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If you had a chance what would you do to make Itaewon better? |
Travel Info I've lived here for so long and it hasn't changed a bit. Don't get me wrong there are some things I like about the place, but most of it I think needs to be revamped. Looking for some opinions from foreigners and Korean nationals. Travel Tips Too many bars= too many drunk people=too many prostitutes. Civilians - Korean and foreigners are now much worse than GIs were. MPs any many bar owners did pretty good job of controlling GIs but KNP has little control with civilians. I hate to drive through Itaewon because too much traffic and parking on street really slows everything down. Driving there at night is dangerous because so many drunk civilians and bad behavior. Shopping is too expensive for quality of what they sell. You can find anything they sell much cheaper in the many other shopping areas of Seoul. Too many young Korean boys - men hanging around on main street and grabbing women and girls to get them to go into some shop. I will not walk or drive through Itaewon without my husband. Itaewon is dirty and brings great shame to us Koreans from outside that area. This is the first picture that foreigners see of Seoul and it is not a good image. Others What a great question! Re route traffic and close Itaewon to all but after hours deliveries. Transform the main street in Itaewon and the streets running north to (and including) the street behind the Hamilton Hotel to pedestrian walkways with proper lighting and street furniture. Revamp the storefronts and generally clean up the mess that is now Itaewon. Enforce parking laws around the perimeter of the new pedestrian area, plan for after hours garbage collection so that the piles of refuse are not visible as they fester and weep God 鈥?knows- what on to the pavement. Bury all the electrical wiring and transformers that presently take up half the sidewalk. All this is common sense and there are thousands of examples of this kind of revitalization around the world. Do something to draw more Korean鈥檚 to the area. To see what I mean, drive through Itaewon at night, and then carry on to Sinchon 鈥?what a huge difference. Sinchon is alive at night, well lit with lots happening, groups of people, couples 鈥?all having a good time. Itaewon looks like a dump with all the steel shutters pulled down on the shops and a few drunken English teachers staggering around with that sheepish 鈥渋f only they could see me back home now 鈥?look on their faces. I really think Itaewon is a wasted opportunity. I鈥檓 a foreigner and I do go regularly with my wife to Itaewon to meet friends and visit the many different restaurants. There are quite a few small, decent foreign restaurants there serving Thai, Indian, Greek, Italian, Mid Eastern, Mexican etc food, the taste of which hasn鈥檛 been 鈥淜orean-ized鈥? 鈥?the area has fantastic potential but there is obviously a lack of interest by the local authorities. I know that when the Korean Government decides to take on a project, they will spare no expense to do it properly 鈥?they just need to summon the will to 鈥渇ix鈥?Itaewon. The military presence will be gone from Itaewon soon 鈥?now is the time to make plans to improve Itaewon. By the way, I agree with the other persons post that the groups of lecherous males purposely blocking an already crowed sidewalk to sell their fake watches and handbags should be forced to clear the area. Those guys create an intimidating atmosphere for visitors new to the area and just plain irritate the rest of us. I agree with most of what was posted, yet I was there just the other day and I was greatly impressed by its rejuvenation. Twenty years ago it was wall to wall prostitutes literally standing shoulder to shoulder on all the streets at night, but at that time it was also a "high class" area, in that most of the embassies etc were there. It has been on a down hill slide for a long, long time. I liked all the Indian restaurants etc. I also noticed noticed that the quality of products being vended on the street had improved. The only girl who leaned out a bar door shouted at me "We have imported beer!" Which is a far cry from what it used to be. I am an American living in Seoul and for all of the other stated reasons, I do not live in the Itaewon area. (I am in Yunhee-dong) I have a 6 year old daughter and refuse to take her to Itaewon at night, even though some of her favorite restaurants are there. We all know things will change a great deal when the US is not longer occupying Yongsan. A park is a wonderful diea dn I hope the Korean government sees it through. When this happens, many of Itaewons "problems" will disappear. In the meanwhile, the American military has to take responsibility for the incidents that have occured, to our great shame, in the clubs/bars in that area. We have set the low standard that Itaewon achieves. All reported rapes and sexual molestations that have occured in Itaewon in the last 2 years have been by foreigners. (not only ours) The US military has a great opportunity ot set an example of visiting foreign/good neighbor. IT is too bad there are not more outreach programs from us to the community within that area. (we have outreach programs between US military and Korean school childre, for example, but nothing directly in ITaewon that I know about) blow it up because its like the worst part of seoul and it is horribly overrated to many GI's as well Before I even read the whole question I thought "blow it up." It's a filthy disgusting area and I feel dirty anytime I have to go there, which, thank God, is not often. |
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