Column | Harassing motorists on the Esplanade seems to be a mistake that is still being cried over

It is I have been walking here hand in hand with Aleksi for decades. Sometimes the chest is on the rattan, sometimes the back is bent.

Likewise, Aleksanterinkatu has experienced many peak periods when its rise began after the war. Mahtivaitti seemed to only become more prominent decade after decade, even though the face of the street changed.

Money, money, money. Large bank and insurance offices represented financial power, the university spiritual power, the Cathedral spiritual power, and the shops represented commodity power. HS told one of them, a clothing store The Christmas story on Thursday.

Read more: A small insight was made in the last few years in the “gentleman’s shop” in the center of Helsinki, which revolutionized the clothing trade

First the personal Aleksi memory takes place at the end of the 1960s and in Stocka’s escalator. You didn’t have to walk in them, which was a big miracle for a little boy. In emotional memory, the stairs led upwards.

Next, Aleksanterinkatu entered the picture when studies began at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Helsinki. Its skull place is in the university’s main building along Aleksi.

For ten years, the feet took the stairs of the Old Student Hall up to the Old Cupola. Many rock bands were formed at the tables, which never played a single gig.

That’s it. Then the downhill began.

If the decades of the last century were one of Aleksi’s rise, now it’s a different time, and the hands of Stocka’s clock seem to have fluttered. I have been able to read more and more news about the street’s commercial discount space.

KOP and SYP are Nordea, whose office building is still located in Aleksi. Instead, e.g. the illuminated letters of Skop, the savings banks’ central monetary institution, were famously lowered from the wall to the street and taken away.

Stores have come and gone. Like Kuusinen, mostly gone. The place of domestic top products has been taken by international design brands and discount chains, which Aleks has also only been passing by.

Even Stockmann’s cornerstone, almost a national pride, has recently been seriously undermined and the ownership base has also fluctuated. The number of escalators has increased tenfold, but will they ever roll up again?

What does this all mean? I don’t know, because I live in the past, and I haven’t visited Aleks for a long time, and apparently neither have many others. But I have read in the news that Aleksi has calmed down.

The population of Helsinki has grown explosively over the decades, as have neighboring Espoo and Vantaa. The capital region is one economic area whose approach roads still lead to the heart of Helsinki.

There have been more people, and therefore more money. At the same time, however, trading in Helsinki has spread from the core center to the entire city – and the internet. The focus of the core center has also moved away from Aleks. It’s not a thoroughfare unless you’re heading to the sea.

This the comment is realistic because the matter is serious. Aleksi is not a laughing stock. It is the heart of Helsinki.

Architects Vilhelm Helander and Mikael Sundman 52 years ago, they published a pamphlet-like speech by whom Helsinki – report on the inner city 1970 (WSOY, 1970).

In their footsteps, urban researcher, professor Janne Viitamies published what he originally prepared as a dissertation as a book Whose Aleksi, its Helsinki: Kluuv’s pedestrian street battles 1968–2003 (University of Helsinki, 2016).

In both books, there is a power struggle between pedestrians and motorists. If I interpret it correctly, the authors lean towards pedestrians. I’m neutral about them myself, but I’m on Aleksi’s side.

Read more: Helsinki restricts driving in the core – Sinnemäki believes comfort will improve, Rautava: “One of the stupidest decisions”

Alex’s the sidewalks were widened in 1982–1986. Trams, service trucks, taxis and . . . pedestrians (cyclists, skateboarders and scooter riders are not counted).

On both Esplanades, the removal of the second car lane is being tried at various points. However, should we first look in the direction of Aleksi’s recent development, at least before Espoja is really turned into pedestrian streets?

Then there would be no need to cry again.