Housing | Even the residents of Kaivopuisto and Westend feel ashamed of their own residential area, says an expert – Why do we rank areas into good and bad?

Is good and bad residential areas – or is there?

How is the neighborhood’s reputation created? Who decides which camp any place belongs to?

The questions came to the surface when HS visited Karhuvuori in Kotka and Liipola in Lahti, which have had a reputation as bad areas for years.

Read more: Tom Ögård bought a nice home for only 25,000 euros – the area has such a bad reputation that not all brokers even accept properties for sale

However, it is not only the areas that are considered bad that are prisoners of their reputation, says the professor of urban geography Mari Vaattovaara.

Research according to Vaattovaara, up to 90 percent of Nordics can name an area they would not move to at least.

A descriptive measure is whether a person dares to tell others where exactly he lives. Not everyone dares, says the professor.

Avoiding talking about where they live lives in areas considered disadvantaged, such as Jakomäki, Vesala and Kurkimäki in Helsinki.

Perhaps surprisingly, not everyone who lives in prosperous, well-being-filled areas like to tell their neighborhood either. Such as Helsinki’s Eira, Kaivopuisto and Kuusisaari and Espoo’s Westend, Nuottaniemi and Soukanniemi.

“It is very easy for us to think that the reputation would burden only the residents of disadvantaged areas. It’s clearly not that simple,” Vaattovaara reflects.

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“Perhaps the ethos of equality and uniformity explains that you don’t want to differentiate yourself even upwards.”

Residents of well-to-do areas hardly think that their neighborhood has a reputation as a suspicious, troubled or poor area. It’s more about the atmosphere, the lifestyle that is associated with the residential area in mental images.

According to studies, a part of town can even be an extension of self-image. It is typical that the cultural elite, especially those interested in art or technology, are the group in these areas who do not dare to say where they really live, Vaattovaara states.

“Difficult theme”, he commented.

“Perhaps the ethos of equality and uniformity explains that you don’t want to differentiate yourself even upwards.”

Notoriety are often built by those who avoid the area and consciously avoid moving there, Vaattovaara reflects.

Thus, the role of the ruling middle class is central. When the middle class with families with children stops avoiding the district, the area gets into a good cycle, so to speak.

On the other hand, reputation can appear in very different ways inside the area than when viewed from outside, city researcher Pekka Tuominen resemble.

“The taste of the middle class alone does not mean or decide the future of the region,” he emphasizes.

For example, Helsinki’s Kontula is suitable. The name (and reputation) is recognized by many who have never been there.

However, the people of Kontula know how to turn their bad reputation to their advantage: you can joke about it. It is even considered to be a protection against getting drunk, or nowadays “hipsterization”, Tuominen describes. You can also be happy that you belong to a lively, curious place like Kontula.

“Many people from Kontula have no problem telling where they are from. On the contrary, they are proud of it.”

Interesting the phenomenon is also how previously scorned neighborhoods suddenly become trendy, university lecturer in geography Teemu Kemppainen says.

Over time, this has happened first in Helsinki to the north of Pitkänsilla, such as Kallio, and later, for example, to Roihuvuori and Myllypuro located in the east. Why some areas rise and others do not is a clear pattern.

“It’s about a series of good things that feed each other and to some extent happen by chance,” Kemppainen sums up.

In other words, the reputation is not necessarily cleaned by image campaigns or even by comparing statistics. Sometimes just a single event creates a reputation that is hard to shake off, says Kemppainen.