Longhua leads Shenzhen in achieving district-wide coverage of “urban stewardship”
--Initiating the implementation of "urban stewardship" in comprehensive governance of urban villages, helping urban management pivot towards being professional, refined and intelligent
There used to be a number of companies subordinate to property management services for villages, among which the division of responsibilities was unclear. Nowadays, in the case of any issues, villagers can turn to resident “urban stewards” and get replies in a few minutes and solutions within half a day instead of waiting in vain for days in the past.
“Since the implementation of the urban stewardship system, villages in the city have become increasingly homelike, and basketball courts and Party-masses service centers have been built, where children can amuse themselves after schooling and the masses can carry out cultural activities in their spare time. Our sense of belonging is getting stronger and stronger.”
With improvements in the environment of villages in the city, villagers feel a greater sense of happiness, which is a gratifying change in the wake of Longhua District’s exploration of the “urban stewardship” system.
The city is regarded as a property in a holistic manner and the concept “stewardship” is employed in urban management. Since the beginning of 2021, the campaign of grassroots governance in the mega-city, named “urban stewardship”, has been in full swing across big streets and small alleys and urban villages in Longhua District.
After nearly two years’ exploration and practice, Longhua District has led the city by providing full coverage of “urban stewardship” in 6 neighborhoods. The “urban stewardship” system, being professional, intelligent and centralized, has helped the district make rapid progress in environment ranking and assessment scoring. As of June 19, 2023, Longhua District scored 90.32 for the second quarter. Longhua District, which becomes increasingly famous for “facial attractiveness” of its core urban area, has contributed “Longhua’s solutions” for challenging issues of grassroots governance in the mega-city of Shenzhen.
Focus on difficulties in grassroots governance, lead the city in achieving district-wide coverage of “urban stewardship”
As a populous and industrial district in Shenzhen, Longhua District has a total population of close to 3 million and houses as many as 372 urban villages, the combined area of which occupies more than 70% of the district’s total. As a result, urban management and renovation in the appearance of the city has long been stressful.
In May 2021, Wang Wei, the Party Secretary of Longhua District, convened an on-site meeting on “urban stewardship” in Shuiwei New Village, calling for building the diversified “urban stewardship” system with the characteristics of Longhua District. In June 2021, Longhua District established the “urban stewardship” work leadership group, in which the deputy Party Secretary of the district acts as the head and the deputy district head works as the deputy head. They have led delegations to peer districts to learn experimental experience, authorized professional consulting teams to make feasibility studies and fostered a synergy among involved parties to push ahead with the “urban stewardship” system.
The first district to include “property services available in villages” as part of the “urban stewardship” assessment, make “urban steward-oriented” property services available in all urban villages in three years
In the “urban stewardship” reform in Longhua District, the unit price of environmental sanitation per square meter has increased by 35.54% to RMB24.33, up from RMB17.95. For one thing, cleaning and sanitation standards have broadly improved. For another thing, Longhua is the first district in Shenzhen to employ “urban stewardship” in property services for urban villages and include “property services available in villages” as part of the “urban stewardship” assessment, and strives to make “urban steward-oriented” property services available in district-wide urban villages in three years.
With the implementation of the “urban stewardship” system, facilities and public services in urban villages across Longhua District have substantially improved. Furthermore, “urban stewards” of all neighborhoods have involved in social governance of urban villages, helped address safety hazards in fire protection and social stability and worked hard to develop a new model of social governance of urban villages featuring government dominance, business participation and integration with residents.
“Urban stewardship” system introduces intelligent command centers, digitalization makes urban management increasingly refined and intelligent
Application of intelligent technologies in Longhua District’s “urban stewardship” drive is commendable, thanks to the “Digital Longhua” development campaign implemented for years. Nowadays, every neighborhood has an intelligent urban management command center, which is sustained by a digital intelligent operation platform. To cater to urban management and operation, all centers have imposed centralized management on human affairs and matters in neighborhoods, responded fast to incidents and employed refined and visualized management to make marked progress on management and service efficiency.
In the face of citizens’ new aspirations for a better life and refined urban governance, Longhua District is considering how to adopt thoroughly the “urban stewardship” system in urban management and providing incentives for an increasing number of enterprises to stretch their strengths to engage in R&D and supply of public service products, leading to shared governance of the city.