The Shanghai municipal government is set to intervene in a property dispute between a group of artists who rent studio space on Taikang Road and the Luwan District government, which wants the painters out to make way for development.

When word leaked out last week that the district government was planning to force many of the artists to relocate by July after leasing space along the road to a Taiwanese developer, studio and cafe owners began to organize a battle to save what they call the "art street."

Seventeen expatriate studio owners wrote a letter to Mao Jialiang, director of the Shanghai Urban Planning Administrative Bureau, last week calling on the government to save Taikang Road.

"Beginning in 2000, we started to gather on this road to create art," the letter said. "If it is demolished, there will never be another road like this. Shanghai will lose a piece of history."

While the bureau hasn't officially responded to the letter yet, a deputy director said yesterday the city government will intervene in the issue.

"It is under negotiation," said Wu Jiang, the bureau's deputy director. "We are trying to persuade the (Luwan) district government into preserving the street. But so far, there is no result."

Theoretically, the city could use new laws protecting historic buildings to halt the district's plans, but officials might have a tough time proving the historic importance of the street.

The art studios on Taikang Road mostly take up buildings left behind by food, textile and equipment factories. Built in the early 1950s, the small factories were originally known as "lane workshops" -- factories built in a small lane normally used for apartments.

"The emptiness and roughness provide much creativity and imagination for me," said Trine Tetersen, a Danish designer who is fighting to keep the street the way it is. "Just imagine the striking contrast of the scenes outside and inside my window -- a trendy interior decoration with a dilapidated exterior appearance."

Officials from Luwan District said the street is due for development.

"Compared with its neighbors, the road is so undeveloped," said a district official who refused to reveal his name.

A growing number of artists and designers disagree, saying the former warehouses and factories are filled with character. About 100 design companies, fashion boutiques, art studios and restaurant have set up on Taikang Road over the past three or four years.

This isn't the first time the city's artistic community has faced the threat of relocation.

About two years ago, artists started setting up workshops and galleries in deserted warehouses along Suzhou Creek. But before the area could fully develop, the government announced a development plan for the creek.

Under the plan, most of the old buildings along the river were to be razed to make room for a 26-meter-wide green belt. Artists tried everything to stop this from happening, from writing to the government to offering to buy the buildings. In the end, however, most had to pack up their paintbrushes and find a new home.

(Shanghai Daily March 31, 2004)