Dongdaemun-gu Officials Conduct Thorough Spring Environmental Patrol with Residents

[Seoul District News] Dongdaemun-gu Establishes 2022 Comprehensive Environmental Patrol Plan with Special Spring Patrols, Frequent Patrols, Seasonal Patrols, and Resident Participation for Proactive Issue Response... Gangseo-gu Conducts 'School Zone Illegal Advertisement Cleanup' Until the 31st... Gangbuk-gu Promotes Flood and Windstorm Insurance with Up to 92% Premium Support... Gwangjin-gu Recruits Local Art Instructors for Training Until April 8, Matching Instructors with Demand Organizations to Provide Customized Cultural Arts Education for Residents

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] “Although environmental patrols and maintenance are regularly conducted as scheduled, gaps keep appearing. When cleaning roadsides, if a bicycle rack is found, the surrounding area is often dirty, but we leave it to the department responsible for the bicycle racks and move on, which creates gaps and looks very unpleasant,” raised Dongdaemun District Mayor Yoo Deok-yeol during the second expanded executive meeting in March.

In response to the question, “Is there no other way to improve this?” executives at grade 5 and above immediately created a group chat to actively communicate and find solutions. The executives personally visit the areas, share photos of maintenance sites in the chat room, and the relevant department heads promptly carry out environmental maintenance after confirming the details, resulting in quick and clean improvements throughout the district.

Dongdaemun District (Mayor Yoo Deok-yeol) has established a more detailed comprehensive environmental patrol plan for 2022 and conducted special patrols to provide residents with a more pleasant living environment.

The goal is to promptly resolve residents’ inconveniences throughout the area, create a pleasant and safe urban environment, increase resident satisfaction, and build a better community.

The district’s comprehensive plan is based on various forms of environmental patrols, including ▲‘Frequent Patrols’ where a standing patrol team inspects the cleanliness of main roads, side streets, and alleys, the inconvenience of public facilities, factors harming urban aesthetics, and other resident complaints daily on foot and by vehicle; ▲‘Seasonal Comprehensive Measures and Safety Inspections’ focusing on construction site safety and risk factors in May and flood and typhoon preparedness in June; and ▲‘Resident-Participatory Environmental Patrols’ where residents from 14 neighborhoods, autonomous crime prevention groups, and other functional organizations actively address practical inconveniences felt by residents.

Especially this month, district executives (department heads and section chiefs) are personally inspecting and resolving inconveniences related to roads, traffic, parks and green spaces, and illegal dumping throughout Dongdaemun District.

Mayor Yoo Deok-yeol said, “Through meticulous inspections across Dongdaemun District, we aim to proactively respond to residents’ inconveniences and prevent problems from occurring. We will continue to implement various forms of patrols to provide field administrative services that satisfy residents.”

Gangseo District, Seoul (Mayor Noh Hyun-song) has launched efforts to create a pleasant and safe school commute environment.

The district announced that it will conduct a comprehensive cleanup of illegal and harmful advertisements around kindergartens and elementary, middle, and high schools in the area by the 31st.

The initiative aims to create an environment where students can commute safely and comfortably during the school opening season.

To carry out effective cleanup activities, the district formed an inspection team of 30 members, including staff from the responsible department and management personnel from 20 neighborhoods.

The cleanup targets include advertisements, signs, and banners that are damaged or aged and pose a risk of falling, as well as obscene, decadent, or provocative content, or those that obstruct pedestrian traffic.

The focus areas for cleanup are school commute routes with heavy student traffic, including child protection zones within 300 meters of main entrances and educational environment protection zones within 200 meters of boundaries.

For old or hazardous fixed advertisements along school routes, the district encourages advertisers to voluntarily remove them, and if not complied with, imposes enforcement fines. For signs with a high risk of falling, immediate maintenance will be carried out in consultation with the advertisers.

Illegal mobile advertisements harmful to youth and those obstructing passage will be removed immediately upon detection on site.

In particular, the district plans to intensively crack down not only on advertisers but also distributors of obscene, decadent, and provocative illegal and harmful advertisements.

A district official said, “We will promptly clean up various harmful advertisements around schools during the school opening season. We will continue to work hard to create a safe and pleasant commute for students free from harmful environments through ongoing illegal advertisement cleanup.”

Last year, the district removed a total of 1,749 advertisements through a comprehensive cleanup of illegal and harmful advertisements around schools.

Gangbuk District (Mayor Park Kyum-soo) is implementing the ‘Flood and Typhoon Insurance Enrollment Project’ to support residents with insurance premiums in preparation for natural disasters such as typhoons and floods.

‘Flood and Typhoon Insurance’ is a policy insurance that compensates for damages caused by disasters such as typhoons, floods, strong winds, storms, tidal waves, heavy snow, and earthquakes, helping to alleviate residents’ financial burdens in the event of unexpected accidents as part of disaster management.

The district first selects key targets for insurance enrollment, including ▲vulnerable underground household residents ▲residents or owners in flood and typhoon-prone areas ▲facility owners or tenants who have received disaster relief funds due to past natural disaster damages ▲and last year’s flood and typhoon insurance subscribers.

It plans to support up to 92% of the insurance premiums. General residents can receive 70-92% support, basic livelihood security recipients and near-poverty groups 92%, and small business owners up to 80%.

The insured facilities include houses, greenhouses, commercial buildings, and factories.

There are four types of products from Type I to IV, including fixed compensation, actual loss proportional compensation, and group enrollment, so applicants can choose the product that suits them.

Additionally, various special contracts such as household flood damage movable property riders and non-coverage riders for household flood damage are also available to meet diverse insurance needs.

Specific insurance premiums are calculated after consultation with the insurance company, and detailed compensation amounts vary depending on building area and circumstances.

Those wishing to enroll can inquire at the Gangbuk District Safety and Water Management Division or the nearest community service center.

Mayor Park Kyum-soo said, “Disasters caused by climate change are unpredictable. Vulnerable residents frequently affected by floods and typhoons should take advantage of the insurance supported by the district.” He added, “We will also establish various disaster safety systems so residents can live with peace of mind.”

Gwangjin District (Mayor Kim Sun-gap) and Gwangjin Cultural Center (Director Yang Hoe-jong) are promoting the ‘2022 Regional Culture and Arts Professional Workforce Development Project.’

This project provides capacity-building education and continuous support for local cultural and arts professionals and offers tailored programs for institutions through a matching system between institutions and instructors.

Gwangjin Cultural Center is recruiting art instructors to participate in the professional workforce development education from March 21 to April 8. About 30 instructors will be selected. Interested cultural and arts instructors and local cultural artists can download the application form from the Gwangjin Cultural Center website, fill it out, and submit it via email.

Participants will receive capacity-building education consisting of eight sessions by mid-May, covering cultural and arts content linked to local culture and teaching and learning methods.

After completing the education, 20 demand institutions such as facilities for infants, youth, disabled, and elderly will be recruited, and a 1:1 matching between the institutions and art instructors will be conducted to begin on-site arts education. The education will be held 12 to 15 times until October.

Additionally, workshops involving institution managers and instructors will be held in July and September to provide a communication platform for the development of local cultural and arts education.

Started as a mayor’s pledge project in 2019, this project is now in its fourth year and has received positive feedback from both local artists and demand institutions.

One artist who participated last year said, “It was an opportunity for instructors whose activities were greatly reduced due to COVID-19 to develop further.”

One institution that benefited from the education said, “We were very satisfied to be able to conduct various arts education programs that were difficult to run independently with professional art instructors.”

For more details about this project, please refer to the Gwangjin Cultural Center website or contact the Gwangjin Cultural Center Secretariat.

Mayor Kim Sun-gap said, “We hope for much interest and participation in this project, which supports continuous cultural and arts activities of local artists and provides tailored cultural and arts education opportunities to residents.”

Director Yang Hoe-jong said, “We will do our best to promote this as a representative regional cultural project of Gwangjin District, enhancing its value together with cultural artists and demand institutions.”

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