A parking lot was built in a park in Turku and now it is used as a scrap warehouse.
Parking lot looks a bit like the set of a movie about the end of the world. That is, a movie where people have disappeared from urban areas and vehicles and settlements are gradually covered by moss, leaves and other vegetation.
A HS reader contacted me about the current state of Kalevanpuisto in Turku. Located one kilometer from the Kupittaa train station, there is a city parking lot in the park, where you can exceptionally park without a time limit. On one side of the park runs the lively Kalevantie, and on the other side is an approximately hundred-year-old residential area.
“It’s a remarkable area. There are mobile homes that are apparently lived in all year round, at least the laundry is dried outside,” the reader described in his e-mail
On a weekday, there are no residents in the parking lot, but a lone grill indicates possible residents. Maybe the area is more lively in summer.
The old grill has been left at the mercy of the weather for the winter.
According to the reader, the turnover of vehicles in the parking lot is non-existent. This is also visible on the spot. Some of the caravans have certainly been standing there for years.
In addition to that, the market vendors have found the place. Meat pie, pancake, and Asian food stalls have been brought to the site for winter rolls. Lihatsu kahl nakil -one of the stalls advertises Hamina’s traditional food.
Moss decorates the moldings of the caravans.
Traffic planning engineer Eero Paavola The city of Turku says that the city’s will is to get rid of the parking area.
“It is not in the city’s interests to offer free space for the storage of property so close to the city center and even more so for an unlimited time,” says Paavola.
So the parking lot’s days are numbered. According to Paavola, removing the parking area can be done in two ways. Another way is to repair the park in connection with the Itäharju zoning project.
Kalevanpuisto has been included in the master plan of the residential buildings planned on the other side of Kalevanti.
“If the repair is connected to Voimakatu’s site plan, its costs will be small compared to all other construction related to the plan. On the other hand, repairing the parking area can also be done regardless of the site plan,” says Paavola.
Old washing machines should be recycled.
Is it fear that Kalevanpuisto will be completely destroyed and new buildings will be built?
Kalevanpuisto’s second parking lot had to give way to the kindergarten building a few years ago. The daycare building was built next to the 1830s cholera cemetery at the west end of the park.
One of the flagship projects of the city of Turku, the Science Park, is to be built in the Itäharju industrial area, located on the other side of Kalevanti. It will become a center for the growth of skills and high-tech jobs, where more than 10,000 new jobs and new apartments for 20,000 Turku residents are planned. According to the Turku tramway plan, the city center-Varissuo line runs right through Itäharju.
The parking lot was built in Kalevanpuisto sometime in the 1970s.
Paavola emphasizes that Kalevanpuisto will continue to be an important buffer between the residential area and Kalevanti.
The fate of the park has been in the balance at least twice. Kalevanpuisto was formed in the 1940s after it was marked in the area’s first site plan in 1945.
In the 1980s, Turku’s parks were threatened by their gradual transition to parking. Kalevanpuisto was also among such parks.
HS reported in June 1982 that conservationists had appealed to the city government to restore the parks.
The historic Vanha Littoistentie runs behind the parking area.
The fate of Kalevanpuisto was at stake for the second time in the early 1990s. Then the city planned that they will turn the park into a block area of business and office buildings.
Kalevanpuisto has functioned as a buffer between the residential area and the lively Kalevanti.
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