myllypuro.html

Myllypuro district belongs to the newer parts of the city of Helsinki, built because the growth of capitol area forced the city to expand to north and east. It's a typical beton suburb from the 1970's.

An average Finn probably recognises the name from two quite disgusting major news events: First comes Jammu Siltavuori, a man who raped, burnt and buried a couple of young girls that he had picked for a car ride from this neighborhoood in the late 1980's. Another case that made the place famous was a decade later, when they found toxical substances from the area, which happens to have been a dump pit before the houses were built. The heavy metal percentages in soil were so high that a few good conditioned houses needed to be demolished, and residents to be thrown out by millennium time. When we finally got a chance to go there and check the doomed city blocks, most of them were already demolished. But here's some pictures anyway.

	Demolition area -- do not enter.. Yeah right..
	The taller houses were gone by the time we got to the place. These small houses exist, but unlike the big ones these are really carefully protected. Most of the interior, like doors and dishtables have been removed for recycling. Also windows have been removed, but boards on the holes prevent from going in.
	Looks almost like normal residential houses, except from flourishing yard and graffiti that you don't usually see here painted on residential buildings.
	It's an abandoned playground!
	Quite exactly all doors were not locked. Here's Raiztlin at one door that was open, though it only lead to a bicycle storage. Most of the doors had been welded close, and boarded with steel and plywood.
	Check the "we were first" tag to the left of the door. Looks like local gangs were really keen in getting inside the houses after the residents left.
	The reason why these houses are standing here, is that the old residents made tens of complaints about the demolition, which lead to suspending the job. I doubt these houses will ever be resided again though, since they're already ripped from valuable stuff, vandalised, painted etc.
	The houses might be empty, but there's still electricity and apparently nobody has switched off the automatic lighting systems. So the stairway entrance lights are still lit.
	On this huge yard used to be a couple of bigger houses.
	There are also two houses, that at the moment of visiting had residents but that were meant to be demolished. Some activists protesting against the demolitions (there are already big housing problem in the city) had placed newspaper clips to window of one empty locale, maybe a former daycare place or such. Here's a newspaper photo of one of the already demolished buildings. As it shows, entering the buildings wasn't hard.
	Some of the residents were quite frustrated having to leave their homes, they've also dumped stuff to the empty parking lots.
	Parking lots again. Here we saw the only people who were around and probably lived in the standing-but-not-for-long houses, they sounded quite hopping mad and frustrated.
	Legacy lives, Jammu-setä is not forgotten...

Demolition area -- do not enter.. Yeah right..

The taller houses were gone by the time we got to the place. These small houses exist, but unlike the big ones these are really carefully protected. Most of the interior, like doors and dishtables have been removed for recycling. Also windows have been removed, but boards on the holes prevent from going in.

Looks almost like normal residential houses, except from flourishing yard and graffiti that you don't usually see here painted on residential buildings.

It's an abandoned playground!

Quite exactly all doors were not locked. Here's Raiztlin at one door that was open, though it only lead to a bicycle storage. Most of the doors had been welded close, and boarded with steel and plywood.

Check the "we were first" tag to the left of the door. Looks like local gangs were really keen in getting inside the houses after the residents left.

The reason why these houses are standing here, is that the old residents made tens of complaints about the demolition, which lead to suspending the job. I doubt these houses will ever be resided again though, since they're already ripped from valuable stuff, vandalised, painted etc.

The houses might be empty, but there's still electricity and apparently nobody has switched off the automatic lighting systems. So the stairway entrance lights are still lit.

On this huge yard used to be a couple of bigger houses.

There are also two houses, that at the moment of visiting had residents but that were meant to be demolished. Some activists protesting against the demolitions (there are already big housing problem in the city) had placed newspaper clips to window of one empty locale, maybe a former daycare place or such. Here's a newspaper photo of one of the already demolished buildings. As it shows, entering the buildings wasn't hard.

Some of the residents were quite frustrated having to leave their homes, they've also dumped stuff to the empty parking lots.

Parking lots again. Here we saw the only people who were around and probably lived in the standing-but-not-for-long houses, they sounded quite hopping mad and frustrated.

Legacy lives, Jammu-setä is not forgotten...

REFERENCES:

Article "Helsinki purkaa yksitoista taloa Myllypuron saastuneelta asuinalueelta", Kaija Aho / Antti Manninen, Helsingin Sanomat, 2.6.1999

SITES WITH NOTEWORTHY CONTENT CONCERNING MYLLYPURO: