Sillim New Town

Browsing for some other info, I ended up learning that Gwanak-gu in Seoul is starting a huge development project in Sillim-dong, including areas of dongs nr. 2, 6, 9, and 10. "New Town project" (Nyu t'aun saôp), is meant to be different from ordinary development (chaegaebal) projects in that it's done together by the public and private sectors and goes beyond just housing construction to developing a whole "living area" (saenghwalkwôn) with diverse spheres. Sillim New Town area another map from a realtor site Don't have the time to find more about this at the moment or even read the linked document in full, but when put in effect, the change will be huge. In the middle of the area designated in the map, along the road that's not straight, has been the Sillim 6-dong market, housed in old quite dilapidated small 2-story or 1-story houses . I'm not going to shed tears here for the marketplace which most likely is going to disappear (if it hasn't already); the real estate owners, perhaps especially those of the many small houses in poor condition will undoubtedly profit from the project, and many house and shop renters and stall keepers on the marketplace corned need to find another locations. Unconditionally opposing projects like this would be another way of saying that Sillim-dong people don't deserve better quality housing. (They do deserve fair-priced housing as well...) Sillim 6-dong marketplace somewhere there between the houses. (Click for a bigger photo in a new window) (c)AL 2000 • Ohmynews' Real Estate pages (not even they can do without one) has info on the project. Perhaps I'll return to that later. Update, April 25, 2006 In redevelopmentalist (not administrative) terms, the area in the photograph above is "Sillim District 4" (Sillim 4-guyôk), for which architects at AB Line have drawn a plan: This picture then is I think what the neighborhood might look like when it's been developed, but heck, since I haven't been around for so long and knowing how much construction there's been, I can't be even sure if that's a real photo of the current situation and not a photoshopped one. (Ripped from number 199 (pdf) of The Gwanak Sae So Sic (sic), or 관악 새소식) Categories at del.icio.us/hunjang: cities • housing • Sillim/Gwanak