Seoul 2030 - a software update

Mayor OH Se-hoon unveiled the 'Seoul Vision 2030' he announced on his inaugural address last April*, an occasion to highlight differences with his 'predesuccessor' PARK Won-soon.

By picking the slogan 'Seoul, a fair city that runs again', ever the ambitious OH delivers two not so subliminal political messages:

• I want to rally all citizens who want an end to the unfair system that's controlling local and national politics, and 
• it's not just Seoul that's moving again: I'm running again, with 2027 in sight.
  

The goal remains the same as a few months before he left office: to lift the capital into the World's top 5 cities. The difference is that since then, under PARK, Seoul has lost its momentum and regressed from 10th in 2010 to 17th last year, which makes the task all the more daunting. To foot the KRW 48 tn bill (USD 41 bn), OH bets on a surge in real estate revenues as well as on undisclosed budget trade-offs. Not sure the equation stands, but Seoul must do something to stop the bleeding as its population shrinks and its businesses struggle.

This 'Seoul Vision 2030' is more about software than about hardware. Typically, it doesn't challenge the urban planning part of 'Seoul Master Plan 2030' laid out in 2015, with its triangle of international hubs (historic center / Yeouido-Yeungdeungpo / Gangnam) and its 7 metropolitan hubs (Yongsan, Sangam-DMC-Susaek, Cheongnyangni-Wangsimni, Jamsil, Magok, Gasan-Daerim, Changdong-Sanggye). Such macro projects are freight trains that can't be rerouted at will. OH can't even stop lighter projects such as the controversial Gwanghwamun Square revamping**; only pause to adjust and adapt in order to limit the negative impacts and to improve urban continuity.

But of course, this being Seoul, a lot of real estate remains on the menu. And hundreds of thousands of new dwellings will be added to the existing oversupply.

The bad news is that redevelopment is unleashed on a large scale, with significant deregulation and the removal of key constraints (F.A.R.), and that a lot of the few remaining Seoul villages could suffer.

"Old #Seoul neighborhoods potentially open for redevelopment jumps from 14 to 50% through #Seoul's new #urbanism guidelines... brace for the worst." (20210527 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/1397728062775513090)

Focusing around certain subway stations may help spare some of them, and result in Hapjeong-izing more neighborhoods (no mentions about new subway projects, but that could come, as usual, closer to next year's elections...):

"#Seoul confirms plan to 'revitalize' #subway station areas (250m radius around stations), starting with 13 pilot projects. Higher rise allowed, mixed uses residential / commercial / offices / services. Will #Hapjeong-style clusters multiply? I'd prefer more stations. #urbanism" (20210705 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/1411963191089721346)

On the upside (literally), new neighborhood parks are planned in proto-urban limbos around Seoul mountains. If done properly (that's a big if), it could paradoxically protect the mountains themselves by creating sanitized but green buffer leisure spaces in stead of unlimited, littered gateways that push unruly crowds deeper into the wild. Most visitors would enjoy a pleasant moment without needing to reach any further, leaving more space to wildlife and respectful mountain lovers.

"#Seoul creates new neighborhood parks in decrepit mountainous areas where development projects have failed for 20 years, starting this year in #Cheonwangsan (#Cheongwandong and #Hangdong, #Gurogu) and #Choasan (#Changdong, #Dobonggu and later #Wolgyedong, #Nowongu). #urbanism"

(@theSeoulVillage 20210910 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/1436132137258795017)

Seoul targets a 40% greenhouse gas reduction by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050, but to achieve that, will it continue to outsource part of the dirty job to Gyeonggi-do (see "Seoul Power Play: One Less Nuclear Plant, One More Coal Plant")?

Obsessed with Seoul's business competitiveness, OH Se-hoon wants to seize a momentum and snatch as much of the Hong Kong exodus away from Singapore as possible, and to attract FDIs getting cautious about Korea's neighbors Japan (who wants to be the next Carlos GHOSN?) and China (hard-soft power supremacy challenged worldwide, investors wary of XI Jinping's authoritarian moves). Foreign media were already flocking in before South Korea's government pushed its own laws stiffling press freedom.  In that context, the creation of an agency modeled after Singapore's EDB makes perfect sense. How it articulates with existing entities (SBA etc) remains to be seen.

How Yeouido can turn into an international finance magnet without structural reforms at the national level also puzzles me.

Like during his first mandate, OH wants to boost international tourism, this time up to 20M visitors a year. He insists on culture which is of course essential, but that will take more than a 'Seoul Festa' and kpop events.

I'm more interested in how Seoul intends to nurture and boost the local startup ecosystem, deep and wide. Hosting 40 unicorns by 2030? that's mostly for the show. Building new clusters? as if there weren't enough already... I prefer the concept of mentoring programs for seniors: recent trends already show more 50-year+ executives joining previously almost exclusively young crews, but there's a need for a much broader-reaching, more inclusive approach. 

The 5 pillars of 'Seoul Vision 2030' are "fairness, coexistence, safety***, future sensitivity, global leadership", and 'future sensitivity' is a nice way of saying the whole population should be involved, innovation requires pedagogy and respect for everyone.

"Fairness", and "coexistence" are the most beautiful and difficult challenges. Seoul aims at equal opportunity, fostering women activity and youth employment, seniors access to lifelong learning programs, Seoul Learn online education platform for underprivileged students... Basic income will even be tested. Ending the gender war among younger generations should be added as a core Seoul Development Goal.

By the way, on Thursday, the 3rd SBAU (Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism) kicked off. An anticlimatic event in a most complex climate, but always the opportunity to connect a few new dots and to confront different visions of different cities:

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* The launch of a Seoul Vision 2030 Committee was the 5th pledged made by the new Seoul Mayor:

"

The 5 pledges of #Seoul mayor #OhSehoon (NB: good luck with that):" (@theSeoulVillage 20210428 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/1387308187209015300)

** see among others "Gwanghwamun Square 3.0 re-Deep-Surfaces"

*** mostly in a pandemic context.

Mosquito forecasts, Convenience Safe Havens, One-Stop Complaining, and The Ministry of Hilly Walks

On our menu today, this bibim of new policies planned for 2014 by Seoul Metropolitan Government's department of civil affairs:

1) "Active implementation of mosquito forecast system and disclosure of citizen guidance for each stage":

• This insect is much more than a nuisance: a vector of diseases that tend to gain ground as climate changes and international travels boom. Eradicated from South Korea in the late 70s, vivax malaria came back twenty years ago and remains relatively low, but on the other side of the DMZ, 16,000 cases were noted in 2011, and the DMZ itself is a safe haven for our buzzing foes. Monitoring all 'mosquito infested areas' seems impossible when any flower pot can become a nursery, and a vague grade should have an effect similar to UV forecasts: just an incentive to get extra protection on certain days. Made in China or not, smog is likely to kill many more people in the short term, and it deserves even closer monitoring (see "Air Pollution: New Measures, Please").

2) "Establish a Happy Plus Work Place":

• This is not about bringing happiness to the work place, but about a place to help those who suffer at work. Of course, tackling the causes would be more efficient than curing the consequences, but we truly are in a state of emergency. The center is located in Hawolgok 2-dong, Seongbuk-gu, not far from a new town where a wave of suicides caught many desperate people last year. If in many ways, working conditions have dramatically improved in Korea, a growing proportion of the population is under financial and social stress, and like in most developed nations, the middle class is confronted to the high levels of insecurity it was supposed to have overcome decades ago.

3) "Expand the No-Smoking Zone for restaurants by lowering the condition from above 150 sqm to above 100 sqm":

• Let's be clear: all restaurants should be smoke-free areas. And the 'separate smoking rooms' are not only porous but disgraceful for both smokers and non-smokers. Yes, Korea has done a great job reducing smoking rates, and Seoul has considerably promoted smoke-free zones, but second hand smoke remains pervasive (see "The Fight Against Passive Smoke Continues").

4) "Create female-safe apartments":

• Beyond this weird label is something more than a women's shelter program: insecure spots shall become welcoming homes, transforming whole neighborhoods into citizen-friendly areas.

5) "Operate 24-hour Convenience Stores as Safety Protection Houses":

• If you're not a Seoulite, you must start thinking this city is very dangerous, with swarms of killer mosquitoes and packs of rapists at every corner! Know that Seoul is very safe compared to other big cities, but of course crimes do happen, and adding a 'guardian angel' function to 600 CVS could make a difference. At least it adds sense at the village - local community level, and that's a more positive solution than selling guns to every citizen!

6) "Dongdaemun Design Plaza with 5 facilities: Art Hall, Museum, Business Center, Convenience Facility, Park":

• Since you already had a "Sneak peek inside Dongdaemun Design Plaza and Park", I won't play it again, Sam. This laundry list tells it all: confronted to reality, the initial '100% design' promise evolved into the now classic 'how are we gonna fill these empty spaces?' conundrum. So we line up the usual suspects: art, retail, business, leisure, and hope that someone in the audience will recognize a familiar mug.

7) "Development of Seoul Dulle-gil Trail":

• 35.2 km added to Seoul mountain trails, that's significant. And this time, instead of focusing on the venerable Seoul fortress holders (Bugaksan, Inwangsan, Namsan, Naksan...), the spotlights honor outer mountain rings: Suraksan and Buramsan (Nowon-gu), Gureungsan and Achasan (Gwangjin-gu, Jungnang-gu, Nowon-gu), Godeoksan and Iljasan (Gangdong-gu, Songpa-gu), and the Daemosan-Guryeongsan-Umyeosan (Gangnam-gu, Seocho-gu). There's always a subway or bus station nearby, surprising views from above, and interesting things to see and to eat in between. I have a special fondness for Buramsan, but again, I love all Seoul mountains... except the overwhelming "Budongsan" of course!

Starting from Northeast Seoul, the Buramsan-Suraksan Course...

... prolonged by Gureungsan-Achasan...

... then, across the Han River, Godeoksan and Iljasan,...

... and finally (?) Daemosan, Guryeongsan, and Umyeosan.

8) "All new Seoul tourism homepage":

• "Sights & Fun", "Food", "Shopping", "Korean Wave Tourism", "Medical Tourism"... "following consumer's priorities" is nice, but we must also develop the spectrum, promote cultural diversity, make Seoulites and visitors want to crave for more, discover by themselves, venture beyond mainstream (and please, beyond Hallyu fads - see "Heralding cultural diversity: a stronger and more sustainable Korean wave (1st Congress - WAHS)"). NB: VisitSeoul.go.kr is not active yet (still VisitSeoul.net)

 9) "Development of Sinchon Public Transportation District":

• Time for an update about this Yonsei-ro experience (e.g. "Yonsei-ro the first street in Seoul to ban cars in its transportation mix", followed by "Seobu Line confirmed as Seoul's LRT top priority"). The new and improved street was actually re-inaugurated in late December, with a festive Christmas market. The changes seem positive at the local level, and the traffic around the neighborhood less congested than I expected, even if Seongsan-ro and Sinchon-ro remain often saturated. Note that Yonsei University's main gate is less a jam now that two side gates have been opened.

 10) "Operation of integrated management system for civil complaints / suggestions":

• One-stop complaining / suggestion box soon a reality in a city that usually scores well on e-government issues. And remember that Seoul Global Center gathers the feed back of foreign residents in many different languages.

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No cablecars in Bukhansan, please

The old Eunpyeong New Town cable car project that raised many critics from environmentalists in the late noughties has been revived yesterday by Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon as a cheap quick fix for recurrent traffic jams between the new town and downtown*. Traffic jams that (sorry for repeating always the same things) should have been avoided in the first place, and public transit solutions considered as core elements of the said new town (an obviousness for any urban planner except - it seems - in this part of the world).

I can't deny the fact that cable cars are cheaper than, say, a railway extension such as the one the same Mayor promised last summer in his initial Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Master Plan, a very ambitious wish list where the Sinbundang Line was supposed to be prolonged to Pyongchang-dong, the infinity and beyond (see "If you ain't broke, fix it: Seoul, Welfare and Railways Deficits). Cable cars are even cheaper than the already environment-unfriendly Eunpyeong-Seochon tunnel considered two years ago, a car-centric nonsense that triggered the following rant from this excuse for a blogger (see "2 more tunnels up North"):

"Eunpyeong-gu definitely needs more connections with the rest of the city, but the priority for a forward looking city should be to develop public transportation, and deter people from using their cars in already saturated areas. 
I mean come on : Seoul is digging tunnels #10 and #11, and not one of them has ever been for a subway or a railway! It's as if the mind frame was set on 1960s and 1970s instead of the new millenium: more people? build more roads, sell more cars! and don't bother with medium / long term consequences! 
This totally contradicts Seoul's efforts to develop tourism and international attractiveness: downtown is not supposed to become again an environmental nightmare and a communication failure."

But Seoul is not Santiago do Chile, where funicular railways made perfect sense to connect higher neighborhoods with the rest of the city. Here, cable cars would follow a roller coaster from ground level to ground level in an endless, preventable eyesore that would totally ruin Bukhansan (via Samgaksan, Bugaksan, Inwangsan), one of the capital's most valuable assets - not to mention, of course, Seoul fortress... and downtown Seoul as a whole, because this monster would go all the way from Gupabal Station to City Hall (either in a straight line of 9.6 km, or in a 11 km course that would pass over Tongil-ro via Yeonsinnae and Dongnimun)! All this to shrink to 20 mn a journey that takes 40-50 mn by car or 30-35 mn by subway!

And they have the gall to sell it as a potential tourist asset as great as the London Cable Car, an urban abomination only topped by the ArcelorMittal Orbit as the most embarrassing erection of the 2012 Olympics (in a city with a recent history already rich in urban disasters). 

Of course the view could be interesting from above, but that's what you'd see from under:

The Emirates Air Line, a.k.a. the London Cable Car, a low cost bridge over River Thames. Now picture that as you stroll around Sejongno, Seochon, or Jeong-dong... "touristic", isn't it?

Brits can do whatever they want over this part of the Thames, I won't let downtown Seoul welcome a new elevated wart, not even a decade after the restoration of Cheonggyecheon.

This project insults the city's past, present and future. Seoul can't fix Eunpyeong New Town's failure by making it even worse and more visible. 

So back to the drawing board, and I'm begging you, next time, please try to look for more sustainable ways.

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* see "서울시, 은평뉴타운~서울 도심 케이블카 건설 검토 논란" (Chosun Ilbo 20131118)

NO WAY! Park Won-soon considering cablecar connections between Eunpyeong new town and downtown Seoul! Save Bukhansan from this madness!
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/402245416474800128

Happy New Year Of The Golden (Silver) Tiger

This is supposed to be the year of the Golden Tiger but you will have to watch for a silver tiger next time you hike up Inwangsan : among the statues erected by Jongno-gu to celebrate the feline who used to roam its mountains until Japanese hunters eradicated it during the early XXth century, a big metal cat will be overlooking Seochon and downtown from the top of the rock.

Nothing scary about it, except for the poor taste of the self proclaimed art work.

A very happy new year to you nonetheless.

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