Park Young-sun, Urban Studies Major, Proposes First Seoul Plan as 'Compact City'..."Always Interested in Urban Change"

Seoul Composed of 21 Polycentric Distributed Cities... Workplace, Hospital, Education, Shopping Accessible Within 21 Minutes Anywhere
"Must Transition to Distributed, Self-Sufficient Cities to Ensure Sustainable Life in the COVID-19 Era"

Reflecting "Usual Thoughts on Urban Form" Leveraging Urban Studies Major

With Assembly Member Woo, "Like Older Sister and Younger Brother"
Supporting Each Other and Shoulder to Shoulder in the Primary Election

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] 'just 21 minutes'.

On the 26th, Park Young-sun, former Minister of SMEs and Startups, who announced her candidacy for Seoul mayor, summarized the first blueprint of Seoul announced that day in one phrase. The first pledge of former Minister Park, the '21-minute compact city,' aims to ensure that wherever you are in Seoul, within a 21-minute transportation distance, jobs as well as hospitals, education, shopping, and leisure can all be fulfilled.

To this end, the plan is to reorganize Seoul into a self-sufficient '21 polycentric dispersed cities (compact anchor cities)' to solve polarization and environmental issues and improve the quality of life for Seoul citizens.

Former Minister of SMEs and Startups Park Young-sun declared her candidacy for the April 7 Seoul mayoral by-election on the 26th at the Korea Federation of SMEs in Yeouido, Seoul. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

Former Minister Park said, "As transportation shifted from carriages to automobiles, major world cities underwent a transportation revolution. New York implemented zoning after the 1918 Spanish flu, separating workplaces and residences by function, which spread to many cities and led to its rise as a global city," adding, "After COVID-19, Seoul must also make a major transition from a centralized downtown to 21 self-sufficient compact anchors with populations of 500,000 each, becoming a polycentric dispersed city."

She emphasized, "A Seoul where everything is resolved within 21 minutes will change citizens' lives."

She explained that even after COVID-19, with social distancing and mask-wearing becoming part of daily life, transitioning from centralization to a dispersed, self-sufficient city is necessary to guarantee sustainable lives for citizens.

Using Yeouido as an example, former Minister Park said, "Compact City Yeouido is a new city where workplaces, education, childcare, healthcare, shopping, leisure, and culture are all accessible within a 21-minute transportation distance." She added, "The road from the National Assembly building in Yeouido to East Yeouido will be undergrounded, and parks and smart farms will be created there, allowing citizens to grow vegetables and more in the city, simultaneously addressing food, exercise, and healthcare."

She also announced plans to build single-person household hotels to solve housing issues. Former Minister Park said, "If the National Assembly relocates, the National Assembly building will be transformed into a world-class concert hall, the Members' Office Building into a youth startup residential area, and the Communication Hall into a startup hub, completing Compact City 21 where everything can be enjoyed and worked within 21 minutes," adding, "After COVID-19, Seoul will become a city leading the world in the digital economy era."

This vision is interpreted as making full use of her urban geography major studied during university.

When asked about her thoughts after declaring her candidacy, former Minister Park said, "Even in normal times, reading books about urban changes is one of my leisure activities," adding, "I organized and created the image of the city I had been thinking about and how to improve it during the week after resigning from the ministerial post last week. I hope many citizens will empathize with it."

Meanwhile, former Minister Park chose the Korea Federation of SMEs as the venue for her Seoul mayoral candidacy announcement, saying, "The 21-minute compact city sample announced today is Yeouido, and it is also a symbolic place where I worked as Minister of SMEs and Startups," showing her attachment to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups.

In the upcoming Seoul mayoral primary, former Minister Park is expected to emphasize her 16 years of parliamentary experience and the administrative experience accumulated during her 1 year and 9 months as Minister of SMEs and Startups. Following her first solo schedule on the 25th, when she visited the ‘Smart Super’ opened during her ministerial tenure as part of digitalizing local markets to check the situation, she also visited the second Smart Super store located in the Korea Federation of SMEs immediately after her candidacy announcement. Based on this accumulated experience, she plans to envision Seoul as a world-leading city.

Regarding her determination to face the two-way race with ruling party candidate Assemblyman Woo Sang-ho, she smiled and said, "We were like older sister and younger brother," adding, "I hope we can embrace each other and run the primary with arms around each other's shoulders."