What happened to the widening plan?

Widening redevelopment plans were raised around 1977 and again in 1983, but both were abandoned after opposition, and in 2000 the area was designated the Dadaocheng Historic District Special Use Zone, settling matters toward preservation.

Why widen the road at all?

Because the narrow street width was named a major cause of Dihua Street’s 1970s decline. Widening would improve traffic, but it would remove the traditional shophouses on both sides.

What is the issue today?

A problem created by success. As cafés, galleries and visitors increase, rent pressure follows, and the question becomes whether the herbalists and fabric sellers who make this street what it is can remain.

Should the Road Be Widened?

The other chapters of this series dealt with layers already laid down. This one is a layer not yet finished. What Dadaocheng should be now is still being decided.

Phase one — the road

Dihua Street showed signs of decline through the 1970s, and its narrow width was named a major cause Fact. So around 1977 a redevelopment plan to widen the road appeared, directly threatening the traditional architecture on both sides Fact. Another plan was raised in 1983, but both were abandoned in the face of opposition movements Fact. Then in 2000 the area was designated the Dadaocheng Historic District Special Use Zone, settling toward preservation Fact.

What that decision left

The reason you can look up at façades in Ep.4 and walk into a three-bay plan in Ep.7 is that the road was not widened then Estimate. Preservation did not happen by itself. Someone opposed the plan, and that opposition won twice.

Phase two — rent

But the question changed shape. The threat now is not a bulldozer but success. As the shophouse reuse of Ep.7 took hold, cafés, galleries and visitors multiplied, and rent pressure comes with them Estimate. Can the herbalists and fabric sellers of Ep.6 — the working trades that make this street a street — remain Estimate? If the buildings are saved but the trades change, what exactly was saved?

The eighth city of one question

This question is not Dadaocheng’s alone. Euljiro’s tool shops, the wharves of The Rocks, the Truman brewery on Brick Lane, Smithfield market, Choryang’s hillside roads, Red Hook’s warehouses, Yanesen’s empty houses — every city this series has walked is passing through the same question in a different language Estimate. Who decides the next layer of a working old district? Dadaocheng is a place that has already answered once: in 1977 and 1983.

Where the traveller stands

So how you walk this street carries weight too. Drinking coffee in a reuse-space café and buying dried shiitake from an Ep.6 herbalist send different signals to this street Estimate. Do both, by all means. But not skipping the latter sits closer to wanting this street to remain a street.