[Interview] Oh Seung-rok, Mayor of Nowon-gu: "I Will Go Anywhere in the World to Create a City Where Residents Are Happy"

Since Mayor Oh's Inauguration, Benchmarking Visits Continued for 1 Year and 6 Months to 35 Domestic Cities and 12 Foreign Countries...Local Residents Show Meaningful Perception of Change

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] Since taking office as the mayor of Nowon District in the 7th local government, Oh Seung-rok has driven a total of 41,000 km on domestic roads in just one year and six months. This distance is equivalent to traveling back and forth between Seoul and Busan 51 times. In particular, he has visited 35 domestic localities and 12 foreign countries to collect best practices. There were also 1-night, 2-day trips taken on weekends.

Of course, meeting local residents without breaks on Saturdays and Sundays is not included in this record.

In an interview with Asia Economy, Mayor Oh said, “I feel very good when I hear residents say that they feel everyday happiness little by little.”

Mayor Oh’s passion and ideas are manifesting as changes in the region. He said, “Located in the northeastern part of Seoul, Nowon District has the highest concentration of apartments in the country. I wondered what could be done here, but since I took office, I have been happy to hear residents say that Nowon is dynamically changing.”

The biggest change is the improvement of conditions for everyday happiness that residents can feel firsthand. The first priority was to create a life of rest for residents. He believes that only then can people gain energy and develop love for their neighborhood. Mayor Oh said, “Nowon District has excellent natural environments. Suraksan, Bulamsan, Yeongchuksan, and Choansan mountains surround the area, and Jungnangcheon and Danghyeoncheon streams flow through the city center. The ‘green coverage rate’ is the highest in Seoul, so we are creating healing spaces by district for many residents to use. Representative examples include the healing town around the Bulamsan Butterfly Garden in Junggye-dong, Seoul’s first nighttime light garden created near the Gyeongchun Line Railroad Park in Gongneung-dong, and the barrier-free forest trail on Yeongchuksan in Wolgye-dong.”

After initially conceiving the nighttime light garden at the Gyeongchun Line Railroad Park, Mayor Oh visited the Garden of Morning Calm in Gapyeong several times to gather ideas and personally observed the ‘Sonata of Light’ light show at Oak Valley in Wonju, Gangwon Province. Thanks to this, the light garden, which opened on December 21 last year, has become a popular nighttime attraction in Seoul with visitors coming continuously.

Creating Suraksan Recreation Forest, which will be the first of its kind in Seoul, is similar. He personally visited the Fjord Treehouse in Oslo, Norway. The treehouse, which adults dreamed of as children watching the adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer on TV cartoons, is becoming a reality, and it will soon become a place of endless imagination for children.

In addition, addressing residents’ thirst for culture and arts cannot be overlooked. To further develop the ‘Danghyeoncheon Lantern Festival’ held every April, he visited the Namgang Yudeung Festival in Jinju, Gyeongnam. To create the Children’s Imagination Land, a physical activity facility for children and youth in Hagye-dong, he benchmarked Finland’s Activity Park, Dongdaemun’s DdikiDdiki (DDT), Hanam Starfield’s ‘Sports Monster,’ and Wanju’s ‘Noltopia’ in Jeonbuk.

Especially notable is the change in status of Nowon’s representative festival, the ‘Nowon Mask Festival,’ which has continued for seven years since 2013. Since last year, the festival has shifted from the traditional street parade on Dongil-ro to a competition format, transforming the festival into a true ‘festival.’

Separating professional performance teams and club teams has been evaluated as raising both the fun and the level of the festival. Mayor Oh said, “I have visited mask festivals both domestically and abroad. Watching the Venice Mask Festival in Italy, I saw how the audience and participants mingle together. Observing the Bacolod Festival in the Philippines and the Wonju Dancing Carnival, I added dynamism to the Nowon Mask Festival. Thanks to this, last autumn’s mask festival was a lively event that maintained excitement until the very last day.”

He also does not neglect nurturing the future of the region. Nowon District has the last large-scale development site remaining in Seoul: the 264,000㎡ site of the subway Line 4 vehicle depot and driver’s license test center, and the development site around Kwangwoon University Station in Wolgye-dong.

To envision this area as a self-sufficient city full of jobs, he visited Saitama in Japan and Tsutaya in Roppongi, Tokyo.

Saitama was visited in relation to the development of the relocated vehicle depot site. The discontinued railway was redeveloped into a ‘new downtown’ with a 37,000-seat ‘Super Arena’ concert hall, a joint government building housing 17 agencies, the Red Cross, and a children’s hospital, creating a multi-purpose complex. This provided ample learning for creating a ‘biomedical cluster’ including Seoul National University Hospital on the relocated vehicle depot and driver’s license test center site.

Tokyo Roppongi Tsutaya is Japan’s first bookstore in the style of a book caf?. It is a cultural complex where people can leisurely read books, listen to music, watch movies, and play games. This was referenced to create a new cultural space on the 3,000-pyeong public land in the Kwangwoon University Station development area in Wolgye-dong.

Thanks to these efforts, residents’ evaluations of the district are positive. Last year, the Korea Standards Association announced the results of an administrative service evaluation of 25 autonomous districts over the past year of the 7th local government, with Nowon District ranking second in Seoul. The evaluation method involved selecting 200 people who had received various services in the area at least once in the past six months and conducting direct face-to-face interviews, so the reliability is high.

The ‘24-hour Senior Nighttime Heat Relief Shelter’ implemented nationwide for the first time in 2018 by Mayor Oh gained explosive popularity and was spread nationwide by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety last year.

Also, the ‘i-Hug Center,’ which cares for lower-grade elementary school children of dual-income families until their parents return from work, has been adopted as a policy by the central government and Seoul Metropolitan Government and is currently in operation.

Nowon District Mayor Oh Seung-rok said, “My usual belief is that ‘change and innovation come from urgency.’ I am the type who feels satisfied only after visiting the site and trying things myself rather than just listening to others.” He added, “I will go anywhere to create a city where residents are happy.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.