▲ Yangsan Young Street Steering Committee / Chairman Kim Seung-gwon

(PowerKorea) Located between Busan and Ulsan, Yangsan City is a traffic hub in the southeast part of Korea. The city recently has experienced inflow of young couples which makes the 300,000 population city becoming young. Around half of the population is between 20s and 40s. The problem, however, is that they travel to nearby Busan or Ulsan to hang around since the city lack in entertainment. 

Yangsan Young Street Steering Committee set sail with this awareness. Around 2,000 market employees of 1,500 stores based their trade on this street. It is notable that most store owners are in their 20s and 30s who are in support of local government with low interest loan.

“They are the ones who probably have paid tax the most in the city since 2002. But they seem to have received pedestrians called Young Street in return. So about 30 store owners gather together in 2016 and set sail Yangsan Young Street Steering Committee in 2018” says Committee chairman Kim Seung-gwon. 

The pedestrians went through reconstruction due to rainwater flooding into stores. The budget used for the pedestrians were obscure. The contents to call young generation were scarce despite the city started to support busking from 2018 in a limited budget that could not even cover renting speakers and amps. 

The first thing Committee did was to decide the square names by the public and two names were decided: Shop Square for the first square and Star Square for the second square. The second thing Committee did was to hold the 1st Busking Contest which succeeded in attracting attention from young people. The third thing Committee did was to invite free markets and to make and spared fliers on social media. The Committee now has nearly 600 members thanks to this hard work. 

Young Street is 680 meter long with 450 meter pedestrians, two squares, 1,500 stores and nearby cinemas, subway and a bus terminal. In 2016, the Yangsan Street Concert Activation Ordinance was introduced and the Committee changed the pedestrians with granite with variety of colors. Zelkova trees were erected and the square in front of Yangsan Station saw new stone chairs in pink, grey and black alongside granite benches and small stages here and there along the street.

Now the street is vibrating with the sound of music and traditional percussion quartet as well as dance every weekend. Nearly 100 gigs have been taken place on the street so far. As an architect himself, Kim also erected sculptures and created photo zones and signature malls. 

“We are still working on the street and we are ambitious to turn it to a tourist hotspot in the city and South Korea. We will introduce digital signage to the street this year alongside various smart improvements. We will invite more young people to engage in our projects to keep it young and vibrate. We hope Young Street will serve as a landmark of the city where citizens and visitors alike can have a rest and entertainment.”

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