'Jo Eun-hee Style Policies' Sold Like Hotcakes in Seoul Mayoral Election

Expectations for Seoul City's Initiatives Including Joeunhee's 'Shared Childcare Centers, Support for Single-Person Households, and Undergrounding of Gyeongbu Expressway'

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] The policies announced by Seocho District Mayor Jo Eun-hee during her preliminary campaign for Seoul mayor?such as ‘Shared Daycare Centers,’ ‘Single-Person Household Policies,’ and the ‘Undergrounding of the Gyeongbu Expressway’?have been steadily benchmarked by major candidates like Oh Se-hoon (People Power Party) and Park Young-sun (Democratic Party), selling like hotcakes.

Earlier, in the People Power Party’s preliminary election for the Seoul mayoral by-election on April 7, Mayor Jo emphasized policy content, earning praise for leading a policy-focused election rather than a political dispute. Ultimately, she received 16.47% of the vote, surpassing former lawmakers and being recognized as the ‘hidden winner’ and a ‘policy expert’ of the primary.

In particular, Mayor Jo attracted significant attention by specifically announcing 42 ‘Jo Eun-hee-style policies’ through Facebook and other platforms. Candidate Oh praised them during policy debates as the ‘pinnacle of citizen-centered administration.’

On the 22nd, Candidate Oh held a meeting at a daycare center in Seocho-dong and announced his commitment to actively promote the pledge to expand ‘Shared Daycare Centers.’ The ‘Seocho-type Shared Daycare Center’ policy groups 3 to 7 different types of childcare facilities?public daycare centers, private daycare centers, and home childcare facilities?by district. This policy has been well-received for drastically reducing children’s waiting lists without expanding daycare centers or securing additional budgets.

Candidate Oh also announced plans to establish a ‘Special Task Force for Single-Person Household Safety’ directly under the mayor’s office. This reflects the rapidly increasing proportion of single-person households and is an expanded development of the Single-Person Household Support Center, which Seocho District first opened nationwide in 2019.

Furthermore, Candidate Oh revealed plans to promote ‘Safe Housing’ through single-person household and one-room housing management services, benchmarking the ‘Firefly Center,’ a general housing management office first started in Seocho District in 2015.

Additionally, Candidate Oh is promoting the ‘Creation of the Fourth Downtown in the Northeast Area,’ which Mayor Jo proposed as a vision for Seoul, as one of his main urban planning policies. Currently, Seoul is composed of three core downtown areas (Downtown/Yeongdeungpo-Yeouido/Gangnam) under the ‘2030 Seoul Plan,’ but the creation of a fourth downtown is expected to bring development to the northeastern area (Nowon, Dobong, Jungnang), which has felt neglected in terms of industrial and cultural facilities.

The pledge to underground the Gyeongbu Expressway between Hannam IC and Yangjae IC has also emerged as a major policy issue in this by-election. Democratic Party Seoul mayoral candidate Park Young-sun announced the undergrounding of the Gyeongbu Expressway as a key pledge in her Gangnam area urban plan. This is a flagship project that Mayor Jo has emphasized and pursued for seven years. With Candidate Park taking over this project, the long-stalled ‘Gyeongbu Expressway undergrounding’ initiative is reignited.

The undergrounding of the Gyeongbu Expressway is expected to alleviate severe traffic congestion and contribute to securing insufficient green and residential spaces.

Meanwhile, People Power Party lawmaker Park Soo-young (Busan Nam-gu Gap) also revealed on Facebook on the 20th that “discussions were held with university student honorary aides regarding Candidate Jo Eun-hee’s pledges,” indicating active analysis of Jo Eun-hee-style policies.

On the other hand, Mayor Jo stated at the end of January, amid various plagiarism controversies over pledges, “If it adds value to citizens’ lives, I will not claim intellectual property rights over ‘Jo Eun-hee-style policies,’” and added, “I hope all candidates can compete with policies that add value to citizens’ lives.”

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