Starting point of the place
It is easy to misunderstand Ilsan New Town as a suburban city that grew naturally just by looking at the lake park and neat streets. However, the starting point was the government's first new city policy in response to the housing crisis in the metropolitan area in the late 1980s. A large-scale housing site was designated in the Ilsan area, where there were rice paddies, fields, and villages, and housing, roads, parks, and commercial districts were planned all at once. The straight blocks on the map are not the result of taste, but a trace of a policy that attempted to supply a large number of houses in a short period of time.
Landscape changed by time
A planned city is not completed at the same time as the drawings are published. Land expropriation, infrastructure construction, apartment occupancy, opening of schools and stores, and expansion of railway and bus routes took different amounts of time. The construction sites, long commutes, and lack of amenities experienced by the early residents are not clearly visible in today's completed photos. This is why, when reading the history of a new town, it is necessary to look at the first move-in, opening of the transportation network, and settlement of living facilities rather than just writing down the year of the development plan.
People and issues in the story
Ilsan left Jeongbalsan Mountain in the center and placed a lake park and a cultural and commercial axis, and single-family homes, schools, and neighborhood parks were placed between the apartment complexes. Although this design emphasized walking and green spaces, it could not eliminate the problem of living areas being dependent on automobiles and metropolitan transportation. Demand for commuting to Seoul, congestion on Jayu-ro and the urban railway, and distance between jobs and residences are challenges that planned cities face over time. Well-designed parks and inconvenient metropolitan travel can be simultaneously true within a city.
What travelers will read on the spot
Rather than just heading to the lake park from Jeongbalsan Station, travelers can also walk along the pedestrian paths inside residential blocks, the layout of schools and shops, and the points where the old village name remains. If you move towards Ilsan Market and the old Ilsan Station, the difference between the former center of the new town and the planned city becomes clearer. Rather than evaluating the new city with one word, success or failure, the way to understand Ilsan without exaggeration is to ask what housing problems it was trying to solve, whose land and life changed, and what new inconveniences arose after moving in.
How to check data
If you walk around Ilsan and record old place names, you can see that the planned city did not completely turn the previous land into a blank slate. While traces of the village remain in the names of apartment complexes, schools, and parks, actual residences and farmland have changed significantly. The continuation of the name should not be equated with the continuity of life, but a distinction should be made between the time of the relocated residents and the newly moved residents. Recording not only the convenience of the completed new city but also the gap between planning and occupancy reveals the process by which housing policy becomes a place of daily life. The conclusion of this article is limited to the scope confirmed by field observations and two official data, and should be revised if operation and research results change in the future.