Bad Luck or Mismanagement?

I found this incredible picture in NRC, a Dutch newspaper. It states that the Chinese are very inventive. Inventive of solving a highway problem after the inhabitants of this building refused to leave, due to the underpayment on their property. They stayed because the compensation was insufficient to buy a new house. I wonder if this is the case.
It reminds me of a famous Dutch novel ?Publieke werken? by Thomas Roosenboom. The novel tells the story of the construction of Hotel Victoria, about a century ago, just in front of Amsterdam Central Station. Houses had to be broken down to make place for the new hotel. The owner of one of the old houses, a violin builder, waited as long as possible, because he was convinced that a compensation fee could only rise. But he totally misjudged the situation and the Hotel decided to construct the hotel around his house. No compensation! The house is still there.
Project management or project development is all about ?looking into the future?. All about, what could be on your path. And reality is always different from your plans, no matter how good you forecast. But that?s not the problem. A good manager creates space to be inventive and to be flexible: in financial terms, in design, in planning, in his organization, for negotiation, in communication etc. So the question is, was it bad luck in China when the inhabitants didn?t leave? Was it bad luck when the violin builder rejected his compensation? Maybe it?s just mismanagement: no space to be flexible, no space to negotiate. And the solution: build around. Is that inventiveness or just a logical outcome?
The novel Publieke werken tells of the complete incompatible characters of the people involved: the owner and the project manager of the hotel. And maybe that?s the key to this problem. Personal incompatibility blocks of all solutions that could be in favor of your plans.
But, stubbornness prevented the people in Amsterdam to solve their problem. And lucky for us they left us a famous and funny story! For that, I hope the Chinese house will be there forever, because this house is going to be part of a famous history too.