Basketball | The city took extraordinary measures because of the noise at night – this is how the people of Helsinki think about it

Helsinki the city’s solution to eliminate nighttime noise nuisance from outdoor basketball courts divided opinion last week.

The city has prevented the playing of basketball on several different courts, for example by closing the baskets with a metal tightening ring so that the ball cannot drip through the basketball sock. In this way, the aim is to eliminate the nighttime noise caused by playing, about which the residents of the nearby areas of the fields have made complaints.

One of the basketball courts that has experienced such a fate is in the yard of Pohjois Haaga elementary school. On the spot, however, a surprising sight awaited the reporter on Monday, because both basket socks were open as if they had never been closed.

“I thought I would tear them open myself, but that had already been done,” says the person throwing the ball into the basket in the elementary school yard Markus Posti.

The discussion about closing the baskets started last weekend, but the baskets of the Pohjois Haaga elementary school have had time to be playable for some time now. Posti, which considers banning the playing of basketball silly, is happy that the tightening rings have been removed from around the socks.

In Markus Posti’s opinion, closing basketball socks was a stupid thing to do. Picture: Janne Aaltonen / IS

“If you want to live in silence, then you can move to the country. This is a sports venue.”

“I think it’s a good thing that young people are moving, throwing a ball or generally doing something other than just typing on the phone.”

Posti says that he lives a reasonable distance from the school, so he himself has not had to suffer from the noise from the field. He also feels sympathy for those who live next to the field.

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You could have just gone and said that this is causing a lot of fuss and suggested that, for example, after ten o’clock there will be no more games.

Posti suggests that playing basketball in the school yard could be prohibited after nine or ten in the evening. However, the Finnish summer is too short for a 24/7 gaming ban.

Sunny is also spending the day in the school yard with his child Katja Hintikainen. He says that newspaper stories about closed baskets sparked a discussion in his close circle.

“My husband and I were reasonably furious about the closing of the baskets. I have exchanged messages about it with my friends as well. We found it really stupid that playing is also prevented during the day”, says Hintikainen.

“You can follow the discussion on Facebook, where there seem to be two positions. However, my own figure is that very many people consider the city’s solution rather hasty.”

Katja Hintikainen’s children often go to the yard of Pohjois Haaga elementary school to play and play basketball. Picture: Janne Aaltonen / IS

Hintikainen says that he goes to the elementary school field with his children several times a week. However, closing the baskets didn’t make the family’s everyday life difficult, because they happened to be on a summer vacation at the weekend. Alternatives to the favorite place had already been mapped out.

“Fortunately, there are other places to play here now. For example, there is a playground nearby with a sand court and a basketball hoop. However, you can’t bounce very well on a sand court, so you can’t play there.”

Hintikainen think the city could have tried to solve the problem in some other way than a 24/7 gaming ban. According to him, it seems that before the baskets were closed, young people were never asked to change their behavior.

“You could have just gone and said that this is causing a lot of fuss and suggested that, for example, after ten o’clock there will be no more games. You could even start with that.”