[Reporter’s Notebook] A City Without Plans, Gwangju Dong-gu

"When looking at various ordinances in Dong-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City, many of them are actually not functioning."

Recently, I heard this while having a conversation over tea with a district council member.

The concern was that there are too many ordinances that are grandly declared with 'We will do this,' but in reality, there is no execution?essentially dead ordinances.

He also emphasized the great need to form a special committee to conduct a comprehensive survey of all ordinances.

Upon reviewing the ordinances, many regulations exist only on paper.

For example, the 'Ordinance on Restricting the Use of Disposable Products in Public Institutions of Dong-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City' is like that.

According to Article 5, the district mayor is obligated to establish a plan every three years to promote restrictions on disposable product use suited to local conditions.

However, since the ordinance was enacted in 2019, no such plan has ever been prepared.

Article 10 is the same. The clause stating 'The district mayor shall investigate the actual status of disposable product use and provision' also has no substance.

No matter how much I asked the responsible department, I could not find any data on the usage details of disposable products.

Due to the lack of basic data, there can be no proper promotion plan based on it.

The midlife redesign support plan based on the 'Ordinance on Supporting Midlife Redesign' is also missing.

There is no comprehensive plan covering midlife-related education support projects, employment training and job support projects, health promotion support projects, leisure and cultural activity support projects.

This seems to reflect a lack of firm will to guarantee stable retirement life for residents.

The youth startup support plan under the Dong-gu Youth Startup Support Ordinance is also completely unknown.

Plans that should include youth startup status surveys, management support, marketing support, etc., could not be found despite inquiries to several people.

The explanation from the responsible department official, "I don't really know why the plan was not made," left the questioner feeling embarrassed.

The 'Basic Ordinance on Low Carbon Green Growth,' enacted in 2017, calls for the Green Growth Committee to deliberate on major policies, but it has yet to be formed and remains in the preparation stage.

The 'Risk Assessment Team,' organized based on the 'Ordinance on the Formation and Operation of the Earthquake Damage Facility Risk Assessment Team,' was only created but has no record of holding meetings. It is truly a dormant organization.

It is estimated that there are many more such 'nominal ordinances' upon further investigation. It would not be an exaggeration to describe this as negligence, dereliction of duty, or lack of discipline.

In advanced countries, police lines are law. In the U.S. and others, police impose sanctions without mercy if protesters cross the police line.

Dong-gu repeatedly crosses the 'line' by failing to fulfill obligations set by law but seems to face no sanctions whatsoever.

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