Park Jun-hee, Gwanak District Mayor, Resumes Operation of Gwanakcheong as First Pledge

Mayor Park Begins Operation of 'Gwanakcheong(聽)', a Resident Meeting Space, on the 3rd

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Gwanak-gu (Mayor Park Junhee), the representative communication brand and a space for meetings between the mayor and residents called ‘Gwanakcheong (聽)’, resumed operations on the 3rd.

Gwanak-gu (Mayor Park Junhee) established the first-ever cafe-style mayor’s office in the country, ‘Gwanakcheong (聽)’, with an area of 136.34㎡ on the first floor of the district office building in November 2018, the first year of the 7th local government administration.

‘Gwanakcheong (聽)’ is an open mayor’s office where any resident can comfortably meet the mayor, as well as a community room where neighbors gather and chat.

As the first pledge of the 7th local government administration, ‘Gwanakcheong (聽)’ operated until February but stopped in April due to the spread of COVID-19.

Mayor Park Junhee said, “Everyone should be able to easily meet the mayor they elected, but with the prolonged COVID-19 situation, unintended neglect of meetings with residents caused great regret. Although social distancing is still ongoing, I believe it is necessary to meet residents directly, listen to their stories, and communicate, so we decided to operate it in a limited way while strictly following quarantine rules.”

The district decided to resume limited operations under strict quarantine rules, reflecting the many requests from residents who want to meet the mayor directly and the mayor’s commitment to communication with residents.

‘Date with the Mayor’ at Gwanakcheong (聽) follows a one-on-one principle, limits group complaints to 1 to 3 representatives, and reduces the previous twice-weekly operation to once a week on Tuesdays from 2 to 5 p.m.

Meanwhile, since the launch of the 7th local government administration, Gwanak-gu, which has emphasized the value of communication both internally and externally, operates ‘Gwandong Gwanakcheong (Mobile Gwanakcheong)’, ‘Online Gwanakcheong’, and other platforms to actively support broad resident participation in district administration.

Complementing and expanding Gwanakcheong, ‘Gwandong Gwanakcheong’, which toured all 21 neighborhoods over four months from March to July last year, received great response from residents. It directly met over 2,200 residents and listened to 263 resident proposals closely related to daily life such as transportation, cleaning, and civil engineering.

In particular, ‘Online Gwanakcheong’, opened in July last year, is an online platform that allows residents to propose policies and discuss local issues 365 days a year without time and space constraints, steadily gaining popularity.

So far, there have been 123 policy proposals, of which 11 have been reflected and promoted in district policies after collecting opinions. Besides policy proposals, residents can participate in district administration through various methods such as deciding on resident participatory budgets, monitoring manifestos and pledges, and online resident autonomy council activities.

Mayor Park Junhee said, “Although social distancing and non-face-to-face activities are increasing, what is most important at times like this is endless communication with residents. Through Gwanakcheong and Online Gwanakcheong, we will listen carefully to even the smallest voices of residents and do our best to create a leading Gwanak-gu together with the residents.”

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