Jeong Eui-hwa, a standing adviser to the People Power Party who introduced and amended the bill to revise the Urban Park and Green Space Act, said on the 20th that "eliminating parks is shifting the failure of housing policy onto future generations."
Jeong, a former National Assembly speaker, said in a post on social media (SNS) that "as the speaker of the latter half of the 19th National Assembly who introduced and amended the Act on Urban Parks and Green Areas, I cannot contain my despair at the reality of the government pushing ahead with building youth rental dwellings in Yongsan Children's Park."
Jeong also cited remarks by the designer of New York's Central Park, which is regarded as a world-class park, regarding the importance of downtown parks. He said, "Frederick Law Olmsted, the American urban park designer who created New York's Central Park, said, 'If we do not create a park in Central Park, in 100 years we will need a mental hospital of this size,'" adding, "A park is not just an empty lot. It is a national asset that protects citizens' health and quality of life and prepares a city's future."
Jeong went on to say, "The justification of supposedly helping young people is the same," adding, "What young people need is not a few apartments right now."
He added, "What truly serves young people is protecting the cities they will live in and the national land the next generation will enjoy."
Jeong said, "There is a separate set of tasks the government should undertake. It should rationalize redevelopment and reconstruction regulations and move up the supply of planned housing sites and new towns," adding, "Through balanced national development, it should improve jobs and living conditions in the provinces and reduce the demand for dwellings itself that is concentrating in the capital area."
He continued, "Choosing the easy path of tearing down parks is not what the government should do," adding, "The government should run state affairs with the next generation in mind, not the next election."
Jeong said, "I say this clearly as the person who created the National Urban Park Act," adding, "Do not claim to help young people while taking away their future. Do not destroy cities in the name of building homes."
He added, "A park is not land the government can borrow temporarily and use recklessly when it needs it," saying, "It is the people's asset that must be passed down to future generations."