If developers had their way

[giza]

...we could expect to see more scenes like this:



The above picture was taken in Chongqing city in China after an owner refused to move out of his home. Developers retaliated by digging out all the land around his house, leaving him on a manmade island.

Read the original article.

While a bit extreme, things like this have the potential to happen when developers are given license to do what they want, however they want, and the rights of private property owners are ignored.

Let this be a learning experience for us all.

Comments

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

Near our house, there is an office park, home to some very large important companies. And right in the middle of Budd parking lot is an old stone farmhouse, barn, silo, outbuildings.

It was an old farm that when it came time to develop the area, the owners didn't sell. And the historic farm law doesn't allow for eminent domain, so they built around it.

Nowadays, it has been remodeled, all the buildings connected by new stuctures, insides redone to house the Kresge Foundation, a very large charity.

I like it when they adapt and renew older structures into new uses.

[oryx.livejournal.com]

My god that is awesome. Depending on the laws in China, the developers might be required to give him (easy) access to his property - since he probably had it before they dug out the roads and paths he was using.

If I were him personally, I would sit there until the end of time..

[rebelsheart]

That could get interesting in say Singapore, where if you own land, your authority over that land extends to the center of the earth - this made building certain new underground roadways interesting.

[zorinlynx.livejournal.com]

I'm actually surprised to see this; if ownership rights were NOT respected, the Chinese authorities likely would have removed him from the house already.

The fact that the developers had to dig around his house to try to move him out shows that the Chinese do have SOME property rights, even if not enough to prevent something crazy like this from happening.

Interesting in any case.

[shenryyr.livejournal.com]

in china, the gov't owns all the lands; people don't own land, but you can own buildings.  so what they've done here is reduced it to just his house, which he does own.  if he doesn't leave soon I'm guessing they'll soon lift up the house entirely and move it to where the gov't said he should live.

[mrgoodwraith.livejournal.com]

This instantly put me in mind of the Bugs Bunny cartoon which ends with his hole as a fifty-foot-tall cement shaft that the highway makes a U-shaped detour around. :-D

[gatcat.livejournal.com]

You and me both.

Well, that and the Japanese-American family who somewhat recently refused to sell their farmland to Disney, putting the kibbosh on the ginormous Epcot-inspired theme park addition they had planned in Anaheim. Still there, among all the hotels and motels and restaurants and new Disney Resort properties, is a small, flat and unassuming strawberry patch with a giant aura of pride.

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

I was hoping somebody would mention that!

[simbab.livejournal.com]

Chinese people have rights?! Somebody needs to tell Wal-Mart!

[susandeer.livejournal.com]

Thus proving that land developers really are Vogons in disguise. You'll see. They'll make the world end out of spite!

[delphi-of-clf.livejournal.com]

Oh I don't know...they both get what they want this way, don't they? :P

[zealianbadass.livejournal.com]

Hope he knows how to rappell.

Things like that make me love China. Even the meanest personage can make a statement in the face of the most overwhelming of bureaucracies, whether by accident or design.

See also

[xydexx.livejournal.com]

• Austin L. Spriggs
• Carrie Nokes
• Centralia, PA

[wildw0lf.livejournal.com]

How does he get in and out of his house?