[This Person] Oh Seung-rok, Mayor of Nowon-gu, Why 96.5% of Residents Rate His COVID-19 Response Highly?

Commissioned a professional polling agency, surveyed 800 residents... 96.5% of residents responded "Nowon-gu Office is responding well to COVID-19"... 90.0% of residents positively evaluate Nowon-gu Mayor Oh Seung-rok's administration as "doing well"

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Since Oh Seung-rok took office as the mayor of Nowon-gu in the 7th local election, the achievements he has worked hard on over the past three years have drawn attention from residents.

Mayor Oh received nearly perfect high marks from residents for his response to COVID-19 prevention.

In a survey conducted to reflect residents' voices in district administration on the 3rd anniversary of the 7th local election in Nowon-gu, 96.5% of respondents evaluated that "Nowon-gu is responding well to COVID-19."

During last year's mask shortage crisis, Nowon-gu gained nationwide attention for its life-oriented administration by being the first in the country to provide two masks per person to all residents, addressing their urgent needs.

Additionally, proactive quarantine measures such as providing detailed text alerts on confirmed patients' movement routes, operating safe accommodations, organizing cloth mask and vaccine volunteer groups, and running drive-thru temporary screening clinics also seemed to receive strong support from residents.

In fact, Nowon-gu was awarded the Presidential Citation in the "2021 National Disaster Management Merit" hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. It was the only one among the 25 autonomous districts in Seoul to receive the Presidential Citation, demonstrating the effectiveness of Nowon-gu’s life-oriented administration.

This survey was conducted based on 19 questions across three sections: "General district administration" regarding living conditions in Nowon-gu, "District administration operation evaluation" assessing satisfaction by policy area, and "7th local election achievements and improvement points."

In the district administration operation evaluation, the "Danghyeoncheon Moonlight Walk and 탈 Festival" (75.6%) received the highest rating, and the "Bulamsan Healing Town Development" (60%) also received high marks. This confirms that the "small but certain happiness" (So-hwak-haeng), which was a core goal during the 7th local election period, has been well received by residents.

Other highly rated projects included "Relocation and development of vehicle depot and licensing examination center" (61.1%), "Installation of shade shelters at crosswalks and operation of Danghyeoncheon Healing Refrigerator" (46.4%), "Operation of Seoul Science Museum" (46.3%), and in transportation policy, "Groundbreaking of the Dongbuk Line underground light rail" (44.6%). As a result, the overall positive evaluation of district administration operation reached 89.6%.

Regarding living conditions in Nowon-gu, 98.1% of respondents answered that it is "a good place to live."

Opinions expressing "satisfaction" with living in Nowon-gu were 98.4%, and 96.4% of residents stated their intention to continue living in the district in the future.

The aspects of the living environment that residents were most satisfied with were "natural environment" (76.1%), "culture and leisure activities" (33.6%), and "safety environment" (28.9%).

This is analyzed as a positive evaluation of the creation of healing towns in each area such as Bulamsan, Suraksan, Yeongchuksan, and Choansan, as well as the improvement of convenience and accessibility through neighborhood stream environment redevelopment projects including Jungnangcheon, Danghyeoncheon, and Uicheon during the 7th local election period.

Also, 88.5% of Nowon-gu residents gave a positive evaluation that district administration has achieved results during the 7th local election period. The fields showing the most achievements were healing (leisure facilities) at 44.1%, welfare and health (13.4%), culture and sports (13.1%), and education and childcare (12.3%).

Regarding Mayor Oh Seung-rok’s performance in district administration, positive evaluations of "very well" and "well" accounted for an overwhelming 90.0%.

This survey also identified the areas Nowon-gu should focus on in the future. Residents suggested expanding "job support projects" (24.1%), increasing "reconstruction and redevelopment of old buildings" (18.1%), and expanding "parking spaces" (8.1%) as proposals for the future development of Nowon-gu.

When asked about the development direction of the Changdong vehicle depot, 68.5% of respondents chose "establishment of a bio-medical complex centered on Seoul National University Hospital," indicating high interest and expectations for the creation of a medical complex. In contrast, only 26.4% supported building a baseball dome stadium and a complex shopping mall.

Meanwhile, 87.6% of residents recognized the need for reconstruction of aging apartment complexes, and 73.6% identified "parking environment" as the most unsatisfactory aspect of living conditions, highlighting it as an urgent issue to be addressed.

The survey was conducted from June 23 to July 6 by the professional polling agency "Korea Social Opinion Research Institute" (confidence level 95%, sampling error ±3.46%p) through face-to-face interviews with 800 residents aged 19 and older.

Mayor Oh Seung-rok of Nowon-gu said, "Based on the results of this survey, we confirmed that residents strongly support grassroots administration based on 'small but certain happiness.' We will continue to create a Nowon where residents feel happy today and look forward to tomorrow through policies they can physically experience."

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