Garbage | A parking garage in Eastern Helsinki is tormented by a mess: There is a dividing line in the middle, the other side of which is like a landfill

Parking garage Helsinki's Itäkeskus is filled with loot and waste again and again after cleaning. The location is central, as the area's new public transport center with apartments was originally supposed to rise on top of the premises.

The hall's hundred free parking spaces are, however, very little used. The situation is partly due to the hall's insecurity and clutter.

There is a lot of garbage, garbage bags, cardboard and syringes on the floor. The walls are covered with graffiti and lonely shopping carts lie abandoned.

Part of the hall is under the care of a private real estate company, and part is under the care of Urban Transport, which is partially owned by the City of Helsinki.

A sort of dividing line runs through the middle of the hall, describes the entrepreneur who has been following the messy state of the hall Aki Lahikainen .

Lahikainen, who visits the private parking garage almost every day, says that he has been in contact three times with the management of the messy side.

“I can't understand this. The side of the private hall is really clean and well washed, but the landfill starts 50 meters away.”

He usually instructs acquaintances to leave their cars elsewhere, as the hall on the public side is unsafe for him.

General according to the perception, drug trade takes place in the hall and its surrounding areas, which attracts other crime to the place.

Problem is well known by Urban Transport.

The hall in question and its surroundings receive very negative feedback at a steady pace, says Kaupunkilkeinen manager of the asset management unit Antti Nousiainen.

“There is not-so-smart behavior there, which is why people don't dare to leave their cars there. It's a sad thing.”

Nousiainen assures that Kaupunkilikenne takes care of the acute messes in the hall, and it has not been left to its own devices. It has never come to his attention that the hall was not cleaned. The hall is regularly cleaned twice a month.

According to the survey conducted by urban transport on December 18, the normal cleaning times have been carried out.

Parking garage however, it has proven to be challenging to clean and maintain, because people and animals can get there freely.

The hall is closed at night, but when it is not in active parking use, according to Urban Transport, disorderly people gather there, messing up places and committing vandalism.

People who spend time in the parking garage leave behind food and garbage, and the people enjoy themselves in the garage because of this.

According to Nousiainen, the most significant reason for the low use of the hall is the underutilization of the properties above and partially empty offices.

The situation a sustainable solution is difficult.

“Bigger problems in the area, such as disruptive behavior, will not be solved in a short time. That would require, for example, surveillance and police measures, which we do not have the authority to do,” says Nousiainen.

“It's no use, even if we clean every day.”

In the future, however, the cleaning of the parking garage and the collection of garbage from the floors of the garage will be ordered more often than the current cleaning contract requires, says Nousiainen.

Parking garage the situation was one of the issues that were hoped to be resolved in the large Punos project that covered the entire block of the hall.

Apartments for up to 500 people were planned for the block, which has, among other things, the Itäkeskus bus terminal.

However, the construction company YIT withdrew from the giant project in early 2023, which had been planned for four years. With the withdrawal, the fundamental improvement of the Itäkeskus public transport terminal and large-scale residential construction remained unfulfilled.

No major renovations are planned for the messy hall until the fate of the entire block is resolved. City traffic prepares a maintenance and repair plan, according to which we will go until then.

“You have to think about what is reasonable. It's not worth taking very drastic measures if everything is going to be new in 5–10 years,” says Nousiainen of Urban Transport.