Image: “Kaivokatu as a Public Transport Street” – from the Ydinkeskustan liikennejärjestelmäsuunnitelma presentation, p. 24.
Improving Winter Maintenance
I want to build a Helsinki where a low-emission life is an easy choice for everyone. This means that walking, cycling, and public transportation must be convenient, efficient, and safe throughout the city. In turn, more people will have a real opportunity to reduce private car use. At the same time, essential professional and necessary personal car traffic will flow more smoothly where alternatives do not exist.
One major challenge in promoting walking and cycling is failures in winter maintenance, particularly in dealing with ice and slush. I have written about this issue before:
https://juhakarhu.fi/kevuyen-liikenteen-vaylien-talvikunnossapidossa-on-edelleen-petrattavaa/.
Vitality Through Green Transition and Family Well-Being
Low-emission heating and electricity must be easy and natural choices for all Helsinki residents. Helsinki’s innovative energy projects—including wind, solar, and small, modular nuclear reactors, as well as energy storage and hydrogen production—aim precisely at this goal. These initiatives create sustainable economic vitality, generating jobs and attracting businesses and skilled professionals to the city.
In the City Council, the Greens support the renovation of existing buildings and ensure that new housing developments in Helsinki are energy-efficient and located in areas with good public transport connections and access to services.
In the long run, well-being and economic vitality depend on the well-being and skills of Helsinki residents. This is why we must invest in supporting families, early childhood education, primary education, high schools, and vocational training.
There is no early childhood education without skilled daycare professionals. That’s why I support a salary development program, in line with the Green Party’s policies, to increase wages in sectors facing labor shortages, such as early childhood education and child welfare.
School Resources and Preventing Regional Segregation
The Greens are building a Helsinki where every child and young person has equal opportunities to learn, no matter where they live. Every school must be a good school! We must address educational inequality by directing more funding to schools where additional support is needed the most. This is also a key measure in preventing neighborhood segregation. Schools are perhaps the most important municipal service for families choosing where to live.
I believe that preventing regional segregation is crucial because I want Helsinki to remain a livable city where all residents contribute to society. Preventing urban decay and slum formation is particularly important in the face of the current government’s austerity policies, which have reduced state support for social housing production. Helsinki must do everything in its power to reverse the trend of increasing inequality between neighborhoods.
A Broad Approach to Safety
Ensuring safety is one of society’s fundamental responsibilities. For decades, Finland has done well in this regard, but now new threats to security are emerging.
Key elements of comprehensive safety include e.g. combating climate change, efficient winter maintenance, high-quality education, social inclusion for all, and maintaining Helsinki’s economic vitality.
Guaranteeing a safe old age for low-income, lonely, and possibly ill elderly people is one of the major challenges of the coming years—and one that we must address with urgency. I have previously written about this topic:
https://juhakarhu.fi/kaupungin-tulee-kantaa-vastuunsa-pienituloisten-elakelaisten-hyvinvoinnista-ja-turvallisuudesta/.
Among all age groups, the 75+ population in Helsinki is growing the fastest. The City of Helsinki must do its part to ensure that they—and eventually, all of us—can grow old without fear of being left without proper care.