of enclosure, including a square or a court and can be bounded by rows of homes, roads or trees. Linear spaces are more fluid, and have a length that significantly exceeds its width(Cho, Poudyal, & Roberts, 2008). In this study, the POS particular refers to the patch spaces built and managed by the officials, provided with recreational facilities and open to public.
Public spaces are sites where individuals and groups struggle to gain or maintain access (Low & Smith, 2006; Zukin, 1995). Public spaces allow users, through their daily practices, to both distance themselves from and reflect on similarities with the other (Bélanger, 2011). The place politics of open space involves a strong overlap between the occupation of a material public space and the formation of a counter-public sphere(Fraser & Kick, 2007; Low & Smith, 2006; Mitchell, 2003; Thorn, 2007). By acting, relaxing, navigating through, modifying, adapting, perceiving, representing and feeling public spaces, individuals and groups appropriate these spaces and communicate their usage and identity(Zukin, 1989, 1995). The POS in the research is specified as the open space for public use with facilities to support the recreational activities conducted by the visitors and users.
According to Chaskin and Joseph, there are three influential aspects of POS usage: design and the allocation of public space, governance and participation, and greater intentionality and investment around opportunities for inclusion through organizational infrastructure and institutional strength (Chaskin & Joseph, 2010). Other scholars also raised the factors for influencing POS usage from both physical and social aspects. Among the obvious physical factors are park size, the number and type of amenities and physical features, and the population density around the park(Grow et al., 2008; Mowen, Orsega-Smith, Payne, Ainsworth, & Geoffrey Godbey, 2007). Social factors include the number and type of events and programs that are available, the friendliness of park staff, the perceptions of park safety, the demographic characteristics of the populations who live around the park, as well as the history of community involvement in park management(BROWN, 1985; M, AG, M, & H, 2003).
The motives of people for visiting POS are diverse, because of different places and different characteristics of groups of people. Matsuoka & Kaplan reviewed a series of motive-related researches and concluded that contact with nature, attractive environments/landscapes, recreation and play, social contact, privacy, active participation in community design, and a sense of community are included in the core set of motives for visiting POS. The studies took in different cities and countries with different groups of people, resulted in different main motives, although all of them are from the core set. For example, Yuen and Briffett’s studies showed that social interaction, enjoyment of nature, relaxation and exercise are the main motives for Singaporean residents typically(Shan, 2014). In Turkey, however, the main motives are to rest and contemplate, to meet with friends and chat, and to escape from the pressure of urban life(Grose, 2009), Chiesura illustrated that to relax is the most important motive in Amsterdam. In Swiss, restoration related with nature experience is identified as the most outstanding motive, while social bonding is harbored as the weakest one(Maruani & Amit-Cohen, 2007;
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Schipperijn et al., 2010). Aside from the places diversification, the characteristics with the groups of people in the research also impact the results in motives significantly. Different socio- demographic backgrounds lead to distinct motives for visiting POS with various anticipations and needs from the users.
According to past studies, age, sex and education level are the main influential variables to motives for visiting POS, and in which people with higher education levels more tend to be motivated by the desire to socialize with others. However, few researches have dealt with the variance in motives among different social groups.
My research focuses on a unique social group in China, which are the low income residents in a fast developing city, mainly parts of which are migrant farmworkers in the case. The subjects are with unique characteristics which give rise to particular needs, anticipations of the POS and finally the specific motives for visiting POS. What’s more, the site of research in the case is a relative unique geographical location in China. The Urban Village in the special economic zone with its fast urbanization imposes its own mechanisms to the management and usage of the POS, which also influences the motives of the users. The combination of the two variables will definitely result in particular motive of POS.
The need and usage of public open space in low-income communities
At very first, we can start at the point that what is the need for POS from a general community. According to some scholars, a community park and sports center are necessary at the community level with 100,000 population(Jain, 2010). Baishizhou Village has 140,000 populations with less than five vacant lands as recreational places. Few recreational facilities are provided to them by the government. The inadequate supply of POS is part of the reflection of inequity and the ignorance of the residents in UV. To be one step further, the government pays little attention to the low-income population which is mainly composed of migrated people from other parts of China.
As A.K Jain demonstrated, the standards of accessibility or land allocation have to be judged according to local preferences and the general character of the locality, the POS created to serve the residents in UV should be allocated based on the standard that generated from analyzing the public preference and needs, as well as the features of the residents(Jain, 2010). As mentioned before, the composition of residents in Baishizhou Village is unique, because of the special development pattern of Shenzhen. The combination of migrated people and low- income households result in special needs and preference of POS.
The planning tools used to resolve existing planning conflict
Since the seminal works of Jane Jacobs and William H. Whyte(Jacobs, 1992; Whyte, 2001), “public spaces” ”spatial dimensions” or characteristics have become the object of many studies looking into who produces and designs spaces and how design affects social life, what types of people are attracted to or excluded from these spaces, and how and why they are excluded(Mitchell, 2003; Staeheli, Mitchell, & Gibson, 2013; Zukin, 1995). This study aims to
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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK figure out a proper way to promote the integration and inclusion of recreational resources in a certain urban village in China.
According to empirical studies, urban regeneration, as well as the “urbanization” of UV involves complicated power relations among different stakeholders, in addition to the multi-actor governance structure (Hin & Xin, 2011). Among those, market actors are one of the most important elements that can lead to greater access to improved services, amenities, and organizations(Granovetter, 1973; Putnam, 1998; Sampson, Raudenbush, & Earls, 1997).
From the perspective of social control, scholars illustrate that the control tends to operate less through primary networks and more through relationships with and actions of local institutions and through agencies beyond the neighborhood(Chaskin & Joseph, 2010). What’s more, community involvement is also believed to be a critical factor in determining the participation in local programs and activities(Babey, Hastert, Yu, & Brown, 2008; M et al., 2003).
Figure 2 THE THEORY BASIS FROM LITERATURE REVIEW
Setting and Methodology
The data used in the research were gathered in Shenzhen where has the most contradictory conflict between the low income residents and the fast developing city. However, UV is the crux for the conflict. Baishizhou Village was selected as it is located right next to the most developed community with high-end social groups, and the conflict here is intensified and thus typical.
Baishizhou Village is one of the largest UVs in Shenzhen and the most densely populated UV, located in the middle of Overseas Chinese Town Section (OCT is the largest part in this section, so the section is named after it) in Nanshan Distrct. The total acreage of the village is 7.4 square kilometer with more than 35,000 rental houses. In 2013, the total population of 120,000 residents in Baishizhou Village composed of 98,557 temporary residents which are scattered in the village(Bo, 2013). The exact survey area for the research is only one section of the whole
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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK village which located to the north of ShenNan Road. For this area, there is no official data of acreage and population. According to the interview of local government officials, they estimated the population as around 30,000 with over 90 percent of floating population.
The village is surrounded by Sand River Golf Club, Portofino Community, Happy Valley, Overseas Chinese Town (referred to as “OCT”) and Window of the World from west to east. Sand River Golf Club is a gated golf course only for club members. Portofino is a top luxury residence developed by OCT Group but it is a gated community isolated even from the other residents in OCT. Happy Valley and Window of the World are all tourist attractions with relatively high ticket price. Focusing particularly on green space, there are five green spaces around the village, which are the Sand River golf course, the green space in Portofino Community, the squares in front of Happy Valley and Window of the World and the two POS in OCT. The two POS in OCT, however, seems to be the only green space in neighborhood that has interaction with Baishizhou Village, for the reason that the front squares of the tourist attractions are often occupied by the tourists.
My research focused on two POS within 1.5 mile to Baishizhou Village, one of which is the Ecology Plaza in OCT, and another one is the newly developed Culture Square of Baishizhou Village. In January 2012, BSZ Culture Square was created and invested by local government. It is a free open square for residents in the village, and is managed by the Community co., LTD. The research is focused on two cases, in which one is more satisfactory than the other in terms of the usage of POS from the residents in the urban village. For the Ecology Plaza in OCT, there are tensions between residents from urban village with low-income and higher-income residents in OCT about lifestyle choices and the model of development of the neighborhood(Bélanger, 2011). OCT and Baishizhou Village are both “once stable neighborhood” with tight-knit social networks(Atkinson, 2000; Whyte, 2009), and the POS in the certain neighborhood often exclude the residents from other neighborhoods. And the observation of the two sites also shows that there are many residents from UV use the BSZ Culture Square while there are seldom residents from UV use the Ecology Plaza in OCT. The research is set to explore the reasons why there are such differences in usage of the two POS.
The characteristics of the residents in Baishizhou Village, and the features of the land tenure system here, as well as the evolution process of its turning into the largest Urban Village in the center of the city, all have significant impact on the results of the research.
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Figure 3 LOCATION OF BAISHIZHOU VILLAGE, NANSHAN DISTRICT, SHENZHEN
Figure 4 POS IN BAISHIZHOU AND THE GREEN SPACES IN SURROUNDING
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The Land Tenure System in Baishizhou Village
Baishizhou Village is not consistent with the general concept of Urban Village in China as well, while it has the same features with the Urban Village in Shenzhen according to its history and evolution. With 140,000 populations, it is originally composed of several natural villages2. In 1959, Shahe Overseas Chinese Farm was built there, and all of the villagers are transformed into farm workers3. Later in 1985, the farm divided into two parts, which is the OCT Group nowadays, and Shahe Industrial Group Co.LTD. Baishizhou Village which is the main focus area of the research is totally owned and managed by the Shahe Industrial Group Co.LTD. In 2009, the municipal government issued a document to claim that all of the land and property of Baishizhou Village are incorporated into Nanshan District Government. Although there was declaration about the transformation of land property, the land of Baishizhou Village has been still treated as collective land in practice because of the “integration of government administration with enterprise”4, which called “zhengqibufen” in Chinese, and the enterprise managed the whole village as if it is the government. Because of the complicated and special social fact, the development of Baishizhou Village exactly follows the track of Urban Village evolution, and Shahe Industrial Group Co.LTD has been acted as the village collective.
The Urban Villages no longer belongs to the real concept of “village” from the administrative perspective, although the original villagers may still retain their traditional customs and culture. During the urbanization, the original village collective has transformed into cooperative stock companies of urban village collective, and all the original villagers have been transformed to shareholders of the companies. Even though the municipal government has claimed that all of the land in the Urban Village should be transformed into state-owned in the past several years, the land has been actually owned by the companies. And because of the “integration of government administration with enterprise”5, the companies not only own the land property, plan the land use, but also manage the land. The collective income of the corporation is mainly composed of the revenues collected from renting the collective land and properties. In order to make a living, the original villagers build illegal constructions on their own land plot and rent the rooms to low-income residents. To maximize the profit, villagers tend to intensify the density of constructions, which appears to be crowded together with no space in between, named “qianshoulou” in Chinese. The height of the constructions has also risen correspondingly (As shown in Table-1).
2 http://www.szns.gov.cn/publish/shj/2654/2672/2675/20120713114352199643041/index.html 3 http://tieba.baidu.com/p/1733611144 4 http://www.p5w.net/news/cjxw/201203/t4141164.htm 5 http://www.p5w.net/news/cjxw/201203/t4141164.htm
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Figure 5 The current condition of "qianshoulou"
Source: http://photo.eastday.com/slideshow/20071217_11/index6.html, http://blog.soufun.com/6826756/9848551/articledetail.htm
Table 1 The features and forms of Informal Housing in Urban Villages over time (in Shenzhen)
Height & Feature of the Informal Time Period Form Housing in UVs One-story building with yards, Before 1982 Village housing Self-occupation 2 to 3-story, 2 to 3 rooms apartment Transforming from village housing 1982-1989 4 to 6-story, 1 to 2 rooms to informal housing of UV and apartment, without yards developing over time 7 to 10-story, 1-bedroom Informal housing of UV has been 1989-2004 apartment, without yards formed In stable stage, the height is growing 2004 till now Informal housing of UV slowly Source: Li,Yao, The Analysis of the Conflict in the Transformation of Urban Village in Shenzhen
The transformation of Urban Village started from 2005, followed with the issue of The Layout Plan of Urban Village Redevelopment from municipal government. According to the Plan, there are two transformation strategies for the Urban Villages in Shenzhen in general. The first strategy is “Comprehensive Renovation” which refers to demolishing all of the constructions in Urban Village. This strategy is particularly applied to those Urban Villages that crowded with insecure constructions with poor living environment, as well as those places contradicting with the city planning. Based on this strategy, the spatial pattern of the Urban Village will be changed completely, and the land use will be rezoned totally. The living condition and environment will be renovated comprehensively. The villagers will be relocated directly to another site, or be compensated by the developers or the government. The second strategy is referred to as “Comprehensive Improvement”, which focuses on updating the Urban Village while changing little on the spatial pattern. Few constructions will be destructed, except for several public facilities. Based on this type of strategy, the villagers do not need to move but remain living in the Urban Village with better living environment. However, the relationship between the two strategies is succession which means the Comprehensive Renovation of all the Urban Villages is the ultimate goal of the transformation policy and Comprehensive Improvement serves as the previous stage of it, referring to the analysis of the Plan(“The
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Discussion of Layout Plan of Urban Village Redevelopment in Shenzhen,” 2006). Based on the cases of several transformed Urban Villages, the first stage of the transformation process is short and only applied when there were contradictions and conflicts between the stakeholders and the Comprehensive Renovation cannot go through successfully. Actually, Comprehensive Improvement is a preferred strategy to Urban Villages in Shenzhen in the research, but it should also be modified and combined with other strategies, which will be revealed in the study. Baishizhou Village, as a neighboring community of OCT, has been researched and made the vision of transformation by the municipal government since the Plan issued. While the impediments were so severe from the residents and even local collective, the transformation stagnated for seven years. Until August 2012, the Redevelopment Group of Shahe Villages established and the transformation process started to have substantial progress. The groundbreaking of the Comprehensive Renovation started in March, 2014. Without declaration and announcement, the Comprehensive Improvement operated gradually and intermittently within Baishizhou Village. The planning and building of BSZ Culture Square is one of the projects during Comprehensive Improvement.
The composition of residents in Baishizhou Village
Shenzhen is a city of migrants, and the residents lived in Urban Villages in Shenzhen are mainly migrant farm workers from other parts of China. They are also the main components of low- income workers in the city. According to the Housing Research of Transient Population in Shenzhen Urban Areas, there are nearly half of the transient population of the city are living in the urban village. They are mainly lived in the illegal constructions, which is also called small- property-right housing, translated as “xiaochanquan fang”, built by the original villagers in the Urban Village. The temporary residents living in Baishizhou Village, which population is more than ¾ of the total residents, are parts of them. The migrated low-income people are mainly lived in the small-property right houses. Based on some aspects of features summarized by A.K Jain, I defined the characteristics of the migrated low-income people as follows.
- Lack of participation and integration in the larger social context - Main parts of the population are having insecure and irregular employment with low- end works, low wages, and even faces chronic unemployment which leading to low income, little saving and lack of property ownership. - Poor housing conditions although have been improved by the “Livable Rental Housing” policy in Shenzhen from 2012, but many housings are still facing over-crowding and material deprivation. - On family level, they do not have spare time to look after their children. On individual level, they experience strong feeling of marginality, dependency and inferiority. - They are dependent on public bodies to provide basic services(Jain, 2010). - They are usually being regarded as urban poor not just because of their low income, but they usually lack formal title to the little property that they own, and they cannot use their property as collateral without legal right(Jain, 2010; Laquian, Tewari, & Hanley, 2007).
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Correspondingly, the characteristics of original villagers are as listed.
- May have been more integrated to the village collective, while still lack of participation and integration with the city as a whole. - They may be with limited possibility of finding a job in the organized sector, and gradually being absorbed in the informal tertiary activities(Arthurson, 2002; Jain, 2010). Many of them make a living through renting the small-property-right housing they built illegally.
According to the statistics from the district government, there are 140,000 of resident population in Baishizhou Area, in which more than 120,000 population are non-native floating population. The non-native floating populations are basically evenly distributed in the six communities of the Baishizhou Area.
The concrete hypotheses directly related to the research are generated from two perspectives, which are the residents’ characteristics and the influential factors. Based on the perspective of residents’ characteristics, the two hypotheses associated with the POS are about the correlation among the recreational factor, institutional factor, and transitional factor. Recreational factor includes the general motives of visiting POS and general recreational habits of the residents in Urban Village, which are distinct with the findings of other studies in terms of the motives and recreational habits of general public or citizens in certain cities(Abercrombie et al., 2008; Bates, 2001; Crawford et al., 2008; Hernández Bonilla, 2013; Shan, 2014; Witten, Hiscock, Pearce, & Blakely, 2008; Wu & Plantinga, 2003; Zheng & Kahn, 2011). The institutional factor refers to land tenureship and citizhenship of the residents. The citizhenship is not only defined by the physical permit like Hukou or the Residence Card, but the entitled rights involving economic life and urban-style life. The transitional factor involves the elements of employment status, family life, and mobility. The employment status includes the type of work, the schedule of work, and the income from the work. The family life refers to the marital status, the number of family members and the daily life of each member. The mobility of the residents, however, is close related to the citizenship and land tenureship, as well as the relation between the two.
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General Motives Recreational Factor General Recreational Habits
Land Tenureship Resident Characteristics - Institutional POS Factor Citizenship: hukou, Residence Permit
Employment
Transitional Factor Family Life
Mobility
Figure 6 Hypotheses from the perspective of resident characteristics (from author)
H1: residents in Urban Village are less willing to visit the POS in the neighboring community which is highly developed.
H2: the institutional characteristic and transitional characteristic are the determinant causes of the special usage of POS from the residents in Urban Village.
From the perspective of influential factors towards POS, physical factor and social factor are the keywords of the two hypotheses, with their interconnection to the usage of POS. The physical factor is composed of internal features and outer feature of the POS. The internal feature refers to the facilities, design and the environment of the POS itself. The outer features of the POS are the facilities and environment in surroundings, as well as the access to the POS. The corresponding factor of physical factor is the social factor, which refers to the formation of community group, and the activities based on sense of community from the view of culture and sense of belonging.
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internal features
Physical factor
Outer features
Influential Community Social factor factors group
special factors related to UV residents
Figure 7 Hypotheses from the perspective of influential factors (from author)
H3: the outer feature of POS is the most influential factor for the selection of POS from the residents in Urban Village.
H4: the sense of community group is also a prominent influential factor to the usage behavior of the residents in the Urban Village.
Methodology
The very first step of the research should be exploring and locating the specific POS in surrounding neighborhoods of Baishizhou Village. Through reading documentation which includes planning reports and maps, as well as site visit, the specific POS that may relate to the research in this paper are targeted. The preliminary survey of residents in surrounding POS can further limit the research scope. After figuring out the targeted POS, the questionnaire survey involving hundreds of urban villagers who are living in Baishizhou Village will be processed on the POS first, including three categories, which are general questions, questions about influencing factor of usage, as well as the reflection and effect of related planning tools. The interview part is targeted on government officials, managers and planners of the POS to figure out the related planning tools implemented on the POS.
The main study subject of the research is the residents in Baishizhou Village who have conducted recreational behavior on POS. The total number will be 100. People under 18 are excluded from the research for the reason that they are not the main group living in urban village and have less possibility to do recreational behavior on POS. While people over 65 are only a very small portion of people conduct recreational behavior on POS, which will only
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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK account for 5% of total respondents. Other study subjects include a few people who are responsible for the plan and management of POS.
Data collection – observation & documentary
Field observation and reviews of documentary information concerning the POS around Baishizhou Village are the primary step of the study. Based on the review of the documentary information, together with the analysis of the land use maps, there are only three formal POS in the surrounding neighborhoods of Baishizhou Village, in which two of them are within 1-mile walking distance from BSZ Village. The two POS with proper walking distance towards the village are Ecology Plaza of OCT and BSZ Culture Square, and the two POS are the proper cases for the research. In the research, the POS should be an open space with facilities and landscape, accessible to all residents in surroundings without interference, and aims at providing recreational space for users. The BSZ Culture Square is located in the southwest of the village, while Ecology Plaza of OCT is at the edge of the village and situated in the neighboring community but only nearly a half mile further than the Culture Square from most areas of the village.
From the field observation of Baishizhou Village and the surrounding neighborhoods through several years, it appears that residents in the Urban Village seldom go to the Ecology Plaza, while the BSZ Culture Square is filled with large amount of users from the village nowadays. Before 2012, people who want to do recreational activity in the Urban Village even prefer to use the vacant land plots in the village than the Ecology Plaza or other POS in OCT.
The differences between the two POS are significant in several aspects. For the internal features, Ecology Plaza is designed and planned by a renowned architecture company founded in France in early 90s6, and the government even outsourced the maintenance and part of the management to the company. The landscape and sketches are delicately designed and built. Aiming at creation of a community recreational square, the designers allocated benches, spacious stairs and flower beds to provide rest space for users. The BSZ Culture Square, however, was planned by the government of Nanshan District, designed and built by the community joint-stock company, which is the Shahe Industrial Group Co.LTD. A stage and its related equipment are allocated in the east of the square, several benches and flower beds are scattered in the west.
For the outer features, Ecology Plaza is located in a developed community with residents with high income and high quality of life, as well as high-end jobs and status. The plaza was surrounded by a design company, a college, a shopping mall and a high-grade apartment building. The streets around the square are all designed with separations and abundant plants and mature landscape, with orderly environment. The Culture Square is built on a discarded basketball court which is surrounded by a food market, a kindergarten, an elementary school, a low-end shopping mall, and mixed-use buildings with retails in the ground level. The retails include restaurants, clothing shop, fruit shop and grocery store. The surrounding environment
6 http://www.aube-archi.com/main.asp?ver=cn
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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK is noisy and chaotic. The streets next to the square are filled with mix of people, bicycles and cars. No planned landscape is around the square, and the buildings in surrounding are all in shabby appearance.
Data collection – questionnaire
Two sorts of questionnaire were sent in the research during October, 2013 to January, 2014. The main purpose of the questionnaire is to figuring out the usage of the two POS from the residents in the Urban Village, and the other reasons why those residents have preference in one of the POS, except for the influential factor of distance. Based on the results of documentary, observation and some pilot survey, the BSZ Cultural Square was the critical case in the study. As a newly built square that attracts large numbers of users from the Urban Village, especially in contrast to the Ecology Plaza of OCT which owns few users from the surrounding Urban Village, it is a suitable case study to explore the stimulative factors for the residents in Urban Village to use POS.
One sort of questionnaire, which is also the principle survey in the study, was conducted in the BSZ Cultural Square. The questionnaire questions were divided into two parts, i.e., specific questions and common questions. Common questions were used to distinguish respondents and help to concentrate on the main target subjects of the study. Specific questions including the specific activity, frequency, time period, the reason for visiting, optional POS before and after the completion of the Culture Square, and the reasons for behavior change and different choices, are all suitable for exploring the opinions and perceptions of residents selecting POS, and thus figuring out how to provide satisfying POS for the targeted users, who are the residents in the Urban Village in this study. The other sort of questionnaire was sent in the Ecology Plaza of OCT. As the contrastive spot in the research, the simple questionnaire including the activity types, the motives and the living area, can provide corresponding information to highlight the special desires and needs from the targeted group of people.
The questionnaire survey was conducted both on weekdays and weekends in each of the three month to avoid the interference from timing. The survey was often conducted through a day to scattered the time period. A total of 150 questionnaires were distributed in BSZ Culture Square, and 30 in Ecology Plaza of OCT. The valid response rate of the Ecology Plaza is 100%, and only 117 valid responses were obtained in the Culture Square, with the rate of 78%. It is comprehensible with the different rates when considering the composition of the users in each POS. Based on the pilot survey and observation. The general users of Culture Square are the residents or workers from the BSZ village, with relatively low educational level and quality of life. Many of them are either in a rash when doing the questionnaire, or have difficulties in fully understanding the questions and skip several randomly. The users of Ecology Plaza, however, are mainly people with higher level of education with relatively delicate life and they spend more time on completing the questionnaires with few problems.
Data collection – interview
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To test and verify the findings of the questionnaire survey, semi-structured and structured interviews were conducted in the final stage of the survey particular aimed at BSZ Culture Square.
Two main groups of data have been analyzed in the research: the first group of data was collected from the users of the Culture Square, especially those who live in the Urban Village and use the POS. This group of people is also the target subject of the questionnaire survey, as well as the whole research. Structured interviews were conducted among them during December, 2013 to January, 2014. The reason why this part of survey was conducted only from the late half of the whole survey process is that, the structured interview questions were generated from the general findings of the pilot surveys, including the observation survey and the first half of the questionnaire survey.
The general findings include the main types of users, and the most common time periods for people use the POS, as well as the possible influential factors for the usage of the square. Based on the observation and parts of the rough answers to the questionnaire, the interviewees were selected in the most common time periods and right after some respondents finished their questionnaire survey. The proportion of young and elderly, as well as different activity actors, are determined roughly according to the composition of the users. Total of 17 people were interviewed in this part of survey, in which 4 of them are elderly, 5 people were taking care of the kids, 4 users were rest and hanging out, and another 5 users were participating in community activities. All of the interviews are conducted during the morning and at dusk.
The content of the structured interview was made up of a list of influential factors related to the usage of the square, and Likert Scales7 were provided to evaluate each factor in order to figure out the attitudes of POS users towards the usage of POS and the preference of influential variables.
The listed influential factors include whether there are organized community activities, acquainted groups in the square, the diversity of activities and related facilities, the internal environment of the square, the surrounding facilities and environment, distance, the popularity of the square. These factors can be grouped into four main categories, which are community groups, internal features of the square, surrounding features of the square, and distance. The community groups are associated with the recreational activities organized by both official and spontaneous community organizations in Baishizhou Village. In this study, the acquainted groups or people in the square are also categorized into community groups, for the reason that the notion of community group here emphasizes more of the sense of belonging to the community, and the attitudes on both of the organized community activities and acquainted groups in the square from the users can reflect their psychological states towards sense of belonging. The reason for splitting distance as an additional category is that it is definitely the most significant factor in influencing the usage of POS(Giles-Corti et al., 2005), and this study
7 A psychometric response scale primarily used in questionnaires to obtain participant’s preferences or degree of agreement with a statement or set of statements. Most commonly see as a 5-point scale ranging from “Strongly Disagree” on one end to “Strongly Agree” on the other with “Neither Agree nor Disagree” in the middle(Bertram, 2007).
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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK aims to eliminating the effect of the known factor, and figuring out other relevant factors. By doing so, the data in the research can once again verify the known theorem, and explore other relevant influential factors at the same time.
The interviewees were asked to rate each of the influential factors based on the 5 scales, which are Strongly Agree, Agree, Neither, Disagree and Strongly Disagree(Bertram, 2007). However, during the interview, the expressions were transformed into Extremely Important, Important, Marginal, Unimportant, Extremely Unimportant, in order to be accordance with the interview questions. The 5 scales are measured as 1 to 5 when the data are analyzed, in which 1 represents Extremely Important, while 5 stands for Extremely Unimportant.
In other studies, this sort of surveys is often combined into the questionnaire survey, rather than interview survey. The adjustment of turning it into part of the interview survey in this research is on account of the characteristics of the research subject. Mainly of the subjects are with relatively low level of educational level, and having difficulties in figuring out the distinction between the 7 influential factors and rating each of them with 5 scales in a short time. In order to ensure the accuracy of the data, people were told about each of the factors with explanations and examples from the interviewers, and then were asked about their opinions on each factor by listing the options of 5 scales to them. From the information gathered from them, the principle motives of the POS can be further verified based on the findings of the questionnaire.
The second sort of interview was guided by a semi-structured interview comprised of open- ended questions. The data of this part of survey were obtained from the planners, managers of the POS, particularly of the BSZ Culture Square. As a newly built POS, BSZ Culture Square must be planned and built for some reason with specific mechanisms. The perceptions and ideas of this group of people, who are actually those in powers and serve as policymakers, indicate the essence of today’s urban redevelopment in most of the cities in China, which is the redevelopment of Urban Village in this research.
There is another group of people’s perspectives have been involved in the research, which is from design professionals and scholars relevant to urban recreational planning, as well as some planners. There are no formal survey instruments towards this target group, but random interviews. The results of this group are obtained to provide corresponding opinions and help to reveal the gap between the visions of POS makers and actual POS users.
Descriptive findings
Socio-demographic characteristic
Referring to the questionnaire survey, majority of the respondents in the BSZ Culture Square are living in the village, with the proportion of up to 90%. For the remaining respondents, only 30% lived in OCT, and nearly 70% lived in further communities. Within the residents of BSZ Village, only 30% are long-term residents with more than 5 years of living, and the main parts
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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK are temporary residents. The age of respondents are mainly between 18 and 45, and the age group from 18 to 30 stands out with more than half of the proportion. The survey from the Ecology Plaza shares the similar findings, as to large portions of respondents live in the community where the plaza belongs to, and with the same age range.
It appears that the young adults are the primary users of POS, which is consistent with the studies from other scholars(Bengston, Fletcher, & Nelson, 2004; Crawford et al., 2008; Geoghegan, 2002). Both of the two POS are more attractive to the residents in its own community, and there are few interactions between the two POS and communities, although the two communities are adjacent with proper walking distance.
The slight distinctions between the two POS in terms of the Socio-demographic characteristic reflect some special features of the special target group in the research. BSZ Culture Square attracts more than 20% of young adults than the Ecology Plaza. The larger proportion of users from the same community with the POS indicates that Urban Village residents prefer to select leisure space within their own community, while residents from the surrounding OCT community are more open to other choices. Although the findings maybe not that sufficient with different sample sizes in the two comparable surveys, they match with the findings of pilot survey, and thus verify each other on some extent.
Table 2 Socio-demographic characteristic of POS visitors – residential status
Living Community OCT BSZ Village Others Total (Based on Culture Square) Num. of visitors 4 105 8 117 Proportion % 3.4% 89.8% 6.8% 100% Living Duration in BSZ Less than 2 years 2 – 5 years More than 5 years Village 24 47 34 105 22.8% 44.8% 32.4% 100% Living Community OCT BSZ Village Others (Based on Ecology Plaza) Num. of visitors 22 0 8 30 73.3% 0% 26.7% 100% Source: Research of author
Table 3 Socio-demographic characteristic of POS visitors – age
Age <18 18-30 30-45 45-65 >65 Total (Based on Culture Square) 2 62 37 12 4 117 Proportion % 1.7% 53% 31.6% 10.3% 3.4% 100% (Based on Ecology Plaza) 4 14 6 4 35 30 13.3% 46.7% 20% 13.3% 6.7% 100% Source: Research of author
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Recreational characteristics
The recreational time periods of the respondents concentrate at 8 a.m. to noon, and 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Based on prior studies(Duncan, Kawachi, White, & Williams, 2013; Giles-Corti et al., 2005; Schipperijn et al., 2010; Smith, Poulos, & Kim, 2002; Timperio, Ball, Salmon, Roberts, & Crawford, 2007), people prefer to visit POS in the late afternoon and evening, and thus the time intervals were modified to divide the evening hours into two parts in the research to help get better understanding of the behavior mechanism. The findings from the Ecology Plaza are in consistent with the other studies that users most prefer to visit the POS during dusk, and then followed by the forenoon. For BSZ Culture Square, the mentioned two periods shared the same proportion, which is unique for the usage of POS in Urban Village and has a strong connection with the users’ behaviors.
Around 30% of the respondents in the Culture Square selected more than one time period, and the findings show that half of the respondents who selected 8 a.m. to noon as their recreational period also choose another one or two periods at the same time.
As for the frequency of visiting POS, the findings of Culture Square have the largest share on the frequency of several times per week, followed by the frequency of everyday. The largest proportion in the Ecology Plaza which is 50%, however, falls on the frequency of everyday. The big difference between the frequencies of visiting the two POS is due to the composition of the POS users and their behavior. The users of Ecology Plaza, who are mainly the residents of OCT community, normally have regular jobs and routine life. With high income and high quality of life, they are more likely to enjoy regular recreational and leisure activities. The residents of Urban Village, however, are mainly with informal jobs which may lead to irregular leisure time. Another related influential fact is their lifestyle which directly impacts the recreational behaviors.
5am-7am 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% others 8am-12pm 20.0% 10.0% CS 0.0% EP
8pm-10pm 1pm-4pm
5pm-7pm
Figure 8 Recreational characteristic of POS visitors – Time period
Source: Research of author
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everyday 50% 40% 30% 20% several times a others 10% week CS 0% EP
several times a once a week month
Figure 9 Recreational characteristic of POS visitors – Frequency
Source: Research of author
The optional recreational spaces for the respondents in the Culture Square are the Square of Windows of the World, vacant land plots in BSZ Village, the Square of Walmart, the Square of Happy Valley, and the Ecology Plaza. Although the Ecology Plaza of OCT is the only “qualified” POS compared to others, it shares the smallest proportion. Distance is the most obvious and absolute influential factor, while the study aims to figure out what other factors can have impact on the ignorance of the POS in OCT community from the residents in the village. Other vacant land plots in the village shares the second largest portion implies that the users here have less need on the internal physical features of the POS, including the facilities and environment.
For the respondents in the Ecology Plaza, the optional recreational spaces ranked as follows: the Square of Walmart, the Square of Windows of the World, and the Square of Happy Valley. Few selections went to the places in BSZ Village, such as the Culture Square and the vacant land plots in the village.
Motives
The most common activities of the respondents in the Culture Square are taking care of children, strolling and sitting to relax, followed by chatting with friends and participating in community activities, including community organized and spontaneous activities. The last three factors combine together share a proportion of 24.4%, and just ranked behind the proportion in taking care of children, which is 27.8%. The three combined factors are all related to the sense of community group.
The findings on reasons for visiting corresponded to the activities. The ranked reasons are close to home, passing by, good internal environment, to meet friends, and community activities. The
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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK options of reasons are defined to accommodate the idiomatic expressions of the users, but actually can be reorganized into three categories to do analysis. The first two factors can be regarded as outer features of POS, the third factor is the internal features of POS, and the last two factors are related to the sense of community group. Even excluding the factor of distance, the outer features still ranks as the most important reason, and followed by the sense of community group, and the internal features ranks the last.
For the Ecology Plaza, chatting with friends ranks next to strolling (29.4%), with a proportion of up to 20.7%, thus the combination of chatting with friends and participating in community activities stands out with the high proportion of 32.7%. However the finding of the visiting reasons does not match with the finding of activity types superficially, as the proportion of community group has only 8.6%, while the internal and outer features both have more than 20% of share. The contradiction between the two findings concentrates on the fact that people who are chatting with friends in the square do not hold the motives of meeting friends. As the activity facilities are various and the environment is attractive, residents in the community are likely to visit the plaza regularly, and many friendships thus formed. The possibility of their encountering with each other and thus chatting is relatively high because of the attractiveness of the plaza.
Community organized activities 30.0%
25.0% Spontaneous community Others 20.0% activities 15.0% 10.0% 5.0% CS Card game 0.0% Stroll EP
Take the kid Sit & relax
Chat with friend
Figure 10 Motives of POS visitors – Activity type
Source: Research of author
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Table 4 Motives of POS visitors – Reason for visit
Reason for visit Community Meet Close to Pass by Good environment Others Total (Based on activities friend home (design & atmosphere) Culture Square) 10 13 71 29 15 1 139 Proportion % 7.2% 9.4% 51% 20.9% 10.8% 0.7% 100% Community group Outer features Internal features Others (Based on 2 2 20 12 10 1 47 Ecology Plaza) 4.3% 4.3% 42..6% 25.6% 21.3% 2.1% 100% Source: Research of author
Behavior change
The BSZ Culture Square was completed and opened to public totally in 2012. The questions related to the optional recreational spaces before and after the buildup of the Culture Square have different results and findings, which indicates the function and influence of the square to a certain degree. It is obvious that after 2012, Ecology Plaza has fallen from the proportion of 15.9% to 13.8%, and becomes the least option for respondents. Although the numbers of respondents who selected the plaza remains the same, the decrease in the proportion of total selected numbers reflects the impacts on people’s recreational behavior from building the Culture Square, and provides further proof on the observed hypothesis that few residents in the Urban Village visit Ecology Plaza of OCT, although it is the only qualified POS in the surroundings.
When respondents selected the optional spaces for recreational and leisure activity, a small portion of them made multi-selection rather than single-selection. Majority of the respondents with multi-selection selected the Ecology Plaza as one of the choices, which reveals that the plaza is more replaceable than other spaces, especially after the Culture Square was open.
The reasons for the behavior change of the POS users can also be categorized into groups, in which the combination of Guidance of community activity and Influence of friends is the influence of community group and ranks with high proportion (33.1%) right behind the factor of surrounding facilities (34.6%).
Table 5 The visit of optional recreational spaces before 2012
Optional Square of recreational Square of Square of Other vacant Ecology Plaza Happy Total spaces Walmart WOW lands in BSZ Valley (Before 2012) 22 18 42 20 36 138 Proportion % 15.9% 13% 30.4% 14.5% 26.2% 100% Single/multi – 13 9 selection of EP Proportion 11.1% 7.7% (/117)
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(After 2012) 22 28 51 24 25 160 Single/multi – 8 14 selection of EP 6.8% 12% 13.8% 17.5% 31.9% 15% 21.9% 100% Source: Research of author
Reason of behavior change 35% 30% 25% Guidance of community Others 20% activity 15% 10% 5% 0% More surrounding Influence of friends facilities
More activity facilities More activities
Figure 11 The reason for behavior change towards visiting POS
Source: Research of author
Specific counterpoint - Ecology Plaza of OCT
As the counterpoint in the research, the Ecology Plaza of OCT is a community square in a developed community, and the users of it are mainly from its own community with high income and high quality of life. The residents with high-end lifestyle are with regular daily life, and leisure activities are the necessity in everyday life. Thus, the findings from the users of Ecology Plaza are mainly consistent with the past studies… related to the selection of public parks and square, as well as the features of leisure activities.
About 40 respondents did not respond to the questions related to the Ecology Plaza, and many even never heard of it. Large parts of the respondents who answered the questions are also not familiar with the plaza according to the random conversation with the respondents during the questionnaire survey. Distance is definitely the significant reason for the unfamiliarity and not visiting, however, the 1-mile walking distance should not be the only reason. Surrounding environment, internal environment and community activities are the following three reasons
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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK for not visiting, in which the surrounding environment is particular refers to the service facilities in the surrounding of the square.
The distinctions between the findings from the Ecology Plaza and the Culture Square are as follows.
From the perspective of Socio-demographic characteristics, lager composition of young adults in BSZ Culture Square than the Ecology Plaza, which may be partly due to the fact that more than 90% of Culture Square users are from the village where young floating population are the main composition of residents. From the perspective of recreational characteristic, the users of Ecology Plaza, who are mainly the residents of OCT community, have regular routine life with leisure activities, and thus has the largest proportion of everyday visiting frequency during the early evening, compared with the irregular visiting to the Culture Square in both morning and early evening several times a week. From the perspective of motives, larger proportion of spontaneous community activities and taking care of children in the Culture Square, compared with the larger proportion of chatting with friends in the Ecology Plaza. The visiting of Culture Square is more goal-oriented while the Ecology Plaza has more casual visitors. And good internal environment stands out in the selection of visiting reasons from the respondents of Ecology Plaza, which is due to the original features of the plaza.
safety
Surrounding environment
Internal environment Reason for NOT visiting EP Reason for visiting EP
Activity facilities
Community activity
0.0% 20.0% 40.0% 60.0% 80.0%
Figure 12 The reason for visit/not visit the Ecology Plaza of OCT
Source: Research of author
Specific group
Majority of the users in BSZ Culture Square are the residents in the village, whom are mainly belong to the special social group mentioned in the research. Those people are more willing to conduct leisure activity in their own community with irregular time periods. The only POS in the
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Urban Village is the preference of them to conduct leisure activity, compared to the POS in the neighboring community. Because of the limited facilities and quality of environment in the square, it is the outer feature of the square that serves as the primary reason of people’s visit. The sense of community group, which is the combination of community activity oriented and friends attracted, is the following reason for visit. To conclude, however, their visits to POS are most significantly related to the outer features of the POS, particularly the function and facilities in surrounding, which can be verified from the findings of interview survey.
The duration of residency has been divided into three categories, which are less than 2 years, 2 to 5 years and more than 5 years. The diverse socio-demographic characteristics, recreational characteristics, motives, the reason for behavior change, as well as the reason for visit/not visit the counterpoint POS among the three categories demonstrate the research findings to a deeper layer.
From the socio-demographic perspective, the people who lived less than 2 years and between 2 to 5 years are mainly between 18 to 30 years. It is comprehensible that the short-term tenants are mainly young migrant workers. While the people lived more than 5 years are more concentrated on the age range of 30 to 45, who are composed of original villagers and long- term tenants.
<18 80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% >65 18-30 20.0% 10.0% Less than 2 years 0.0% 2-5 years more than 5 years
45-65 30-45
Figure 13 Socio-demographic characteristic of POS visitors based on residency duration – age
From the perspective of recreational characteristics, the difference among the three categories in terms of time period for visiting is rare. All of the visitors prefer to visit the POS on both 8am to 12 pm and 5
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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK pm to 7 pm. However, the distinction among visiting frequency is remarkable. Short-term residents are more likely to visit the POS several times a week. Long-term residents have a more regular life style and mainly visit the POS every day.
5am-7am 40.0%
30.0%
others 20.0% 8am-12pm
10.0% Less than 2 years 0.0% 2-5 years more than 5 years
8pm-10pm 1pm-4pm
5pm-7pm
Figure 14 Recreational characteristic of POS visitors based on residency duration– Time period
everyday 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% several times a others 20.0% week 10.0% Less than 2 years 0.0% 2-5 years more than 5 years
several times a once a week month
Figure 15 Recreational characteristic of POS visitors based on residency duration – Frequency
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The main activity for middle to long term residents is taking the kids in the POS, while for those temporary tenant, walking and relaxing are the main motives. From the perspective of reasons for visiting POS, except the distance, more long-term residents are to meet friends, while short-term tenants are more because of passing by, for the reason that social bonds are essential for long-term residents while short-term migrant workers have no particular time for recreational.
The reasons for behavior change are diverse among the three categories of residents. People who lived in the UV for 2 to 5 years changed their behavior for choosing POS because of the new POS providing more surrounding facilities. Comparing to short-term residents, middle to long term residents changed their behavior more based on the guidance of community activity.
guidance of community activity 40.0% 35.0% 30.0% 25.0% others 20.0% influence of friends 15.0% 10.0% Less than 2 years 5.0% 0.0% 2-5 years more than 5 years
more surrounding more activities facilities
more facilities
Figure 16 The reason for behavior change towards visiting POS based on residency duration
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In order to dig out the reason for the different choices of Ecology Plaza and Culture Square from the UV residents, there are two questions related to the reason for visiting/not visiting Ecology Plaza. Internal environment is a main reason for visiting, and community activity is also a significant element for the choice from long-term residents. The reason for not visiting the Ecology Plaza is concentrated on the surrounding facilities, which highlights the special feature of Culture Plaza from a counterpart perspective.
community activiy 40.0% 35.0% 30.0% 25.0% others 20.0% activity facility 15.0% 10.0% Less than 2 years 5.0% 0.0% 2-5 years more than 5 years
surrounding safe environemnt
internal environment
Figure 17 The reason for visiting Ecology Plaza based on residency duration
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community activiy 80.0% 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% others 40.0% activity facility 30.0% 20.0% Less than 2 years 10.0% 0.0% 2-5 years more than 5 years
surrounding safe environemnt
internal environment
Figure 18 The reason for not visiting Ecology Plaza based on residency duration
Discussion
Hypothesis
Based on the findings of surveys, the concrete four hypotheses are partly verified.
Hypothesis 1: Residents in Urban Village are less willing to visit the POS in the neighboring community which is highly developed
The study was taken place in the fast developing Shenzhen. As a relatively newly built city, Shenzhen pays more attention to the landscape and greening of the city than other developed city in China even on its limited urban area. The residents of Shenzhen are composed of large portion of young adults because of the feature and types of job opportunity of the city. All of these bring about the general feature of POS selection behavior in the particular city in the study, which is with great difference from cities like Swiss, Amsterdam or Australia, but the
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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK combination of Singapore and Hong Kong (Yuen, 1996; Yuen, Kong, & Briffett, 1999; Home, Hunziker, & Bauer, 2012; Weber & Anderson, 2010). Relaxation and contemplate, meet and chat with friends, exercise, and social bonding and interaction are the main motives of visiting the POS, while enjoyment of nature, desire of clean air and peace, as well as enjoying outdoor climate are not the targeted goals of the POS users, which maybe on account of the location and features of the POS.
Based on the findings of the socio-demographic characteristics, BSZ Culture Square and Ecology Plaza of OCT are both relatively successful “community” square based on the fact that the users of them match with the targeted service group to a large extent. As the two POS are located in two significantly contradicting communities, the motives of the users are definitely distinctive with each other, while still on the general base related to the characteristics of the city. The residents in Urban Village prefer to visit the POS in their own community. The POS there are surrounded by mixed-use area, and it is the diverse surrounding facilities that attract the usage from residents. Although unique sense of community group may also be a reason, it is more applicable to the original villagers. Maybe the sense of community group and the related psychological barriers including blocked by clannish culture are also the reason for those low- income migrant workers(Floyd, Taylor, & Whitt-Glover, 2009; Hernández Bonilla, 2013; Olanrewaju, 2001), but this cannot be test and verified as they have rather limited leisure time to conduct recreational activities and select POS. The residents prefer to visit the POS in the community as mainly of them were working in the village, and they only have limited time intervals between work hours to seek for sites to rest.
Hypothesis 2: the institutional characteristic and transitional characteristic are the determinant causes of the special usage of POS from the residents in Urban Village.
The land tenure system in the Urban Village is unique. The original villagers do not own their own land plot any longer, but still own the rights to build and rent the structures on the land plot. As there are numerous low-income workers are in need of rooms with low price, the original villagers can readily make a living by renting their houses. Thus, they have plenty of time and should be guided with healthy lifestyle, such as community activities.
Regarding the low-income migrant workers from other parts of China, they have neither the land tenure nor the ownership of the structures they lived in, but only the use rights. Without land tenure or ownership, they have no rights to dispose the properties. Mainly of them are working hard with limited leisure time, in order to improve their life. The convenience of the POS is the most attracted factor for them. Talking about citizenization, which is the second round of “urbanization” to the residents, it is with the same meaning to both the original villagers and the migrant workers. The villagers have no real access to the city as their properties were on the collective land that is not managed by the city. The migrant workers may have economic access to the city as they have jobs in the city, but lose the connection with the city right after they get off work. Without access and connection with the city, they do not share the public resources with citizens. Although they are living in the broad urban area, they are not fully urbanized. The POS in the Urban Village is an approach to provide the public resources to those underserved population.
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The special usage of the POS from the residents in Baishizhou Village mainly manifests in recreational characteristic and the motives of visiting POS. The highest frequency of visit in Culture Square took place in in both morning and early evening, which is entwined with the employment states of the Urban Village residents, as well as the citizenship status. The large proportion of “pass by” users in the Culture Square, demonstrates again the employment status, together with the outcome and influence of the special land tenureship.
Hypothesis 3: the outer feature of POS is the most influential factor for the selection of POS from the residents in Urban Village
The two POS in the study are both with unique features on their own, while the users of Ecology Plaza have more common with the general citizens, thus the plaza serves as a counterpoint in the study. The users of BSZ Culture Square are the target subjects of the research. The two main group identities of the users are the low-income migrant workers who rent the house in the village, and the original villagers who make a living through the rental income.
The migrant workers only have access towards irregular jobs without requiring educational level and experiences, which result in unpredictable leisure time. Many of their jobs are located in the Urban Village, such as in the retails on the ground level of the mixed-use buildings. They have little time for leisure activity, but need space that can provide convenience for them during their busy works. According to Mr. Wang, a 27-yeaer-old migrant worker from Xichuan, people like him who are working in the restaurant in the Urban Village do not have disposable leisure time for 6 days in a week. “I only have one-hour rest in the middle of the day, and went back home in late night, and only have one-day off in a week.” The Culture Square to people like him, is not a space for leisure activity but space for convenience. “I need to have lunch during the 1-hour rest, so I will buy lunch in the food market, and look for a bench in the Culture Square to finish and take a nap after.” The square is not only a convenience for the working people, but also for people who are heading for the surroundings but passing by it. “I need to drop off my grandson to the kindergarten on weekdays, and then I will rest or chat with some friends in the Culture Square for a while. I do not have much time to spend here because I need go back home and cook for my daughter, and come back to pick up the grandson again,” grandma Liu, who are the mother of a migrant worker, said, “I like the square for the reason that it is right next to the kindergarten, and I do not need to walk for a long distance to somewhere unfamiliar to rest and contact with friends.”
According to the questionnaire finding that outer features is the most influential reason for visit and the findings of the random interview, it appears that mixed-used surroundings of POS is the most desirable thing for the residents in the Urban Village, rather than environment and landscape. They do not pursue high quality of life with high-end recreational spaces for they may not have leisure time to enjoy. They are still during the process of make a living, rather than enjoying life.
As mentioned above, it is the mixed-use area around the square, especially the diverse facilities surrounded, that gain the usage from the residents. The kindergarten and the elementary
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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK school make the POS more accessible to those who own the responsibility of picking up children. The food market makes the POS more accessible to the residents who are doing grocery shopping and seek for a convenient site for a short rest. The low-end shopping mall makes the POS more accessible to the residents who have relatively long spare time for the day and look for places to relax. The mixed-use buildings with retails in the ground level market make the POS more accessible to the residents who are working or shopping in the buildings and seek for a nearby space to refresh.
Hypothesis 4: the sense of community group is also a prominent influential factor to the usage behavior of the residents in the Urban Village
As the previous hypothesis is particularly aimed at the low-income residents who are mainly migrant workers, the third hypothesis is verified with the original villagers as the users. While the migrant workers may not have enough spare time for seeking psychological preference, the original villagers with stable rental income possess adequate leisure time. They have the opportunity to care for the psychological status and make selection based on it. They are seeking for POS that has people with similarity, in social status, lifestyle, or interest. The pursuing of sense of community group is also a part of the sense of belonging which is a significant characteristic for permanent residents in a certain place.
The original villagers, however, have plenty of leisure time as they have no work but renting their houses. They are interested in the community activities and even more willing to organize. “If my son is not at home, I will have more than 10 hours of free time a day, and I’d like to participate in the BSZ community chorus organized by villagers. It can help me to exercise and communicate with people,” said by a 40-year-old lady who is the original villagers of BSZ and has a small portion of stocks in Shahe Industrial Group Co.LTD. ”Culture Square is the perfect gather site for us and the stage is prepared for us!” Not only the spontaneous community activities, but the community guided activities are attractive to some villagers. “I really like the public events organized by Nanshan government, and the events are distributing culture” Grandpa Wang said, “there are no places for those events before the buildup of the Culture Square, and now we can enjoy the benefits of the square.”
It denotes that the floating people in the Urban Village have little desire in social bonding while the permanent residents are seeking for the sense of community group. It is comprehensible that the migrant workers have few known friends in the community and they do not have enough time to be involved in the community group with the few hours of leisure time.
Verification
The findings from the interviews have certain differences in terms of motives of recreational behavior, which is the direct reference of how to make the POS more accessible to the residents of Urban Village, who are the underserved group of people with limited access to public resources in the city.
The findings of interviews from the Culture Square users related to the Likert Scale implicate that there are different levels of importance to the influential factors when they select POS. The
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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK factors from most important to the least important are internal environment, acquainted groups, distance, organized community activities, surrounding facilities and popularity. However, the finding is not so relevant to the research, as when the question “What’s the scale of importance about the listed influential factors to you when you make choice of visiting POS” was asked, people instinctively prefer to choose the ideal POS. What’s more, when the question was asked, respondents paid more of their attention to the POS itself unconsciously, including the internal environment, activity facilities in the square. This cannot represent the real demand and need of the targeted subjects, but the basic demand of majority of people. That’s why it is not consistent with the findings of the previous survey, including questionnaire and random conversations.
Influential factors 80 organized community popularity 60 activities 40 20 distance 0 acquainted groups
surrounding facilities diversity of activity/facility
internal environment
Figure 19 The value of influential factors based on Likert Scale
Source: Interview data from author
The findings of the interview survey conducted to the government officials who are the planners and managers of BSZ Culture Square are partly consistent with the prior surveys. According to Hong Luo, who is the Vice Secretary of Shahe Street Agency and responsible for the management of the Culture Square, “the Culture Square was built to diverse the cultural life of the residents in the village, and we will try our best to guarantee the high frequency of cultural activities and performances.” The head of the Culture Station of Shahe Street, Haiming Yu also declared that “The Culture Square serves as a big stage with the highest use ratio in the village, and the assigned performances took place at fixed time each month. The activities and performances were planned to attract residents and enrich their life.” For the government officials, they regard community group as the main influential factor to the residents’ visit to POS, and try to use it to attract users thus serve them from the leisure aspect. However, community group is only the main motives for part of the residents, especially the original villagers. The government made attempt to satisfying the need of residents, and made plans and strategies based on their perspective. However, they only involved the original villagers, rather than the whole group of residents in the Urban Village. This is also the situation in a
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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK greater level of Urban Village Transformation. Government guarantees the relocation of original villagers, as well as large sums of compensation, while has no arrangement to the renters who are mainly the low-income migrant workers and composed a large portion of residents in the Urban Village.
The interviews with planners, and landscape designers generated another viewpoint towards the motives and influential factors of visiting POS. Actually, their opinions are largely consistent with the findings from the Likert Scale interview of users. From their experience of planning large amounts of POS in the past, they believed that the internal environment and the facilities in it are the most critical elements for POS to attract and serve users.
The differences among the perspectives of the three groups reveal the essence of the social conflict in terms of public resource allocation. The distinctions of understandings of motives between government and residents conduce to the existing of underserved people. The low- income migrant workers, who are in need of a POS with diverse surrounding facilities, may not be well served by a POS with various cultural performances guided by the government. The conflict escalated when planners and designers are getting involved. When the planner’s concept on the motives was applied into the POS during its building process, another feature of the POS maybe upgraded but still not the one to satisfy the need of the residents.
Conclusion
The usage and planning of POS in Urban Village
The research examined the usage of POS in the Urban Village, by comparing it to the POS in its neighboring community. The comparison was divided into two levels, in which the first level was to compare with the usage of the other POS from the users in its own community, and the second level was to compare with the usage status from the residents of the Urban Village to the other POS. The usage of POS in the Urban Village is mainly conducted by the residents in the village and. Although there are two main parts of the residents, they all prefer to visit the POS in their own community rather than the POS in the neighboring community with high level of development. The original villagers made this selection actively based on their psychological status and lifestyle, while the migrant workers made the selection passively forced by the traits of their jobs and life. The migrant workers, who are also the main component of the residents in the Urban Village, are most likely to visit a POS located in mixed-use area and surrounded by diverse facilities. The original villagers, however, are caring more about the sense of community group from the psychological level. The internal environment and facilities of the POS, are the basic features of a POS, which is also the basic need of general users. In the research, it is with less importance compared to the surrounding environment to the migrant workers, but with more importance compared to the community group to the original villagers.
Based on the usage of the POS, the location of the POS is critical and determines whether it can be accessible to the target subject and serve the public. For the POS in Urban Village, it should
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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK be located in the most mixed-use area, together with adequate community activities. The planning of the POS, as well as other infrastructures, in the Urban Village should be public participatory and incremental. With the participatory planning, public can be involved. It is an appropriate way to integrate the need and desire of the target subject of the project with the plans made from the government and planners. With the public inputs, the planning of projects in the Urban Village will be more incremental and be built in an organic way. The goal of the POS planning is to provide public resources to the underserved people, who are exactly the residents in Urban Village. They are lack of access to the public resources as they are living on the collective land with no planning and management from the municipal. The planning conflict in the study denotes the disparities in the provision of recreational resources towards the residents of lower-income areas(Dahmann, Wolch, Joassart-Marcelli, Reynolds, & Jerrett, 2010), which specific refers to the residents in Baishizhou Village in the research. It is comprehensible and natural as the public green space is influenced by education and wealth significantly based on numbers of studies(Barbosa et al., 2007; Matthew McConnachie & Shackleton, 2010). Social, environmental and secure justice issues followed the disparities in quick succession(Spangler & Caldwell, 2007; Wolch, Pastor, & Dreier, 2004). The redistribution of resources and improvement of living conditions for the residents in the Urban Village are necessary and significant during the city development process to resolve the potential social issues. Although it is a pending discussion that whether the floating population should be entitled with some rights and powers, the endeavor in settling them, especially through providing infrastructure and service facilities, is desirable, for the reason that they serve as the fundamental while indispensible force in promoting the operation of the city, and the neglect of them will give rise to severe social issues.
The strategy of Urban Village redevelopment in Shenzhen
For the UVs in Shenzhen, especially villages like the BSZ Village, they are “active” Urban Villages, where the villagers forgave the farmland willingly and tried to seek for benefits in other ways, such as rent self-built houses. They rented the houses to the low-income migrant workers who have no root in the city, and do not afford regular houses in the fast developing city. This type of UVs should not be renovated completely for two main reasons. Firstly, large numbers of migrant workers may lose their rooms and have to seek for other shantytowns with low rents to crowd again, which resolves no problems fundamentally but transferring problems within the city. Secondly, the original villagers may lose their source of income, and it is scarcely possible for them to find conventional jobs. Even if with the large sum of compensation, they are still degrade to unemployment people with no source of revenue over a period of time, which has the possibility of arousing social conflicts.
The proper way to redevelop this type of UVs is the staged updating, and the residents should be the primary body in the process. Not only the public input should be involved in the whole process, but the residents should be seriously involved in the participatory planning. Permit rights to the residents to build their own community. Simultaneously, the effort on improving the life quality through provision of service facilities and infrastructure development to all the residents and thus settling the migrant workers can help to resolve the conflict of Urban Village.
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Above all, the citizenization which serves as the second period of urbanization is the focal point of the redevelopment, in terms of three aspects, which are employment, institution and status. Although most of the residents are involved in the employment system of the city and which serves as their only interrelation with the city, the jobs are mostly low-end with low income and little spare time which make the enjoying of city life impossible for those workers. The city can provide more opportunities for the migrant workers through offering skill practices and education, and involving them into more skilled job with higher income. The land tenureship and the property rights should be clarified and defined with permit. With the entitled rights, the residents are better integrated in the urban mechanism and the social conflicts are well decreased. The citizen status is not just about the physical permit like the hukou or residence card, but the practical rights that entitled to the population, and the citizenization is the process of acquiring practical rights in the city. The transformation of Urban Villages should also firstly focus on the citizenization of the residents in the Urban Village and the cost of the floating population during the transformation should not be neglected. Actually it is a worldwide issue that the planning fails to reflect the needs of tenants, but quintessential for future development, which should be paid more attention to resolve.
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Appendix
Figure 20 LOCATION & URBAN STRUCTURE OF SHENZHEN, CHINA
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Figure 21 FIGURE-GROUND RELATION OF BAISHIZHOU VILLAGE
Table 6 Recreational characteristic of POS visitors – Time period
Time period (Based on Culture 5am-7am 8am-12pm 1pm-4pm 5pm-7pm 8pm-10pm others Total Square) 2 50 17 50 14 2 135 Proportion % 1.5% 37% 12.6% 37% 10.4% 1.5% 100% (Based on Ecology 1 13 3 16 3 1 37 Plaza) 2.7% 35.1% 5.4% 46% 8.1% 2.7% 100%
Table 7 Recreational characteristic of POS visitors – Frequency
Frequency Several times/ Several times/ (Based on Culture Everyday Once a week Others Total week month Square) 31 44 18 17 6 117 Proportion % 26.5% 38.5% 15.4% 14.5% 5.1% 100% (Based on Ecology 15 4 4 4 3 30 Plaza) 50% 13.3% 13.3% 13.3% 10.1% 100%
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Table 8 Motives of POS visitors – Activity type
Activities Community Spontaneous Chat Sit & Take Card (Based on organized community Stroll with Others Total Culture relax the kid game activities activities friend Square) 8 17 41 36 19 50 6 3 180 Proportion 4.4% 9.4% 22.8% 20% 10.6% 27.8% 3.3% 1.7% 100% % (Based on Ecology 5 2 17 11 12 7 0 4 58 Plaza) 8.6% 3.4% 29.4% 19% 20.7% 12% 0% 6.9% 100%
Table 9 The reason for behavior change towards visiting POS
Reason of Guidance of Influence of More More More Others Total behavior community friends activities activity surrounding change activity facilities facilities 26 22 19 24 50 4 145 Proportion % 17.9% 15.2% 13.1% 16.6% 34.6% 27.6% 100%
Table 10 The reason for visit/not visit the Ecology Plaza of OCT
Reason for Community Activity Internal Surrounding safety Total visiting EP activity facilities environment environment 13 14 27 23 11 88 Proportion % 14.8% 15.9% 30.7% 26.1% 12.5% 100% Reason for (Lack of) (Lack of) Internal Surrounding NOT visiting Community Activity Distance environment environment EP activity facilities 6 4 7 8 56 81 Proportion % 7.4% 4.9% 8.6% 9.9% 69.1% 100%
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community activity 35.0% 30.0% community others 25.0% performance 20.0% 15.0% 10.0% card games line-dancing 5.0% Less than 2 years 0.0% 2-5 years more than 5 years
take the kids walk
chat with friends sit and rest
Figure 22 Motives of POS visitors based on residency duration – Activity type
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for community activities 50.0% 45.0% 40.0% others 35.0% to meet friends 30.0% 25.0% 20.0% 15.0% 10.0% Less than 2 years 5.0% 0.0% 2-5 years more than 5 years closer to home
enjoy the pass by design&atmosphere
Figure 23 Motives of POS visitors on residency duration – Reason for visit
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