Nowon-gu Mayor Oh Seung-rok: "We Will Create a Healing City That Adds Rest to Nature"

Oh District Mayor stated in the 2021 New Year's address, "First, we will create Nowon as a healing city that adds rest to nature," adding, "In the post-COVID era, rest with nature is emerging as a new trend. Utilizing the blessed natural environment, we will leap forward as the best healing city where leisure activities and cultural life can be enjoyed within daily living areas."

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Oh Seung-rok, Mayor of Nowon District, said, "This year marks the third year of the 7th elected term. While last year was a year to firmly establish the pillars of Nowon, thanks to the generous support and encouragement from the residents, this year we will make it a year to complete ‘Nowon, a healing city within nature and culture.’"

In his 2021 New Year's address, Mayor Oh stated, "First, we will create Nowon as a healing city that adds rest to nature."

In the post-COVID era, rest in harmony with nature is emerging as a new trend. Utilizing the blessed natural environment, we will leap forward as the best healing city where leisure activities and cultural life can be enjoyed within daily living areas.

First, we will operate healing spaces by region with substance and steadily proceed with the opening of facilities under construction. At Bulamsan Healing Town, the Garden Support Center and an elevator observatory designed for the physically vulnerable will open early this year, enhancing the completeness of the Healing Town.

At Hwarangdae Station Railroad Park, with the park development plan including a cultural park confirmed last year, the foundation for full-scale project promotion has been established. Starting this year, we will sequentially open a tourist-themed park equipped with a train caf?, time museum, and miniature exhibition hall, elevating it as a landmark attracting visitors from all over Seoul.

At Suraksan Healing Town, we will further expand rest spaces by creating Seoul’s first natural recreation forest with treehouses and circular walking trails.

Additionally, we will continuously promote regeneration projects for neighborhood parks and children’s parks, and revitalize local streams such as Mukdongcheon and Jungnangcheon by improving facilities and walking trails and planting flowering plants, transforming them into ecological streams with places to rest.

Second, we will create Nowon as a cultural city with pauses in life.

In an era of unpredictable anxiety, art provides fullness and emotional stability to human life. By creating sensory spaces where nature and culture coexist and expanding content with stories, we will offer new vitality to the weary daily lives of residents.

First, to enable residents to enjoy high-quality cultural life even in their neighborhoods, we will hold world masterpiece exhibitions at the Buk Seoul Museum of Art and continuously host quality planned exhibitions and performances at the Nowon Culture and Arts Center.

We will also elevate the prestige of our representative cultural festivals such as the Tal Festival, Taegangneung Cultural Festival, and Moonlight Walk. In line with the post-COVID era, we will expand the Gyeongchun Line Forest Road Street Arts Festival to local landmarks like the Butterfly Garden and Danghyeoncheon, and provide moments of rest and healing through customized programs such as busking performances and the Nowon Drive-in Theater.

Furthermore, we will create diverse cultural and artistic spaces that encompass all generations.

First, the newly reopened Residents’ Hall, modernized last year, will showcase professional performances at the level of a cultural and arts center.

The first children-only theater in northeastern Seoul will be operated as a space that gives children dreams and hope.

We will also promote the construction of a cultural complex facility equipped with a library, performance hall, and multipurpose gymnasium on public land in the Gwangwoon University station area development site.

We will steadily advance the construction of the Junggye Cultural Health Center, equipped with a living culture center and health living support center on the Nowon Culture and Arts Center site, establishing a foundation for diverse cultural lives.

Moreover, balanced sports facility construction by region for healthy leisure activities of residents is progressing smoothly.

The Seoul Eoullim Sports Center on the site of Suraksan Sports Town in Sanggye 5-dong and the Suraksan Station transfer parking lot is accelerating preliminary procedures aiming for groundbreaking next year, and the construction of the second student gymnasium at Madeul Stadium to meet the sports and cultural needs of students in the northern district is progressing smoothly in cooperation with the education office.

Also, the Sanggye Sports Center in the Sanggye Redevelopment Promotion District 6 and the Gongneung Sports Center on the site of the Taereung Hyundai reconstruction in Gongneung-dong are preparing for groundbreaking next year, and the aging Nowon Residents’ Sports Center in Junggye-dong is being rebuilt to ensure user safety and convenience.

Third, we will create a warm and healthy welfare city with sharing.

Everyone has the right to live happily and healthily. Reflecting changes such as low birthrate, aging population, and increase in single-person households, we will carefully look after vulnerable groups in welfare blind spots and build a dense welfare safety net from birth to old age. First, we will strive to create an elderly-friendly city to improve the quality of life for seniors.

As the first step, in March last year, we joined the WHO’s Global Network for Age-friendly Cities and Communities as the 14th city in Korea. Through the Senior Happiness Corporation and Senior Job Center launching this year, we will create stable and productive jobs for seniors and vulnerable groups.

We will also expand leisure facilities by region to meet the diverse leisure needs of seniors. We will do our best to ensure the smooth establishment of the second senior welfare center in Sanggye Administrative Complex Town, senior welfare facilities in Sanggye 3 and 4-dong within the Sanggye 2 District Redevelopment Promotion District, Hagye Eoullim Center, Senior Sports Center in Junggye On Village Center, and the Youth Caf? in Sanggye 2-dong cultural welfare facilities.

Additionally, we will expand regional health centers such as Madeul Health Branch and Junggye Branch to reduce health disparities between regions and improve facility accessibility.

We will also promote mobile health buses, AI and IoT-based senior mobile healthcare projects suitable for the COVID era, firmly establishing Nowon as a true healthy city for the 100-year lifespan era.

To support economic independence for the disabled, the Disabled Group Activity Support Center and Disabled Job Support Center will soon open, and we will strengthen care for the disabled through emergency care projects and missing person prevention support projects.

Furthermore, to respond to the national crisis of low birthrate, we will open a Maternal and Child Health Center, a platform for pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare support services, and promote various childbirth encouragement policies such as supporting out-of-pocket expenses for maternal and newborn health management in the Nowon style. Especially, starting this year, we will operate the ‘Nowon Ddok Ddok Ddok Care Team,’ a special project in our care system, to prevent overlapping welfare services and provide broad welfare benefits to anyone in need. We will also continue to promote the operation of the Pet Culture Center, opened last October, and awareness improvement projects to foster a mature pet culture with continuous interest and consideration for companion animals.

Fourth, we will create a young educational city for the future.

Nowon is an educational special zone with the largest school districts among 25 autonomous districts, building high-quality public education infrastructure such as Seoul’s first Math Culture Center, Seoul Science Museum, and Nowon Space School.

We will operate these excellent educational resources with substance, draw a solid blueprint for the future, and enhance Nowon’s brand value.

First, to create a happy Nowon for children and parents, we will lead the establishment of care institutions within living areas by expanding four co-parenting rooms and seven child rest centers.

The Nowon Childcare Center, opened nationwide for the first time last October, with the Sick Child Care Center and Children’s Cafeteria, will be operated solidly as a symbolic facility of ‘Nowon-style care.’

We are also working to create youth cultural spaces where teenagers can freely heal by utilizing idle spaces. In early November, we opened ‘Meetup,’ a cultural creative space in the Indeok underground passage, and are preparing for the quick opening of the Nowon Education Platform ‘Daum,’ which strengthens tailored support systems for students, and the Youth Counseling Welfare Center in Sanggye Administrative Complex Town.

We are promoting the construction of ‘Jump,’ the nation’s largest complex cultural facility for children and youth, at the public parking lot in Hagye-dong, and sequentially expanding various youth facilities such as youth cultural houses in the Sanggye 1 District Redevelopment Promotion District and Gwangwoon University station area redevelopment district, and youth hangouts in the Junggye Cultural Health Center.

Alongside this, the youth support center ‘Nowon Orang,’ opened last November, will serve as a hub for youth policies, and we will carefully promote Nowon-style youth policies by expanding startup incubating spaces in public facilities and traditional markets to provide various jobs for youth.

We will also promote the construction of regional lifelong education centers to expand lifelong learning foundations for residents, including Wolgye Lifelong Education Center on the site of Seokgye Station public parking lot and Sanggye Lifelong Education Center within Sanggye 2-dong cultural welfare facilities.

Fifth, we will realize Nowon as a faster and more convenient transportation city.

Nowon District is a transportation hub where four subway lines pass and northern Gyeonggi new towns are connected. We will become a new transportation central city by establishing a convenient transportation system and expanding advanced transportation facilities.

First, we are developing various policies to expand the transportation system that will serve as the residents’ feet.

The Dongbuk Line light rail project began construction last October, and the Eastern Arterial Road expansion project will open first this year, with improvements to entrance lanes and installation of soundproof walls to be completed by next year.

We will make Gwangwoon University Station a center of metropolitan transportation and a foundation for regional development. We are promoting the early groundbreaking of the GTX-C line, and will strongly urge related agencies such as the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to confirm the Suseo?Uijeongbu KTX extension project.

We will also promote express services on subway lines 4 and 7. The express service on line 4, included in the 2nd Seoul Urban Railway Network Plan, will be implemented first, and we will continuously negotiate with Seoul City to include line 7 in the next plan.

Furthermore, we will work to create a transportation environment that is both protective of vulnerable users and desirable to use.

Escalators will be gradually installed at 10 subway stations including Exit 3 of Gwangwoon University Station, and elevators at two stations including Exit 5 of Nowon Station. The transfer space between lines 4 and 7 at Nowon Station will be improved into a pleasant space with a theme.

Additionally, we will complete the installation of speed cameras in school zones by this year and continue to expand the opening of private parking lots to alleviate parking difficulties in residential areas.

Sixth, we will create a vibrant future city Nowon through jobs.

To re-leap as a premium autonomous district where workplaces and residences are close, we will focus all capabilities on creating a bio-medical innovation complex on the 75,000-pyeong site of Changdong Vehicle Base and Driver’s License Test Center and on the Gwangwoon University station area development project.

Last year was a meaningful year with many achievements laying the foundation for Nowon’s 100-year future growth.

First, to create the bio-medical innovation complex, we signed a win-win agreement in March with Seoul City and Uijeongbu regarding the relocation of Dobong Driver’s License Test Center, laying the cornerstone for change. In May, we launched the Nowon Bio Policy Advisory Group, and on November 9, signed a memorandum of understanding with Seoul National University Hospital to secure momentum for promotion.

This year, we will strengthen cooperation by forming a joint TF team with Seoul National University Hospital and jointly performing practical procedures from the project planning stage. We will make every effort to transform Nowon, structurally a bedroom town, into a vibrant new innovation city through the creation of the world’s best bio-medical complex.

The Gwangwoon University Station area future complex city development is preparing for urban management planning procedures for the 2022 project implementation. Starting with the demolition of four cement silos in the long-awaited Gwangwoon University Station logistics base, we will steadily carry out the project so that this area can rise as a new residential culture new town in the northeastern region.

Also, redevelopment and reconstruction projects are progressing rapidly in various locations.

The Junggye Bon-dong 104 Village housing development and maintenance project is preparing for project implementation approval early next year after more than 10 years of delay, and we will provide meticulous administrative support to enable meaningful groundbreaking in 2022. Among the Sanggye 3 and 4-dong redevelopment promotion projects, Zone 4 completed construction in December 2019, Zone 6 started construction in April this year, and Zone 1 received project implementation approval in October, with other zones steadily preparing for project implementation.

For reconstruction maintenance projects, Jugong Complex 8 was completed in November, the Taereung Hyundai reconstruction project is expected to be completed this year, and Wolgye-dong Shina Apartment and Wolgye-dong disaster management zones are progressing smoothly.

Furthermore, we will strive to provide residents with a pleasant and safe living environment. We will continue the replacement of aging water pipes to improve tap water quality in apartment complexes over 30 years old, and the long-awaited Wolgye-Sanggye high-voltage power transmission line undergrounding project will be promoted step-by-step according to the soon-to-be-released design service results.

We will also transform the dark and gloomy underpass of Nowon Station overpass into a citizen-friendly environment and improve construction site hoarding designs, enhancing urban aesthetics in everyday life to create an environment where people want to live for a long time.

Finally, with the completion of the ‘2040 Nowon Plan’ conducted over two years this year, we will begin monitoring individual implementation projects in earnest.

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