Songdo New City
At first, I thought we should all definitely agree to build the new Song do City, but after a quite long time of research, I find myself quite on the neutral side. Song do seems to be like a dream city, full of business, new technology, money, new trades, foreign schools, hospitals and even colleges. However, like everything has a drawback, the new plan of the Song do City also had some flaws. To just look at the plan, everybody will think the new city is perfect.
The ultimate goal of the city is to make Song do the hub of northeast Asia, exceeding those of Singapore, China and Hong Kong. The new city is a joint project of Gale International, the largest real estate in the US, and Posco E&C. The idea of making this city is creating a ”°Synergy City”± like New York, Paris, Venice, Sydney and so on. Basically, the master plan is to make a place where people could live and meet all the needs to work as well. As a result, when the city is complete, the city should have a convention center, international school and hospital, Central Park, Ecotarium, convention center hotel, museum, retail complex, 18-hole golf course and a cultural center. All these places will have the finest and best standard. However, will all these luxury items only create beneficial factor for South Korea?
Recently my mother had to work in a hotel with her team to write an emergency report. I asked what she did when she came back later on, and she told me it was about the new Song do City. The Korean Maritime Institute was in an emergency because of the new city. I do not exactly know what happened, but she told it was related to the decrease of fish in the waterfront where the Song do City was built over and about the citizens who used to live there and who used to make their living by fishing. I did not understand what she was talking about that day but now I do. The reason why I became a neutral side was because of this. The latter reason about the people who used to make their living by fishing is a second matter. The important factor that we should not ignore is the environment.
The waterfront that the Song do city is covering was actually a place where there are rich with many different kinds of fish. Now, the whole fishery decrease about 90% than before. It seems quite obvious that the marine ecosystem will be destroyed if the ecosystem is covered with building and roads. People seem to think the environmental problems are something we could neglect and something we could fix later on. Also they believe the value price of the new city will be much higher than that of a little portion of the sea which is probably not even 1% to the whole sea area. However, human cannot defeat the nature. The developers should stop thinking that human can control the nature. Under the hand of Mother Nature, mankind is as brittle as tissue. The destruction of that small habitat will make us forfeit one day.
The second problem is the deepening of polarity in wealth. As anyone can see the new city is absolutely restricted to the wealthy and powerful class of the society which is a very small portion. All ready the housing prices are increasing like crazy. The fact is so obvious that those who have money will become more rich and those who do not, would not. Some people argue that this kind of phenomenon will not happen because the area is a free economy zone however, in my opinion that is only an excuse for those who seek fortune in this city.
Of course, the creation of the city will be a great fortune and hope for Koreans to make Korea a better country. However, I strongly believe that the government should have a planned the project more cautiously and carefully. The lack of caution caused them the needs to change the contract right now and right now the progress is not so well but the government has no power due to the contract. Second, the government should also think about the poor who cannot afford to be the 1% of the economical class. Although the business might be less fast on progress, the government should try to find a way to please both sides of the nation, not one. Like the old proverb say, when there is a will, there is a way.
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