Dongdaemun-gu District Mayor Takes Governance to the Streets — and Schools

Dongdaemun-gu District Mayor Choi Dong-min has made on-the-ground engagement the defining feature of his administration.

After visiting all 15 neighborhoods in the district in July to hear directly from residents, he began making the rounds of the district's 21 elementary schools this month, listening firsthand to the needs of those in education.

Dongdaemun-gu said it has wrapped up the first "Dialogue with Dong Residents" of the ninth elected-term administration and will track all 203 resident requests submitted across the 15 neighborhoods until each is resolved.

The dialogue series kicked off at Sinseol-dong on July 6 and concluded at Hoegi-dong on July 16, completing the full 15-neighborhood circuit. The initiative was designed to ground the new administration's start in the voices of residents.

Residents raised concerns closely tied to daily life — road and pedestrian environment improvements, expanded parking, traffic relief, aging facility repairs, welfare and safety enhancements, and housing and urban renewal. Many also offered views on medium- and long-term development plans tailored to each neighborhood's conditions.

Choi and department heads, including relevant bureau and division chiefs, addressed on the spot any matters they could answer immediately and explained the review process and next steps for requests requiring further examination.

The district plans to distribute the 203 requests among the responsible departments, which will assess each one for urgency, scope of benefit, feasibility and the degree to which residents would feel the impact.

Choi's fieldwork extended well beyond the dialogue sessions themselves.

Each time he visited a neighborhood in July, he also stopped at the local senior centers, covering all 30 across the 15 neighborhoods without exception.

Having met with residents and senior citizens, Choi turned his attention to the district's schools.

On Sunday, he held tea meetings with teachers and parents at Jangpyeong Elementary School and Jongam Elementary School — the first stops in a tour that will take him to all 21 elementary schools in the district by late October.

The school visits were organized to assess each school's distinct educational environment and pressing issues on the ground, and to incorporate the views of school communities into the direction of education subsidy support for 2027.

At the opening sessions, teachers, parents and school council members gathered to exchange views on issues closely affecting school life, including facility improvements, commute safety and support for field trips.

A common thread runs through the visits to 15 neighborhoods, 30 senior centers and 21 elementary schools: listening is only the beginning.

"Going around all 15 neighborhoods, I was able to confirm in concrete terms the difficulties residents face and the challenges each community needs to address," Choi said. "Residents' requests must not stop at being heard — they must lead to real change."

On the school visits, he added that he would "listen carefully to every one of the 21 elementary schools and make sure that essential support — from commute safety to improvements in the educational environment — translates into real change."