Gwangju City Selects 'Walkable Streets' as Civic Action Agenda at Citizens' Assembly

On the afternoon of the 21st, Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju Metropolitan City, attended the 2021 Gwangju Citizens' Assembly held at the City Hall Citizen Hall, delivered an encouragement speech, and performed a performance together with the attendees. Photo by Gwangju Metropolitan City

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 21st that the agenda selected for action next year through discussion and voting at the ‘2021 Gwangju Citizens' Assembly’ was ‘Walkable Streets’.

Since March, Gwangju has collected 144 proposals from citizens through the online democracy platform ‘BaroSotong Gwangju’. From these, the top 10 preliminary agendas were selected based on citizen support, and then narrowed down to 3 candidate agendas through a public opinion survey conducted by a polling agency.

The three candidate agendas presented at the Citizens' Assembly were ▲ Walkable Streets, Gwangju Together! ▲ ‘Safety for Children, Peace of Mind for Parents’ ? Let’s Create Safe Alleyways ▲ Revitalizing Alleyway Commercial Districts to Breathe Life into Gwangju’s Economy.

‘Walkable Streets’ was proposed by the Jisan 2-dong Residents’ Autonomy Committee. An Byeong-rak, chairperson of the Jisan 2-dong Residents’ Autonomy Committee and presenter, said, “There are narrow and dangerous sidewalks scattered throughout the village,” and added, “Citizens hope to use leftover spaces to plant flowers or create gardens, and the administration should establish walkable streets with eco-friendly paving blocks, road diets, or one-way streets.”

He also argued, “If walkable and beautiful streets are created throughout the area, the community will be restored through these paths, and alleyway commercial districts will be revitalized.”

This agenda was confirmed as a village agenda through the Jisan 2-dong Residents' Assembly in December last year and was proposed at this Citizens' Assembly.

To prevent the spread of COVID-19, only about 60 people attended the on-site discussion, while most citizen panelists participated through the online platform. The entire event was broadcast live in real-time via Gwangju’s official YouTube channel ‘BitTube’.

The selected agenda will be further detailed so that citizens can implement it, and the administration will establish detailed execution plans for projects that need to be promoted, linking them with the citizen participation budget.

Choi Young-tae, Chairperson of the City Citizens’ Rights Committee, said, “The Citizens' Assembly is a model of direct democracy unique to Gwangju, where citizens propose agendas and vote directly with their own hands,” and added, “We hope that the public and private sectors cooperate and citizens actively participate to create a happy Gwangju for all.”

Gwangju Mayor Lee Yong-seop, in his encouragement speech, stated, “Citizens have led many changes in Gwangju through participation in city administration,” and said, “We will continue to build a just and prosperous Gwangju together with citizens, who are strong partners in city governance.”

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