This seems to be a well run city, at least in terms of basic management (lack of street signs aside).

For instance, every curb has a ramp to the street. I noticed this riding my bike around. I never came up to a curb that was 8 inches high and imposing. Also, the lights all work, the crosswalks all have operable lights and the subway does not smell like a sewer or like that nasty subway smell. In fact it is odorless, quiet, and simple to use.

You have to pay 50 Won for plastic bags at the supermarket, which is about 5 cents. Most people use their own bags. Not a bad system if you are interested in waste reduction. Seoul also has curbside recycling three times a week (as opposed to Norfolk: which is once every two weeks with a 20% usage rate, or say, Chicago, which has none.) There are even recycling bins in all of the subway stations.

This is a huge and heavily populated city with polluted air to be sure, but there is virtually no trash in the streets. People put their garbage out in their little 50 Won plastic bags rather than in big American style Hefty cinch sacks and I guess it is whisked away immediately since there is no garbage around. My apartment building has garbage pickup three times a week. I am sure there are some rats around, but I haven't seem them running freely and obviously with great glee, as is the case in most any US city I have been.

There are some homeless people around in the central city (and I walked past a soupline that was actually a "bibimbap" line) but none of them have accosted me, nor have I seen anyone begging. Now, maybe there is a law against that. But there are laws in NY and DC, and just try to walk anywhere without being hassled.

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