[Interview] Yudonggyun, Mayor of Mapo-gu, "Prioritizing Resident Safety and Leaping into a New Future"

Focusing on Improving Residents' Quality of Life through Expansion of Public Parking Lots and Community Sports Facilities... Supporting Self-Employed and Small Business Owners, Continuing Mapo-Style Youth Jobs to Heal the Worsening Livelihood Economy... Administrative Efforts Concentrated on Strengthening Social Safety Nets through Comprehensive Welfare and Robust Quarantine Systems

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] “In 2022, we will focus our administrative capabilities on strengthening the social safety net to heal the deteriorated livelihood economy and improve the quality of life for residents.”

Yoo Dong-gyun, Mayor of Mapo-gu, stated in a New Year interview with this publication that he will devote the year to revitalizing the local economy to embrace the livelihoods shattered by COVID-19 and accelerate the recovery of daily life.

The district identified expanding parking lots and community sports facilities as its top priorities this year. Resolving illegal parking issues and creating a residential environment where residents can easily engage in exercise in their daily lives are considered forms of community-centered administration that residents can tangibly feel in their everyday lives.

Accordingly, the district will continue constructing four public parking lots currently underway: Ahyeon 2 District (132 spaces), Yeonnam-dong (96 spaces), Ssangdungi Children's Park (25 spaces), and Saetteo Neighborhood Park (128 spaces). Once these four are completed, a total of 773 new public parking spaces will have been created, including the 392 spaces built during the 7th elected administration. Among these, the Yeonnam-dong public parking lot, a complex facility including 96 parking spaces and 29 units of ‘MH Mapo Housing,’ a public rental housing in Mapo, planned as a building with one underground and four above-ground floors, is drawing attention.

Starting in 2022, community sports facilities that simultaneously enhance residents’ health and quality of life will undergo changes. The ‘Resident Convenience Facility within Seoul Combined Thermal Power Plant,’ which will be Seoul’s first Han River view sports facility, broke ground in March aiming for completion in July 2023. The Mapo-gu Sports Center will expand from 12 to 20 bowling lanes and add six parking spaces and rest areas from March to November. The project to build an international standard 50m swimming pool with eight lanes and a comprehensive gymnasium at Saetteo Neighborhood Park, the first of its kind in a Seoul autonomous district, will also continue.

Additionally, to stabilize the management of small business owners affected by COVID-19, the district will continue providing loans from the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Fund and support small businesses’ online market entry amid the spread of non-face-to-face consumption culture. The ‘Mapo-gu Live Commerce,’ which received great response last year as a new sales channel for small business owners and self-employed individuals, will expand this year to platforms such as Naver Shopping Live, Kakao, and Coupang. Through this, the district plans to boost sales and strengthen the self-sustainability of local small business owners and self-employed individuals weakened by COVID-19.

In particular, efforts will be intensified to strengthen youth employment through the ‘Mapo-style Youth Job Project.’ The Mapo-style Youth Job Project, which has been ongoing since 2019, embodies Mayor Yoo’s philosophy that “rather than providing cash support like ‘giving fish,’ it should be about ‘teaching how to catch fish’ by connecting youth to jobs where they can realize their dreams.”

This year, approximately KRW 1.22 billion (including city funds) will be invested to provide job training by field, task discovery and execution, practical experience, employment and start-up linkage, basic workplace and soft skills education, and special lectures on employment and entrepreneurship for 50 young people aspiring to work in IT, broadcasting, and design fields.

Reflecting the demographic characteristic of a high youth population compared to nationwide and Seoul averages, the operation of the metropolitan job caf? ‘Mapo Youth Naru,’ a youth employment and start-up support institution, will be revitalized. In the first half of the year, an additional main office will open using a donated facility in Hapjeong-dong. The main office will expand employment and start-up support programs (special lectures, capacity building, counseling, consulting, etc.), while the annex (existing Sangsu-dong facility) will operate as office and start-up specialized spaces for young entrepreneurs. The strategy is to develop ‘Mapo Youth Naru’ as a youth job hub in Mapo. The total cost for additional facility construction, operation, and project expenses is KRW 1.436 billion.

Furthermore, following last year’s designation of the ‘Hongdae Cultural and Arts Tourism Special Zone,’ the district will actively invest in cultural tourism projects that have entered the main track, bringing vitality to the area and accelerating the creation of future growth engines.

Specialized projects such as the ‘365 Festival Street in Hongdae’ and developing tourism courses linked to surrounding areas will be actively promoted. The district is also preparing for the pilot operation of the ‘Mapo City Tour,’ where tourists can ride a tour bus and visit major tourist attractions in Mapo with a tour guide.

Moreover, starting with the opening of a VR exhibition hall for tourist attractions at the end of last year, the district will continue producing non-face-to-face tourism content by creating AR content for the World Cup Bridge and developing a dedicated application this year.

In addition, the district plans to practice its administrative philosophy of ‘administration is welfare’ through remodeling for the establishment of a women’s center, operating subsidies for the Mapo Welfare Foundation, supporting senior welfare facilities, expanding and reinforcing daycare centers, and supporting youth training facilities.

Mayor Yoo emphasized, “After COVID-19, gaps in care have become apparent, and welfare blind spots that are difficult to protect under the existing system have increased. We will establish a solid cooperative network linked with private resources and strengthen community care functions to build a dense welfare safety net that does not collapse even in ongoing disaster situations.”

Alongside this, the ‘Care Safe Housing,’ part of the representative project ‘MH Mapo Housing’ of the 7th elected administration, will be fully operational. The district plans to provide rental housing and temporary residences while offering customized care services based on residential needs through the ‘Mapo-style Care Safe Housing,’ creating a foundation where those in need of care can live together in the community rather than in hospitals or facilities.

Mayor Yoo also stressed the importance of creating an eco-friendly city, saying, “We must continue to transform Mapo into a better place to live by actively promoting low-carbon, eco-friendly policies that connect the future and present of our region, including the 5 million tree planting project steadily pursued during the 7th elected administration.”

The district plans to continue the ‘5 million tree planting’ project with a goal of planting approximately 410,000 trees, based on greening projects that activate resident participation such as commemorative tree planting and community gardens in the With-COVID era, as well as public-private cooperation projects linked with corporate social contribution activities. It also plans to lead in providing eco-friendly green welfare by installing fine dust adsorption filters on village bus vehicles operating in high fine dust areas and on roadside railings in areas with heavy pedestrian traffic.

Mayor Yoo Dong-gyun said, “We will firmly establish quarantine systems and safety management systems to confront the still ongoing COVID-19 and will not neglect even a moment in protecting the lives and safety of residents.”