Word: spaces
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Former French President Jacques Chirac used to warn his advisers that problems tend to arrive in squadrons, usually flying in formation. It's a point on which his successor, Nicolas Sarkozy, might be tempted to agree. In the space of several weeks, Sarkozy's previously commanding leadership has come under fire from all directions. The French public appears to have had more than enough of his flashy, over-exposed private life. His highly touted economic reforms have so far largely failed to bear fruit. His approval ratings have plunged at a dizzying speed. Now many conservative candidates are looking...
...Ironically, all of these new suburbs in Shanghai, mine included, bill themselves as environmentally friendly. And relatively speaking, they are. There is green space here - large grassy parks and small lawns, which don't exist in the city. But things have hardly started yet. I recently asked a retired Shanghai city planner how much thought had gone into the environmental consequences of the Short March. He sighed. "We know people will probably have to drive more. There will be more cars on the streets everywhere. But there are other important factors to consider." Such as? He paused, and just rotated...
...been less than 10 years since this land was nothing but farms and mosquito-infested swamps. The truth is, there are days even now when it still feels a little lonely. Tens of thousands of square feet of retail space have already gone up, about half of which sit empty, at least for now. On most days this past summer there was so little traffic on the streets in town that drivers didn't pay attention to the traffic lights - except, that is, the student drivers from the Li Zhong Driving School, who creep slowly down the town's wide...
...supposed to receive some health-insurance benefits from the companies that hire them. But many, particularly day laborers who hook up with small contractors, do not. I spent one evening a few months ago in the emergency room of the huge, modern hospital in New Songjiang. In the space of about three hours, five construction workers were admitted, including one who had tumbled three stories from an apartment building under construction. He survived, but had broken his back. I asked two of his co-workers whether he thought the company they worked for would pay his medical bills...
...others, as for us, it was the cleaner environment, a little bit of green and a lot more space. "I love it out here," says Chen. "It's quiet, and the air is better." Two couples we've become friendly with say they want to have a second child - now permissible in Shanghai since the government loosened the one-child policy a bit in 2004. All this at a price much cheaper than it would be to buy a decent apartment in Shanghai (let alone a house in the San Fernando Valley...