Tag: Seoul

This must have been quite a sight for the people in Seoul who saw this zebra running around their neighborhood:

A zebra that escaped from a zoo in Seoul on Thursday was captured in the streets of the South Korean capital after having roamed at large in the streets for about three hours, according to zoo officials and fire authorities.

The zebra reportedly broke free from Seoul Children’s Grand Park’s zoo in eastern Seoul around 2:50 p.m. and roamed around the nearby residential area. 

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the zebra was safely recaptured and returned to the zoo.

It is surprising how many elderly people ride the subway and the financial burden it is putting on the Seoul subway system:

The free subway fare for senior citizens, which was introduced in 1984, is one of the rare perks only seniors can enjoy in this aging society. It helps reduce rates of suicide and depression, as well as medical fees by keeping senior citizens active, according to the Korea Transport Institution’s research in 2015. 

However, transporting elderly riders for free doesn’t give only advantages.

It has recently emerged as a headache for heads of big city governments, especially Seoul where most of the nation’s population is concentrated, as the deficits of Seoul Metro are snowballing to a dangerous new level.

“Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Seoul Metro has faced a deficit of 1 trillion won ($ 8.1 billion) annually, and the seniors’ free rides account for 30 percent of the deficit. Before COVID-19 it took 60 percent,” Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon wrote on Facebook, Tuesday. “In the meantime, Seoul Metro has endured by issuing corporate bonds, but now it has reached its upper limit. If it was a private company, it would have already gone bankrupt.”

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the Seoul government wants the national government to kick in money to support the subway system to prevent prices from going up even further.

It is going to get a little more expensive to get around Seoul by taxi next month:

The basic taxi fare in Seoul will rise by 1,000 won ($0.8) to 4,800 won starting next month, the city government said Monday. 

The Seoul Metropolitan government’s plan to raise the base rate for mid-sized sedan cabs operating in the capital will go into effect on Feb. 1, it said.

Under the plan, the initial minimum distance for which the base taxi fare is applied will also be shortened to 1.6 kilometers from the current 2 km.

After the base fare is charged, 100 won will be additionally charged for every 131 meters of distance, up from the current 132 meters, the city also said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

When I was in Itaewon recently the place did seem far less vibrant than before the accident:

An alley in Itaewon in Yongsan District, central Seoul, near where the deadly crowd crush occurred is empty on the night of Jan. 14. [CHO JUNG-WOO]

The once bustling alleys of Itaewon in central Seoul were deserted on a recent Saturday night. Staffers of pubs and restaurants stood out in the cold encouraging the occasional passerby to come in.  
   
It’s been almost three months since the crowd crush on Oct. 29 took the lives of 158 people, and that of a teen survivor who committed suicide shortly after.     
   
People clearly don’t feel comfortable going back to the area to party, and the pain is only deepening for business owners in Itaewon.   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Jeju island had multiple communities that wanted to host their trash incinerator while Seoul cannot find one place to put it without protests:

While Seoul’s plan to build a new trash incinerator in the western district of Mapo has been sparking protests from residents since last year, a similar plan on Jeju Island has developed into a very different course of action: Islanders are welcoming with open arms the construction of landfill facilities and several districts competed with each other to have them right in their backyards.

Last September, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province selected an uninhabited patch of the authority’s land in the Sangcheon area of Andeok District in the island’s southern city of Seogwipo as a site for the island’s new waste incinerator. The selection process, which lasted nine months from December 2021, saw no disputes with the residents. It was a clean race to win the municipality’s bid with no visible signs of a “not-in-my-backyard” (NIMBY) attitude among the locals.

After finding out what benefits the authority will provide to the residents living around the selected site, three different communities in Seogwipo voluntarily stepped up for the bid. Each community hoisted banners welcoming the new incinerator with hopeful and cheerful messages, a rare scene in Korea, where the public hardly embraces the construction of a large-scale waste incinerator that burns hundreds of tons of garbage every day. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the Jeju community that hosted the trash incinerator received benefits such as new roads, community center, a swimming pool. Such incentives in Seoul are not enough to sway people who largely already have access to such facilities, thus the NIMBYism.

Maybe offering free trash service to the neighborhood in Seoul that hosts the incinerator and higher fees everywhere else might be a way to persuade a neighborhood to want to host the plant?

The air just keeps getting worse in Seoul:

South Korea’s air quality reached the worst level this winter Saturday due to high levels of fine dust and yellow dust, according to weather authorities. 

As of 10 a.m., the daily average concentration of ultrafine dust particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, known as PM2.5, was 86 micrograms per cubic meter, while that of fine dust known as PM10 was 143 micrograms per cubic meter across the country, according to Air Korea run by the environment ministry. 

The figures were much higher than the yearly average concentration of ultrafine and fine dust of 18 and 36 micrograms per cubic meter, respectively, in 2021.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.