Hämeenlinna and Lahti tempt Helsinki residents away

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The cities of Hämeenlinna and Lahti wish to receive more residents from the Helsinki metropolitan area. They advertise themselves as safe and spacious locations close to nature.
      Those who regard the capital area as cramped, expensive, and insecure could certainly find there an alternative to Helsinki's apartment buildings and yards covered with asphalt.
      Lahti and Hämeenlinna are largish cities - on the Finnish scale - about one hour away from the capital city.
      Helsingin Sanomat found out what kind of life Hämeenlinna and Lahti are offering as an alternative to Helsinki, when an imaginary family starts looking for a better environment than Helsinki's district of Etelä-Haaga.
     
Helsinki clearly loses out when it comes to spacious living conditions. Apart from being one of the amenities in life, spacious living or its absence also serves as an indicator of social problems. When comparing residences in these three cities, Lahti citizens have the most spacious homes, and Hämeenlinna comes in second.
      A comparison based on the recent statistics of the Finnish Real Estate Federation (FREF) indicates that Lahti has the lowest real estate taxes and municipal charges, while in Hämeenlinna such costs of living are the highest.
     
Indicators for evaluating social problems include the crime rate, the unemployment rate, the use of alcohol, the number of abortions, as well as the indebtness of the city in question. According to the databases of both the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES), Helsinki is an obvious leader also in terms of problems.
     
Lahti's earlier high crime rate has eased off over recent years. The highest number of violent crimes has been recorded in Helsinki, while Hämeenlinna comes second.
      On the other hand, there is more unemployment - even long-term unemployed - in Lahti than there is in either Helsinki or Hämeenlinna.
      As regards indebtness, Lahti is the number one among these three cities.
      In a comparison of the Finnish cities' social problems based on ten indicators, Helsinki scores 117 points, Lahti 114, and Hämeenlinna 93 points, when the average of all Finnish cities with more than 40,000 residents is 100.
      At the same time as the capital may have social problems, the cultural supply as well as various opportunities for sports and other activities in Helsinki are superior to the other parts of the country.
     
Hämeenlinna has the highest sales of alcohol, when compared with Helsinki and Lahti.
      "As far as I know, this is not a problem in Hämeenlinna. It is worth considering whether or not more people from the surrounding countryside come to buy alcohol in Hämeenlinna than happens elsewhere", says Erkki Torppa, the head of the City of Hämeenlinna's department of social services.
     
The comparison found no significant differences between the three cities regarding child welfare and day care services, which are important from a young family's point of view. For example, the visits to child welfare clinics were on the same level in all three cities.
      Lahti is well-known for the annual Lahti Ski Games, called Salpausselän kisat, and for the Lahti Organ Festival, and the international writers' meeting at Mukkula. In Hämeenlinna, there is the birthplace of composer Jean Sibelius and the medieval Häme Castle, which today serves as a prison museum.


Links:
  The Finnish Real Estate Federation (FREF)
  The National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES)

Helsingin Sanomat