SEOUL -- Over her 40 years of living in Seoul's Nowon district, Cho Hyun-sook has watched her neighborhood become denser and more expensive as more people relocate further away from central Seoul in pursuit of affordable housing.
She fears conditions are about to get much worse in Nowon, located in northeastern Seoul, as the government recently announced plans to build thousands of new residential units on the site of a large public park there. Cho and other locals say this would damage their quality of life by paving over a treasured green space that provides respite from the stresses of city life.