rss feedSeattle’s Edith Macefield becomes example of property rights – in China, after a death
Images of Edith Macefield's house in Seattle - the one she refused to sell for $1 million - have shown up on Chinese news sites. The image was taken by Joshua Trujillo, a Seattle Post-Intelligencer photographer at the time. Photo source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer via nddaily.com
Web sites and blogs in China have burst with news in recent days about tensions in the Chengdu area involving a construction company that wanted to build a road through a woman’s house – and her refusal to leave.
The Chinese describe this type of structure as a “nail house.”
And the case of Edith Macefield, the famous woman from Seattle who stayed in her own “nail house,” has surfaced in China.
The Chinese case, which began in 2007, is complicated but the woman reportedly lived in a spacious building in the Chengdu area, which is located in the southwest province of Sichuan.
Some media reports say that she built her house without the proper government permits – but that practice occurs in China and she had been living in it for more than a decade.
She asked for more than $1 million to leave. Compensation was offered but only for the building materials and decorations and not the market value.
