[Interview] Kim Su-young, Yangcheon District Mayor, "Communicating with Residents through the Installation of a Digital Media Center"

A New Communication Platform Bridging Online and Offline: 'Digital Media Center' Enables Faster, Easier Access to On-Site Voices... Easing Reconstruction Regulations Benefits Housing Supply Activation; Residents of Apartments Over 30 Years Old Report Inconveniences to Party's Real Estate Special Committee

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] “We have established the Yangcheon Digital Media Center on the 3rd floor of the district office to ensure uninterrupted communication in any situation, allowing us to hear the voices from the field faster and more easily. Through communication that transcends online and offline, mutual trust will become even stronger.”

Kim Su-young, Mayor of Yangcheon District, said this in a recent interview, introducing the Yangcheon Digital Media Center on the occasion of the 28th Yangcheon Residents' Day.

Every year on Residents' Day, Yangcheon District has held a commemorative ceremony with about 1,000 residents, but this year, only a minimal number of people attended the media hall in person, while a real-time live broadcast connected 18 neighborhoods online. Especially, residents who participated online enjoyed the excitement of meeting neighbors after a long time. Mayor Kim said, “Due to COVID-19, people's living spaces have moved online. Even elderly people who used to shop only offline or visit banks in person for financial services installed apps for the first time during the pandemic and shopped at online stores.”

The Yangcheon Digital Media Center is divided into two spaces: a media hall and a digital studio. The media hall is equipped with a large LED screen at the front of the stage to conduct various meetings and events both offline and live online. The digital studio is equipped with the latest broadcasting equipment, lighting, sound, and a chroma key screen, providing an environment for producing diverse videos.

Going forward, it is expected that residents will be able to access information more easily through fast and effective policy promotion and entertaining videos tailored to the audience’s perspective. New programs reflecting the latest trends, such as policy briefings and podcasts using the studio, will be newly scheduled.

At the same time, Mayor Kim expressed a strong stance on the reconstruction of Mokdong Apartments. The 14 complexes of Mokdong Apartments consist of 26,000 households, and if reconstruction takes place, it will be possible to supply about 50,000 housing units, twice the current number. Since the government is promoting market stabilization through expanded housing supply, the easing of reconstruction regulations is approached as part of the supply policy.

To this end, he proposed easing the safety inspection standards. The current safety inspection standards, revised in 2018, are determined by weighting structural stability, building finishing and equipment aging, residential environment, and cost analysis, with structural stability accounting for 50%. Even if the residential environment is inconvenient, reconstruction cannot proceed if the structural stability criteria are not met. Mayor Kim explained, “I proposed to the Democratic Party’s real estate special committee to adjust the structural stability weight to about 30-40%, giving more weight to facility aging and residential environment. Easing reconstruction regulations has more benefits than drawbacks in terms of improving residents’ living environment and revitalizing housing supply.” He explained the background of the emergency meeting held on May 17 between the Democratic Party’s real estate special committee and the mayors of seven districts with dense reconstruction apartment areas.

In addition to easing safety inspection standards, various measures for stabilizing the housing market have been continuously devised. “Expanding the scope of high-density development around subway stations proposed in the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s 3080+ metropolitan housing supply plan (2·4 measures) can also be a way to activate housing supply,” he added, emphasizing that the legislation of related laws to promote this should be expedited. Mayor Kim Su-young stressed participation in vaccination, saying, “Everyone probably has a post-pandemic bucket list starting with ‘When COVID ends...’. I hope everyone remembers that only by each person opening their small immunity umbrella can we secure the community umbrella, that is, herd immunity. I sincerely ask for your cooperation in opening umbrellas one by one.”

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