Local Yongsan Government Offers 20% Off Vouchers to Revive Businesses in Itaewon
It is a bit surprising that business has not fully returned back to normal yet in Itaewon when it has almost been a year since the crowd crushing tragedy. According to the article there is still a fear that Itaewon is not safe to visit after the tragedy:
 |
| A banner with the phrase “Safety Itaewon” hangs on the building of the Itaewon Special Tourism Zone Association in Itaewon, Seoul, to promote volunteer patrols, Aug. 29. Korea Times photo by Jung Da-hyun |
Approximately 10 months after the tragic Halloween crowd crush that claimed 159 lives, there are, once again, visible green shoots growing in Itaewon, one of the main nightlife districts in Seoul, which had been struggling to attract visitors.
However, the extent of the recovery, boosted by various projects to revive the district, is a contrasting story, depending on the type of business.
On a recent Friday night, the streets of Itaewon came alive with bar staff promoting their establishments in an alley behind the Hamilton Hotel, which is near the location of the deadly accident. The streets were filled with loud music and visitors, while foreign tourists could be seen walking around and capturing the lively scene on their phones.
According to a report in July, by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, sales of Itaewon shops recovered to approximately 85 percent of pre-crowd-crush levels, signaling a positive shift.
In addition, the average number of visitors to Itaewon per week in May, the latest available figure, stood at 75.6 percent compared to that of the fourth week of October last year, which was one week before the tragedy, based on telecom operator KT’s statistics.As part of efforts to entice people back to Itaewon and revive businesses in the area, the Yongsan-gu Office introduced vouchers in March. The vouchers, used as cash, provided customers with a 20 percent discount at local businesses in the district.
Korea Times
You can read more at the link.
I haven’t been back because it’s a bit of a drive, we’re usually located a little east of K-55, and I’m not a big fan of Indian or Muslim cuisine. But there were many restaurants I’d love to try again.
Consider this ref the Itaewon crush:
The previous two years have seen a phenomenon seemingly unexplainable. (Yeah, where have we heard that before?) Young concert goers are dying in droves of cardiac arrest while attending concerts: Houston, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and numerous European cities.
The same article mentioned the Itaewon crush. Were they cardiac arrests? Has anyone seen the autopsy results? Has anyone reported, objectively, what they all died of? Crushing, really?
The journalist suggested the extremely loud music, the reverberations, the thump thump thump of near-deafening bass may be causing latent blood clots to break loose.
Why would young people have clots? Mmm, I’m sure it’s a medical mystery.
If I find the article again, I’ll post the link, but for now I’m link-less.
I neglected to mention a co-worker’s daughter, 19, went to Itaewon that night but turned right around and came home because the music everywhere was so incredibly loud she couldn’t hear herself think.
Compare that with reports from first responders complaining early in the crisis they had a difficult time functioning at the scene because of the extremely loud music. Eventually, an on-scene commander got the music turned off.
As I’m trying to re-find sources, I’m discovering this is a story that has to be stitched together. Below article from UK Independent stated:
“Many of those caught up in the stampede suffered cardiac arrest, officials said.”
Many? Well, how many? Could that be changed to read “most”? “All” perhaps? We’ll never know.
https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/east-asia/south-korea-stampede-seoul-halloween-death-b2213480.html
And, “…according to Seoul City, which said it will tell crematoriums to burn more bodies per day to support funeral proceedings.”
A gov’t directed surge in cremations? So we’ll never know.
@Mcgeehee, what you are suggesting would have been tinfoil hat territory before the COVID lunacy.
Now it terrifies me that you’re right.
And I need all you young’uns healthy, gainfully-employed, and paying into Social Security and Medicare to pay for my “golden years”…
Not that I believe the money would be there in 10 years anyway…
My feeling here is the cardiac arrests are legitimate results of chest compression in a crowd crush and not linked to the covid vaccine.
This has happened many times in similar situations.
I see nothing suspicious in this incident and I believe the official story is very close to what happened.
The place to look is:
“The excess mortality was 8.7% (n = 61,277) during the COVID-19 pandemic (between March 2020 and June 2022) in Korea. Excess mortality increased with continuation of the pandemic, showing considerable increase in year 2022.”
This percentage of 8.7% is a bit misleading because it is an average of 3/20 to 6/22 which obscures the very low increased mortality before 2022 and the very high increased mortality after (and not including 7/22 and 8/22)
Narrarator: “85% of the nation’s population were vaccinated by 21 January 2022”
Almost all of the excess mortality happened after the vaccination uptake had leveled out in the spring of 2022.
Stay Safe & Effective, my friends.