Along Yuyuan Road, a century-old alleyway hides the authentic, everyday life of old Shanghai. It was also a tough challenge in urban renewal due to governance issues. Now, one by one, these once-chaotic and neglected alleys are quietly transforming. Behind this tangible improvement in livability is the "Four Establishments, Four Breakthroughs" contiguous-area work method pioneered by Jiangsu Road Subdistrict. This approach turns scattered, isolated alleys into a unified force, forging a new path for refined and effective governance of old alleys.

At 7 a.m., 75-year-old Granny Zhang walks into Alley 749, Yuyuan Road, with her grocery basket. The asphalt road beneath her feet is smooth and dry, there are no piles of trash at the corners, and the formerly disorderly parked e-bikes are now neatly lined up within white lines. Looking at the newly renovated alley, she greets her neighbor with a smile: "It's much more comfortable living here now than before." This old alley, once left unattended, now has professional property management.

To address the real-world challenges of interconnected alleys, scattered small buildings, and a long-term absence of property management in the area, Jiangsu Road Subdistrict has innovatively developed the "Four Establishments, Four Breakthroughs" contiguous-area work method. It builds a collaborative property governance system through "Party leadership, service first, diverse co-governance, and digital empowerment," breaking through governance deadlocks, residents' mental barriers, service boundaries, and bottlenecks. This moves old alleys from "chaos and neglect" to "refined and effective governance."

Establishing the Core of Leadership, Breaking the Governance Deadlock: Turning "Scattered Sand" into a "Solid Rock"

The old alleys in Jiangsu Road Subdistrict are the soft texture of the city but once faced governance challenges: complex property ownership, small residential communities, difficulty in forming homeowners' committees, and scattered, poorly coordinated forces. The question of "who will manage" hung over the residents. The answer from Jiangsu Road Subdistrict is to weave a dense organizational network under Party leadership. According to the introduction, the subdistrict Party Working Committee led the effort to connect three alleys along Yuyuan Road with district-owned state-owned enterprise property resources. The residents' committee Party organizations actively built a three-tier autonomous structure of "Alley Governance Committee, Alley Management Association, and Alley Chief," placing Party organizations within the alleys and deploying Party members into the grid. During the promotion of contiguous-area management, Jiangsu Road Subdistrict extensively solicited residents' opinions, actively guided residents' supervision, and fully coordinated participation from all parties. This effectively enhanced the synergy of the "three carriages" – the residents' committee, the homeowners' committee, and the property company – establishing a "3+N" governance model involving Party organizations, property management, residents, and other social entities. From "going it alone" to "co-governance," Party leadership acts like a red thread, connecting governance nodes and reshaping the governance landscape of these once problematic old alleys.

Establishing the Foundation of People's Livelihood, Breaking Residents' Mental Barriers: Turning "Doubt" into "Trust"

The hardest part of introducing property management into alleys is not the threshold but the "heart" of the residents. Long-time residents, accustomed to the freedom of a "courtyard-style" life, naturally resisted the idea of paying for property services. Jiangsu Road Subdistrict insisted on improving quality first before raising prices, leading with service to win people's hearts. In the early days of integrating Alleys 54 and 56, Lane 1210, Yuyuan Road, into the contiguous management of Xinhua Property, a pipe burst in one household. After reporting the issue, the property management not only responded immediately but also proactively arranged for a repairman to come at the resident's convenience for on-call repairs. Such thoughtful actions gradually dispelled residents' psychological resistance to the "value for money" of property services. The property fee, originally just 0.18 yuan per square meter, was gradually increased to a price acceptable to both residents and the property company. Residents willingly accepted the fee increase because the visible services brought tangible peace of mind. Jiangsu Road Subdistrict precisely matched resource lists with residents' needs, systematically integrating a practical "toolkit" for governance covering all scenarios. This included compiling a "Property Management Handbook" like the "Standardized Guidance Manual for Homeowners' Committees," providing policy guidance and legal support to ensure all work is based on rules. For bottlenecks difficult to resolve at the local level, they proactively "whistled" to higher authorities, actively seeking policy support. They also established a layered system of residents' committee autonomy charters, community covenants, and building group covenants, ensuring a unified standard throughout the area through tiered autonomy guidelines. This toolkit acts as a "treasure chest" for property governance, providing solid support for contiguous management and making residents feel that professional management is there to serve, not just to collect fees.

Establishing a Network of Co-Governance, Breaking Service Boundaries: Turning "Walls" into "Bridges"

The difficulty in governing old alleys lies in their "smallness" and "scatteredness": an alley with a few dozen households, low property fee collection rates, and high management costs, making professional property companies unwilling to take over and resident self-governance unable to handle it. Jiangsu Road Subdistrict's choice is to break down walls and implement contiguous governance. Alley 749, Yuyuan Road, and seven surrounding alleys are separated by just one wall from Jiachun Park. The Dongbang Residents' Committee Party branch leveraged the natural "geographical advantage" and years of cooperative ties to bridge the gap, allowing the park's property management to "cross the border" and manage the old alleys. After breaking the boundary, residents not only enjoy professional property services but also share the park's landscaping and cultural facilities. Standardized services have breathed new life into this century-old alley. The property management of Jiachun Park signed a contract with the residents' committee. Units 8-12, Lane 405, Zhenning Road, deep in the alleys, were small and remote, long in a management vacuum. Jiangsu Road Subdistrict innovatively allowed them to share the state-owned enterprise property resources of a neighboring mature community, transforming "unmanaged" into "professionally managed." By breaking down physical walls and industry barriers, Jiangsu Road Subdistrict used the "contiguous-area" approach as a key to open a new door for co-governance and shared benefits in old alleys, allowing high-quality service resources to flow and be shared across communities.

Establishing the Power of Intelligent Governance, Breaking Governance Bottlenecks: Upgrading from "Manpower" to "Computing Power"

Governing old alleys requires more than an "army of people"; it also needs the "wings of technology." Alley 1376, Yuyuan Road, and three surrounding open alleys long suffered from governance headaches like difficulty in security control, disorderly parking, and illegal trash dumping. Taking the opportunity presented by contiguous-area management, Jiangsu Road Subdistrict actively partnered with local tech company Changguang Yinli to deploy a comprehensive AI visual recognition smart monitoring system. This system features 24/7 automatic capture, evidence collection, and real-time alerts. When violations like illegal parking or trash dumping occur, the system instantly detects, automatically reports, and quickly dispatches for resolution. A visual intelligent identification device was installed in the residential area. "Before, it relied on patrols, taking half an hour to walk the circuit. Now, the camera 'blinks' and the situation is transmitted to the platform," a property management staff member remarked. Digital empowerment enables precise monitoring and rapid response, allowing century-old alleys to achieve orderly parking and a clean, comfortable environment through dedicated personnel and AI support, significantly improving governance efficiency. The alley AI monitoring system transforms "governance" into "smart governance." This one-word change represents a shift in methods and an increase in efficiency. Technology empowers the resolution of old community problems like "can't watch, can't fully manage, slow response," providing smart "wings" for contiguous management. As century-old buildings meet modern governance, Jiangsu Road Subdistrict continues to deepen the "Four Establishments, Four Breakthroughs" work method, driving governance forces from "dispersed" to "integrated," governance perspectives from "partial" to "holistic," and governance logic from "control" to "co-construction." This creates a replicable, scalable new paradigm for old alley governance, allowing residents to encounter a better life deep within the alleys.