Yangcheon-gu will hold an online participatory budgeting vote from Tuesday through Monday, Aug. 10, allowing residents to directly choose local projects to be included in the 2027 budget. District Mayor Lee Gi-jae oversees the initiative.
The participatory budgeting system is a core mechanism for realizing resident sovereignty, enabling community members to propose projects they consider necessary for local development and take part in the budget-drafting process. Resident interest and participation have grown every year since the program launched.
This year's call for proposals drew 179 submissions — 39 more than last year and more than six times the 28 received in 2012, the program's inaugural year. Particularly notable this year, the district for the first time operated zone-by-zone "traveling proposal consultation offices" to help residents who have difficulty applying online, collecting an additional 55 proposals and broadening access for those with limited digital literacy.
The online vote covers 64 resident-proposed projects — selected from submitted entries after review by relevant departments and panel deliberations covering administration and fiscal affairs, welfare, health and environment, green spaces, and urban transportation — with a combined budget of 1.5 billion won.
The projects span a range of initiatives aimed at improving resident safety and everyday convenience: sign-language interpretation support for district promotional videos targeting the hearing-impaired, a traveling toy delivery and collection service, heat-burn prevention sticker installation on playground equipment, and pedestrian safety fence installation at bus stops.
The vote is open not only to registered Yangcheon-gu residents but also to anyone whose daily life centers on the district, including office workers, self-employed individuals and students. Participants can search for "Yangcheon-gu Participatory Budget" on the Seoul Metropolitan Government's mVoting website or mobile app and select three "resident-proposed projects" and five "resident autonomy council-proposed projects."
Final projects will be chosen by combining the online vote results, which carry a 30 percent weighting, with the outcome of the Participatory Budget Deliberation Committee's general assembly vote, which carries a 70 percent weighting. Projects that make the cut will go through Yangcheon District Council review and approval before being incorporated into the 2027 budget.
Last year, Yangcheon-gu selected 54 projects worth approximately 870 million won ($607,000) from the 140 proposals submitted and is currently carrying them out. Representative projects include the installation of mobile illegal-dumping surveillance cameras, the wooden fence improvement at Sinjang Children's Park, and the installation of heated ramps — all aimed at addressing everyday inconveniences residents face.
The district also expanded the scope of resident participation from the budget-drafting stage to the full budget cycle, including execution and settlement, and institutionalized youth participation in the system. Those efforts earned Yangcheon-gu recognition as an "outstanding institution" in last year's participatory budgeting performance evaluation.
"The greatest value of participatory budgeting lies in the way each resident's voice comes together to drive change in the community," district mayor Lee said. "I ask for your active interest and participation so that more projects residents can truly feel in their daily lives can be identified and carried out."
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