Cheonggye Stream to Be Expanded to Pusan?

There is a very interesting interview in the Chosun Ilbo featuring Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak, who was the man responsible for the vision that made the extremely popular Cheonggye Stream project in downtown Seoul a reality. The interview featured a number of interesting questions but a couple of them stood out to me. Here is the first question I found the response to quite interesting:

Have you had difficulties being Seoul mayor as a member of the opposition party?

“There were major traffic problems with construction going on in the heart of the city. Authority over traffic rests with the central government and police, but there were difficulties owing to poor cooperation. When we had to remove 1,500 stalls, not one policeman helped.

This just doesn’t sound right, that the police did not do their jobs. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the mayor in charge of the local police in Korea? Mayor Lee should of fired all those policemen that would not have helped.

Here is the second question I found the response interesting to. The question was about what he would do if he was the President of Korea:

“The biggest problem facing our society at the moment is employment; the most basic thing to make the people happy is to create jobs. One cannot create jobs through cutting-edge IT and BT industries alone. In a country of 50 million people, you can create jobs only by appropriately endowing the country with high-tech industries, financial services and manufacturing. In order to foster national competitiveness, we must cut prime costs by decreasing distribution costs. Transport costs from Seoul to Busan are similar or greater than those between Busan and Los Angeles. The Seoul-Busan Canal plan I announced during the 14th National Assembly is a comprehensive plan to foster national competitiveness and create jobs. A leader is someone who endlessly gives the people vision and hope.”

Building a canal from Seoul to Pusan would have to be one of the greatest engineering feats ever. It is hard enough to make highways here in Korea due to the mountainous terrain much less a canal. I don’t know if I was him if I would run for President based on this idea alone because this would be highly controversial. However, the recently completed Cheonggye Stream project was also controversial initially and now is considered a widely popular accomplishment. What I like about Mayor Lee is that he is a visionary and a leader. Isn’t it refreshing to hear a politician in Korea talk about doing great things in the future instead of focusing on rewriting past history?

Anyway, with all the fan fare over the opening of the stream I had to take a trip down to Seoul and see what all the excitement was all about. I was pleasantly surprised that the Cheonggye Stream project really has beautified this once dingy part of Seoul. I really hope that this will be a continuing trend to beautify Seoul and create a better international image for the city.

I do have some concerns about the Cheonggye Stream project, however. The stream is very clean and beautiful right now, but will the city authorities be willing to take the necessary measures to keep it that way? Will this stream after a few months have garbage lieing in it from picnickers, and cigarette butts & soju bottles scattered around from pedestrians? Will people walking along the stream have to dodge moped drivers using the stream as a shortcut to beat traffic?

Judging by the current performance of the Korean police force in upholding traffic and littering laws, I really have my doubts that the stream will remain in it’s current state. I am willing to bet that in the future the entire stream will have to be shut down for periodic cleaning and maintenance due to visitors polluting the stream. I really hope I’m wrong on this and that Mayor Lee does everything possible to keep the area beautiful but I have seen to many times before, while hiking in Korea, how people here pollute their own natural streams in the mountains, why should people treat an artificial stream in the middle of the city any differently?