Street-side clothes drying scheme put through wringer by residents

• Source: Global Times
• [09:13 August 13 2010]
• Comments

By Zhou Ping

A neighborhood committee in Xuhui district has removed some of the clothes racks that it set up on sidewalks to enable residents to dry their clothes.

Residents living on Qinzhou Road South and Guiping Road in Xuhui district criticized the neighborhood committee's decision to install the racks, Xinmin Evening News reported on Tuesday.

The neighborhood committee removed all the racks on main roads on Wednesday night, two days after they were set up.

"It's too disgusting to hang clothes in public areas," Wang Rongkui, a security guard at a residential compound on Guiping Road, in front of which some racks were standing, told the Global Times Thursday. "They also got in the way of people using the sidewalks."

A resident from the compound surnamed Li said that the racks damaged the image of the area. "People were hanging up raggedy clothes and everything," he said.

"After we read the report and noticed that some residents were expressing their dislike, we realized that we hadn't done enough before we took the action, such as asking residents' opinions and choosing more appropriate locations," Shen Lüzhong, head of the municipal management department of Kangjian neighborhood committee, told the Global Times Thursday.

"We have removed 50 clothes racks from the sidewalks along the main streets and plan to reinstall them in residential compounds and smaller alleys," Shen added.

According to Shen, the racks were erected to stop people from tying ropes between trees or electrical poles on which to dry clothes.

"Many migrant workers live as well as work in the shops along the roads, and they really need some place to dry their clothes," Shen said.

Racks along smaller roads were still in place as of Thursday, where migrants said that they benefit from them.

"I used to hang clothes on trees or on ropes between electrical poles, which would get me in trouble with the authorities," a Fujian native surnamed Zheng who runs a hardware shop told the Global Times Thursday.

The head of the chengguan, or city management officers, responsible for the area, surnamed Wu, said that they have made an exception for clothes that are being dried on the racks.

"It's forbidden to hang clothes to dry alongside the road, and it is a problem we are constantly tackling," he said. "We gave suggestions to the neighborhood committee as to where to install the racks.

"We hope the racks will offer people living along the roads a proper place to dry their clothes and help them to maintain good habits," he added.