Jottings from the Granite Studio

After ranting yesterday on the parking situation in Beijing, I came across an article in this week’s Economist on how the new property law will affect the competition for parking spots in the city. In March this year, despite vocal opposition by party conservatives, the leadership ensured passage of a new property law in parliament. This was widely hailed as a further salve for landlords. Although much of it merely consolidated existing legislation, it contained important new provisions concerning the rights of property owners in new housing estates, including principles governing the ownership of parking spaces.

But there is…of course…a catch: The new law makes clear that parking spaces occupying what the law considers to be land owned collectively by the home-owners, such as roads within estates, are also collectively owned. It obliges developers to give priority to the parking needs of estate residents. It is vaguer on the subject of how home-owners and developers are supposed to cooperate. Some developers, fearing that home-owners will gain a greater say over prices, have rushed to sell off as many spaces as that they can before the law takes effect on October 1st. Disputes continue to simmer.

On a related note, the

h/t CDT: A hutong not too far from the Granite Studio is going under the wrecker’s ball (er, hammer) to make way for a new residential development. Gentrification marches on, if you like your nice hutong home, be very nervous about the yuppy with the espresso, the laowai with an expat package, or the Taiyuan coal mine boss with a man purse and two ernai (would that be a sinai?).

About 24 homes in Dongsi Batiao (just inside the second ring, south of the main Dongsi Shitiao and not too far away from the CCP-kitsch restaurant The Red Capital Club) will be razed to make way for the new building project. And people are pissed.

Richard Spencer, who happens to live in the neighborhood, blogged about the planned demolition and the spirited response: The latest cause celebre in the Chinese papers is the “chai” or demolition order handed out to residents of Dongsi Ba Tiao…

There has been an outcry in all the papers, from the Beijing News to China Daily. But it’s too late. Even though there is a preservation order in place over the whole area, this doesn’t matter. Various reasons are given – the deal to hand