Cho Ho-kwon, Yeongdeungpo-gu Mayor, 'Meeting with Apartment Residents' Results?

Open Dialogue Meetings Held at 17 Apartment Complexes from August to October
Listening to Various Voices for Community Development Including Apartment Requests, Traffic, Green Spaces, Safety, and Education
80% of Requests Resolved or Scheduled for Next Year... Resident Communication as the Foundation for District Progress and Change

Yeongdeungpo-gu (District Mayor Choi Ho-kwon) announced that it has successfully concluded the ‘Open Meeting with Residents of Apartment Complexes,’ where officials directly visited apartment complexes to communicate with residents, and is bringing about tangible changes that residents can feel by promptly implementing the suggestions raised.

From August to October, over a period of three months, the district held the ‘Open Meeting with Residents of Apartment Complexes’ with residents from 17 apartment complexes in the area. The purpose was to discuss ways to improve the residential environment and to operate district administration based on these discussions. Since apartment complexes account for 87% of all housing in Yeongdeungpo-gu, the district aims to listen carefully to the difficulties faced by each complex and actively resolve them.

The meetings were held in a comfortable and open atmosphere with about 30 residents attending. Residents engaged in lively discussions about issues specific to their complexes, such as electric vehicle fires, smoking complaints, improvements to elementary school routes, and maintenance of parks and street trees. In addition to suggestions related to apartment complexes, there were vibrant voices and proposals covering safety, environment, education, and culture for community development, including the installation of bus stops, expansion of Hwangtotgil (red clay paths), and self-defense special lectures.

In particular, the ‘Support for Relocation of Electric Vehicle Charging Facilities to Ground Level and Installation Costs,’ which the district has been implementing since last month, originated from opinions raised at the ‘Open Meeting with Residents of Apartment Complexes.’ This support aims to alleviate residents’ concerns and anxieties about electric vehicle fires by assisting with relocating charging facilities to ground level and installing thermal imaging CCTV in underground parking lots to create a safer residential environment.

In this way, the district did not stop at planning but immediately implemented feasible measures, bringing about changes that residents can directly experience.

During the total of 17 meetings, District Mayor Choi Ho-kwon listened carefully to each resident’s opinion and took notes. Rather than giving simple responses to suggestions, he presented concrete plans, personally demonstrating ‘empathetic communication administration.’

Choi Ho-gwon, Yeongdeungpo-gu Mayor, Attended a Meeting with Residents of Apartment Complex in Singil-dong in October

The district forwarded all suggestions from the meetings without omission to the relevant departments, whose staff promptly responded by visiting the sites and actively working to resolve the issues. As a result, out of 271 suggestions, as many as 80% have already been resolved or are scheduled for implementation with next year’s budget.

Choi Ho-kwon, Mayor of Yeongdeungpo-gu, said, “This meeting was an opportunity to once again realize the importance of administration created together with residents and that residents’ opinions are the foundation for the development of district administration.” He added, “We will continue to create a community that walks together with residents through communication and empathetic administration, realizing true local autonomy.”