On his 100th workday Thursday, District Mayor Ryu Sam-young visits the Dongjak Senior Welfare Center — riding the district's welfare van and serving meals at its senior dining hall; a special open mayor's office session is held in the district office basement to share resolved complaints and take residents' questions live
Dongjak-gu marked the 100th day in office of District Mayor Ryu Sam-young with a resident-driven social media event to choose the site of his 100th commute destination.
The district organized the event so that residents could nominate and vote on the location Ryu would visit on his 100th workday, Thursday.
The event ran from Sept. 23 to Sept. 30 through an online survey form. Participants could either cast a multiple-choice vote selecting one of 10 candidate sites or submit a written recommendation naming a place and explaining why they wanted the district mayor to visit.
A total of 1,824 people took part over the eight days. In the multiple-choice vote, senior centers and elderly welfare facilities topped the results at 18.2 percent, followed by the Sadang 1-dong food alley (12.8 percent), back streets and residential areas (11.9 percent), the Yongyangbongjeojeong area (11.8 percent), and urban renewal project sites (10.7 percent).
The written recommendation category drew 580 submissions. Residents proposed a wide range of everyday locations, including the area in front of Cheongchuncheon at 89 Sangdo-ro, the residential neighborhood near Kachisan Park in Sadang 4-dong, and the vicinity of Exit 5 at Jangseungbaegi Station.
Based on the submissions, the district selected the Seoul Metropolitan Dongjak Senior Welfare Center as the destination for the 100th-day commute.
On Thursday morning, Ryu will join the district's welfare van (No. 2) as a volunteer boarding assistant for the day, helping residents on and off the vehicle and listening to their feedback, before heading to the welfare center to serve meals at its senior dining hall.
Among all participants, 100 winners selected by lottery will each receive a mobile gift voucher worth 10,000 won ($7) by Oct. 14.
In the afternoon, a special open mayor's office session will be held on the first basement floor of the district office. The event will feature a review of complaints successfully resolved through the ongoing "Open Mayor's Office Communication Day" initiative, and the residents who filed those complaints will be invited to receive the district's thanks.
The session will also include a reading of supportive messages from residents, followed by a live question-and-answer segment in which questions submitted to a suggestion box will be drawn at random for the district mayor to answer on the spot.
In addition, an awards ceremony will be held for the "Dongjak Song," selected through a public competition that accepted entries from Aug. 28 to Sept. 16.
Meanwhile, Dongjak-gu's ninth directly elected administration, which launched July 1, has set six strategic goals — rapid urban renewal, AI-driven administrative innovation, creation of popular local destinations, a convenient and safe city, a sustainable future, and realization of residents' civic rights — and is moving quickly to advance key policies.
The district has been expanding direct engagement with residents through initiatives including opening the district office to the public, holding open mayor's office sessions, and running a mobile field mayor's office program called "Ryu~Quiz," while incorporating feedback gathered on-site into district governance.
"Marking 100 days in office at a place chosen by residents themselves makes this day all the more meaningful," Ryu said. "Going forward, I will continue to find answers close to where residents live, take the voices I hear in the field and reflect them in district policy one by one, and create changes that people can actually feel."
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