INCHEON — Incheon Mayor Park Chan-dae will tour traditional markets, fire stations and police posts on the 21st and 23rd, ahead of the Chuseok holiday, to address rising prices, safety concerns and a slump in neighborhood commerce. The two-day schedule focuses on grocery prices and gaps in the safety net, the issues residents feel most acutely before the holiday.
The most notable part of the itinerary is an effort to revive struggling local commerce. On the 23rd, Park will visit the Soraepogu traditional fish market in Namdong District and Yonghyeon Market in Michuhol District to check prices of holiday goods. He plans to hear concerns from Soraepogu merchants, who are trying to restore trust after a dispute over price gouging, and to shop himself using the Incheon e-Eum cashback program, whose benefits resumed on the 18th, to encourage spending through the local currency.
Park will also focus on fire and public safety, where residents' anxiety has risen sharply. He will visit the Juan 119 Safety Center to encourage crew members who quickly extinguished a fire last month on an expressway involving a truck transporting electric vehicles, preventing a major disaster. The visit reflects his intent to ease concerns heightened after an electric vehicle fire at an apartment complex in Cheongna and to review firefighting readiness for the holiday. He will also visit the Incheon Vessel Traffic Service Center and the Bupyeong Yeokjeon police substation to inspect ferry routes for holiday travelers and public safety in the city center.
The schedule also includes care for vulnerable residents. On the 21st, Park will help deliver boxed meals to elderly residents living alone with limited mobility at the Galsan Community Welfare Center in Bupyeong District. He will then visit the 24-hour loneliness counseling hotline, the first of its kind in the country when it opened in August, to review working conditions for counselors and how the service operates as it supports residents facing psychological isolation during the holiday.
"Crises in residents' lives always begin in the field, and the answers are also found there," Park said. "We will run holiday emergency measures closely so that we can achieve both a recovery in neighborhood commerce during the Chuseok peak season and public safety."
