By Kim Rahn
A ward office’s plan to install a crosswalk in Myeong-dong, the busy shopping district in central Seoul, is drawing strong protests from merchants located in the underground market there.
The crosswalk is supposed to be for the benefit of pedestrians but shopkeepers claim their sales will suffer steep falls as less people will go to their shops.
Junggu Office is moving to set up a crossing on the street in front of Migliore fashion mall to link the major tourist district with the Mt. Nam side of the road. The measure is aimed to allow more convenience for shoppers, tourists and residents, especially the elderly or the disabled who find it difficult to use the stairs of the underpass there.
The office has been promoting the pedestrian crossing for years. The plan was halted in September 2009 after a violent clash between the underpass storeowners and workers hired by the ward office.
At the entrances of the underground passage that connects to Myeong-dong subway station, there are placards reading: “We desperately oppose the crosswalk which will kill poor mom-and-pop merchants!”
The storekeepers say the number of shoppers using the underground passage will drop considerably.
“The damage will be huge if the crosswalk is made just above. We’re all worried about it,” said Jeong Seung-jun, who runs a record shop there, Sunday.
“My cousin has a store at the Hoehyeon shopping underpass near Shinsegae Department Store. She said after pedestrian crossings were set up, only a few people come down to the shops. First it was the City Hall underpass, then Hoehyeon, and now it’s our fate,” he said.
To prevent such a clash from recurring, the office is in negotiations with the merchants.
“The storeowners are opposing a crosswalk right above, in front of Migliore at the main entrance of the tourist district. But they say they may accept a crossing some 70-80 meters away from the passage. So we’re trying to reach an agreement,” district official Oh Kwan-hong said.
It will be difficult to please everyone as residents and shop owners on the Mt. Nam side want the crosswalk to be established right in front of Migliore, the shortest way to Myeong-dong, Oh said.
“In return for obtaining an operation license, the underground merchants promised to build an escalator each at two entrances to the underpass, and the plan is ongoing. The shopkeepers already invested 1.6 billion won for the escalators and other facility improvements, so at this point a crosswalk just above their shops is unacceptable. They claim their right to live is more important than visitors’ right to walk,” he said.
Visitors to Myeong-dong showed mixed reactions.
A Korean couple, who parked their car on the Mt. Nam side and crossed to the Migliore side through the underpass, welcomed the crosswalk there, as they had to go down and up the stairs while the wife carried their four-year-old girl in her arms and the husband carried the stroller.
“A crosswalk will really be helpful for people like us,” the husband, Lee, said, panting at the top of the steps.
Felicia, a tourist from Indonesia, said she doesn’t care. “When I come to Myeong-dong, I use the subway and thus the passage, too. I don’t think I’ll use a crosswalk much even if one is set up over the station,” she said.