I’m Noora, a 35 year old architect living in Alppiharju, Helsinki. I’m a candidate of the Left Alliance running for the Helsinki City Council in the spring of 2021.
My main agenda revolves around three issues: sustainable city planning, affordable housing and education.
Helsinki should be developed in a sustainable way. Construction is one of the most CO2 intensive industries accounting more than 40 % of our emissions. In the midst of the current building boom we need to evaluate how to grow sustainably – re-using and re-purposing old structures while accommodating new inhabitants. We need to set ambitious goals and work hard in order to develop processes to tackle these issues during the next council term. Climate won’t wait.
Helsinki and the greater Helsinki area are facing a tremendous shortage of reasonable priced housing. In my view, the key is to add the amount of plot land that the city is selling and renting out. We are only able to lower the costs of living in the Helsinki area by increasing the housing production – and specially city’s own housing production. Lowering the quality of housing is not a sustainable or effective solution to the housing shortage.
Education is one of the key services the city offers to its habitants. Due to Covid-19 pandemic education sector plays even more important role in the lives of kids and students. As long as schools remain open, kids have at least one safe adult outside their home and social connections to their classmates. However the months of tele-learning left a lot of kids behind on their curriculum and socially secluded. This damage needs to be mitigated. Unfortunately the council decided to cut the budget on education, so fixing the covid damages might prove too demanding in the coming year. This is the main reason the Left Alliance couldn’t agree on the budget – and this is the very thing we would change should trust your vote with us.
Noora in Short:
Education: Architect, M.Sc. (Aalto University 2017)
Work: architect in a private company in Alppiharju, course teacher in the Department of Architecture, Aalto University. Previous work experience from the Association of Finnish Architects, as a construction worker and from the Hakaniemi Market hall.
Positions of trust: member of the Urban Environment committee of Helsinki and chairperson of the Environment and Permits sub-division, vice-chair of the board in Finnish Association of Architects SAFA.