Choi Ki-chan meets residents at Omi Ecological Park in Siheung-dong on Tuesday; first session held at Geumcheon Sports Park on Oct. 22 covered bus shelters, aircraft noise and other daily concerns
Geumcheon-gu District Mayor Choi Ki-chan is stepping up a field-based outreach initiative that takes him directly into residents' daily environments to hear their concerns and policy suggestions.
Geumcheon-gu said Choi held a session of the community outreach program — known as Geumcheon Hyeonjang Tok — at Omi Ecological Park in Siheung-dong on Tuesday, meeting with local residents for an open conversation.
The program lets Choi visit everyday community spaces without a fixed schedule or formal agenda, engaging residents in candid exchanges. Rather than holding conventional town-hall meetings, it focuses on drawing out residents' day-to-day frustrations, policy recommendations and views on district administration through informal conversation.
Choi held the first session at Geumcheon Sports Park on Oct. 22, greeting visitors and listening to the difficulties they face in daily life.
Residents raised a range of concerns at that session, including the inconvenience of bus stops without rain shelters, late-night aircraft noise, requests for road heating cables and drainage maintenance. Choi listened to their accounts and noted the discomforts and improvements they felt were needed.
The district plans to continue field outreach sessions following Tuesday's event at Omi Ecological Park. It intends to expand the program beyond parks and other everyday community spaces to include workplaces in the G-Valley industrial complex and areas where foreign residents live and work.
The district is also exploring ways to hear directly from a broader cross-section of the community — including business owners, workers and foreign residents in Geumcheon-gu — and to reflect their voices in district policy.
"Communication with residents starts with meeting them face to face and listening," Choi said. "Without being bound by a set time or format, I will visit the places where residents live and carefully listen to everything from small everyday inconveniences to proposals for the development of the district." Choi added that he would continue reaching out to everyone who lives and works in Geumcheon-gu, ensuring that conversations held in the field translate into real changes in how the district is run.
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