Gwangju mayor launches mobile office bus to bring city hall to residents

Gwangju city announced Wednesday it will operate a "mobile mayor's office direct bus" — a 30-seat city-owned vehicle converted into a mobile civic engagement space — as part of efforts to strengthen field-based communication under the ninth directly elected administration led by Mayor Park Kwan-yeol.

The direct bus is designed to shift away from the conventional model in which residents must visit government offices. Instead, the mayor and relevant civil servants will ride the bus to neighborhoods across the city, speak directly with residents on-site, and review the progress of key projects and complaints. The vehicle was converted from an existing 30-seat city bus to enhance the mobile mayor's office's capacity to respond in the field.

The mobile mayor's office made its first run Tuesday, visiting the Paldang Water Mist Park development site, the Gyeongan District 2 urban development project site, and the construction site for an interchange ramp on the Seongnam–Janghowan expressway.

The city plans to continue using the direct bus for on-site outreach, focusing on remote areas with relatively limited access to city administration, as well as major project sites and locations where residents have raised lifestyle-related complaints.

Grievances and suggestions gathered in the field will be referred to the relevant departments for review and follow-up, with progress tracked on an ongoing basis. The city said the initiative is not intended as a one-time visit but as a mechanism to monitor how each issue is handled and resolved, allowing residents to track the status of administrative action.

"In the ninth directly elected administration, we will not wait for citizens to come to us — we will go to them, to the places where they are and where problems exist," Park said. "Through the mobile mayor's office direct bus, I will see things firsthand, communicate directly with residents, and work with the relevant departments to find solutions."