Heterogeneity of Influencing Factors for Informal Commercial Spaces in Communities from the Perspective of Right to the City: A Case Study of Harbin

Effective governance of informal commercial spaces is a common challenge faced by cities globally. To break through the superficial governance mindset of traditional spatial regulation, this study focuses on clarifying the spatial distribution characteristics and influencing factors of such spaces. By integrating the theory of “The right to the city” with the “7D” principles of New Urbanism, and focusing on the Jinxiang Street area in Harbin, a representative zone combining traditional industrial and modern residential communities, this study constructed a multidimensional indicator framework including population factors, functional diversity of facilities, accessibility of the built environment, spatial suitability, and intensity of community management, extracting 17 significant variables. Through spatial autocorrelation analysis (Moran’s I), multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR), and geographic detector analysis, the results show that informal commercial spaces exhibit clustered yet uneven characteristics between aging and upscale communities; the MGWR model reveals significant spatial heterogeneity in influencing factors; and geographic detector analysis shows that the interaction between public service facilities’ proximity to main roads and enhanced community management has the most significant explanatory power for heterogeneity (q = 0.85). These findings inform differentiated governance strategies and provide scientific support for sustainable governance of informal commercial spaces.