HBC community needs foreign involvement
Charlotte Arribe, sustainable development consultant for UNESCAP / Korea Times photo by Jon Dunbar
By Jon Dunbar
The Haebangchon (HBC) area has been chosen for a 2016-2020 city “regeneration” project aimed at balanced development and community empowerment. But French expat Charlotte Anne Li Chen Arribe was curious about the low level of foreign resident participation, and whether or not it was by choice.
Arribe outlined the need and the difficulties to getting foreign residents more involved, at the third and final scheduled foreign community meeting of the
, held Monday night in Onzigonzi, a community space on the edge of Shinheung Market in HBC.
Although HBC community-planned events welcome foreigners, they lack outreach to foreign residents and the events are typically held entirely in Korean. Additionally, events are held at inconvenient times for working foreigners. Even this foreign community meeting, starting at 7 p.m., was only able to drag in three community members, all long-term residents and business owners active in the area.
“The perception is of foreigners being short term but it's not the case,” remarked Arribe. A graduate of Yonsei University's Graduate School of International Studies, she wrote her thesis on HBC's multicultural population. She has since moved to Songdo where she works as a sustainable development consultant at UNESCAP.
A community survey she disclosed showed almost half of residents, both Korean and foreign, have experienced conflicts with neighbors, while about 15 percent each have had troubles with outside visitors and landlords.
For the 450 Korean respondents the most common conflicts were over parking and trash, followed by pedestrian safety and noise and light pollution. But for the 50 foreign respondents, the most common response was “other,” suggesting an unspecified set of unknown issues. It tied with rent increase, which led noise and light pollution, parking, smoking and trash. But foreign and Korean community members both suffer the same problems, often together.
A restaurant owner present at the meeting mentioned how trash tends to pile up in front of his establishment. “Restaurants don't want trash piles out front,” he said. “If Koreans aren't understanding their own garbage system then the foreign community isn't likely to get it.”
In order to reduce such disputes, the regeneration center is attempting to introduce a “community agreement,” laying out standards and clearing up misunderstandings.
“It's to benefit the community, not punish anyone,” Arribe explained. “They are not looking to make a rulebook that's legally binding. They're looking to use it as a tool for communication: what's something you're worried about, what's something you like.”
Arribe stressed three important factors for the regeneration project and the community agreement to succeed. First, consistency in people and implementation. Secondly, effectiveness, which requires a process to check what's working and what's not. Third, willingness of local community members to get involved, which remains an uphill battle.
Monday was the final of the center's three foreign community meetings, but its director Lim Jin-gyu explained more meetings will be held next year. Currently, he is busy preparing for the
on Dec. 8. Foreign vendors are welcome to participate.
As of 2018, the foreign population of the area, formally named Yongsan 2-ga-dong, numbers 1,662, or 16.1 percent of the total 10,302. In 1970 the local population was 8,364, with only four foreign residents.