Finland: From Russian Empire To The World’s Happiest Country | Bicycles, Housing, Renewable Energy

you walk around St Petersburg looking at all these icicles then you see this constantly shaking tiles in Moscow everything's covered in dirt and mud but then you come to Finland and realize the standard of living can be much better Finland is Russia's Northern neighbor it's only a few kilometers away from Mormons killing right regions and Republic of corellia but it seems that in terms of development these two countries aren't just separated by border crossing checkpoints but a huge decades-long gap he passed me on the shoulder saying Russians are great but Putin is terrible Finnish government aims for economic equality of its citizens and preserves landmarks this building is probably 30 to 40 years old but it looks as if it is only just been built you can use it as a set for a movie about those time without changing anything in the winter people ride their bicycles along the clear streets and the power to white snow look at this it's amazing it's a cold winter morning and there's a busy bicycle traffic on the way to a Finnish school and ice blocks don't fall on the people from the roofs there aren't any icicle on any of the roofs but you can see the heating wires everywhere I came to Finland to show you what a proper winter looks like and tell you about house Russia's X region became the happiest country in the world I want to find out how they managed to lay tiles so straight in such a climate but before we begin I'd like to make a disclaimer the video was shot before the Ukrainian crisis the video may seem too carefree and positive right now but I hope it helps you to take your mind of the problems in these hard times please like this video And subscribe to my channel and don't forget to share this video on Reddit and send it to your friends via WhatsApp [Music] foreign we're finally in Finland I didn't just come over here for nothing each year Russia faces dozens of problems due to the cold season icicles ice buildups on road dirt people struggle to walk across Pavements as they not get cleaned properly or in the contrary they've been covered with road salt that ruins your shoes I haven't even started talking about the poor pets who are getting hurt people are sleeping and breaking their legs it sounds like a horror story but it's true when we're talking about Russian winter officials usually explain that nothing can be done it's winter you just have to be patient and so I wondered how do the Finns deal with winter I'm currently in Helsinki that is some 30 kilometers away from Saint Petersburg the two cities are similar they both on the shore the Baltic Sea the climate is almost the same in Helsinki there is even more precipitation it's quite funny actually in Russia they blame everything in Winter whatever suggestion you make the response is always no this isn't possible we have winter for nine months we we can't build proper public spaces we can build cycle Lanes we can't do anything because the winter is long and cold so we'll explore Finland and we'll try to find out how the Finns deal with winter is it really a factor that is not possible to overcome finland's Capital breeds snowfall and Ice buildups much more responsibly than Russia's Saint Petersburg and the authorities do not claim that the poor janitorial services are criticized only by people who get paid for it helsinki's authorities prefer to take action instead of talking I'm going to show you how the cities functions during the winter foreign [Music] walking down a completely clean street it's some kind of magic there's no snow no icicles no ice buildups no drifts no salt and granite chips which are usually sprinkled on the streets what is the secret the thing is that several Central streets of Helsinki are heated from underneath the snow falls down on the street it immediately melts and goes into the rain train and these Central streets are always in any weather in any winter in any Frost absolutely clean it's Pleasant and comfortable to walk alone it seems like a simple solution but for some reason it's almost never used in Russia in Moscow we have a small heated area near the Manish where the entries to the Kremlin is but apart from that there don't seem to be any other heat is trees in Moscow and St Petersburg at least I haven't seen any of them by the way the heating system here is regulated by computers the temperature depending on the weather is said to make this magic heating as cheap as possible and in fact it doesn't cost that much in general when we talk about the proper streets management we have to take in count that the injuries people suffer for example by sleeping on icy sidewalks are also a cost it comes as an expense for the healthcare system not to mention the damage to health people simply stop working if they injured in Russia these scores and expenses are usually not taken into account so they don't spend as much on cleaning and you simply cannot do it look how clean this street is here's the border with the street which isn't heated now let me show you my favorite architectural feature in Finland fiends keep all the original doors here you can just break down Doors Break Down shop windows and put in some plastic metal garbage and instead especially if it comes to historic buildings architectural monuments there's a cool art nouveau building behind me and I think it's about 100 years old let's see what the doors look like there are different shops here traditionally the tenants rent the ground floor that said none of the tenants have changed the front door here's a store called Lindros selling some jewelry as we can see they kept the original door next we have another jewelry shop here even though they don't need the door it's still here they just use it as a shop front window in that door and put watches on display but they kept the locks the little animal plug the door handle so the whole door is preserved in its original form moving forwards and again the door and everything else is in place next we have the Polo shop they covered the window with their advertising banners but the door and the handle are in place the doors on the front are of a different design but again they're all original doors there is even a Helsinki sign hanging here it's probably the manufacturer of the handle and the grill here's an amazing example it's the wonderful door look at this beauty [Music] all the shops no matter how fancy they are but the doors and handles are authentic of course I'm not even talking about the front doors obviously everything's in perfect condition you just walk around and admire it [Music] but I walk around looking at the center of Helsinki and trying to find a single icicle so far I haven't been able to the roofs are completely clean not a single icicle and you can also notice that the rainwater downpipes go underground it's heated from above heated From Below there are no icicles and no problems when you walk in St Petersburg or Moscow you constantly look up so that you don't get killed by an icicle when you walk in Helsinki you quickly relaxes you don't need to look up all the time I spent half a day walking around the Finnish capital and I haven't seen a single icicle not even a small one how did it do it it's a big big secret in fact there is no secret they're just using Heating simple guys you heat up the downpipes you heat up the roof and that's it the icicles just don't form if it's snow everything just melts and goes down the drain nothing falls on people's heads and again it's relatively cheap solution Russian authorities usually say that it costs Millions there's no money for it all of the money is spent on rockets that will destroy the whole world sooner or later actually it's not that expensive once again these methods are quite old it's not some sort of new innovation it's just basic cheap heating that allows to get rid of icicles and solve the problem associated with them and I think the fundamental difference between Finnish and Russian approach to Winter is the cost of the human life Finns believe that human life is priceless and no one in the city should get hurt or die from Fallen icicles or experience any discomfort in Russia as we know human life is worthless and if an icicle falls down on your head if you sleep and you break your leg you will certainly not receive any compensation at most the authorities will say well it's just bad luck but in Finland everybody is lucky there aren't many heated streets in Finland most of them are just sprinkled with granite chips if it gets icy the first thing that catches my eye is that I'm walking on a pavement that is completely icy but I can't walk on it without being afraid why because it's all covered with these Granite chips in Finland they don't use those chemicals that are dangerous for the soil animals and shoes instead they environmentally friendly recyclable material is used when the snowy season is over the chips are removed from the pavement with the Special Machine similar to lawnmower washed and stored until next winter and if they are no longer suitable for reuse the granite chips are sent to the other indices such as construction materials or to build roads in Finland the city authorities are only responsible for cleaning the main streets the rest of the roads Pavements and Courtyards are a responsibility of the residents and the owners of the nearby buildings people either clean everything themselves or hire private companies to do so the companies may also work differently which is why there are some striking contrasts in the way they clean everything on one street while the neighboring one is snowy and nice and mess the snow is usually removed at night so the machines don't disturb people on cars they probably don't clean the streets as precisely as for example in the center of the Moscow when they remove all the snow you can see that they don't clean the car Parks very well and this is most likely due to the fact as you can see here there are some cars that have been parked here for quite a long time I was walking through the main streets of Helsinki came to the largest Orthodox Cathedral in Scandinavia the Greek Orthodox church is the second most popular religion in Finland after Lutheranism which is practiced by more than three million and seven hundred thousand Finns according to figures from statistics Finland more than sixty thousand of Finnish citizens consider themselves Christian Orthodox the USPS cathedral was built in Helsinki in the second half of 19th century when Finland was already a part of Russian Empire the former Swedish duchy was annexed to Russia after the Russian Swedish war in 1809. finland's status in the empire was relatively loyal there was no forced reciprocation Swedish and Finnish were considered the official languages Russia didn't meddle in finland's Affairs so Finland had its own government bodies which included just fins themselves as well as the Army and customs Office the Russian Emperor had retained The Finnish institution after Russia and next the new territory that's even though in Rashi itself the institution didn't even exist at that time three years after Russia's accession Alexander first decided that the capital city of Finland would be moved to a Helsing force one of the largest cities of the autonomy that we all know today is Helsinki since then the Russian authorities have undertaken massive Construction in the modest throughout the rural Town one of the things they wanted to do was to please the Orthodox commune that had formed here which became too large for the old small church that was here the church was erected in the impoverished area where poor people and criminals lived those Penske Cathedral stood Out Among the other buildings in the area so much that the authorities decided to urgently rebuild everything around the church so the surroundings would also look appropriate until the 15th century there was no unified State Administration in Finland there was just tribal Villages of three people suomi carilions and tavastas they had little interaction with each other and were influenced by swedes in Swedish times Finland was kind of a Bear's corner it was sparsely populated as a part of the Russian Empire Finland was a so-called Grand duchy finland's autonomous rights in particular were expressed in the fact that it had its own Val to a private which is translation from Swedish rigstack it's kind of a parliament a kind of local legislative assembly during the Russian Revolution The Finnish cell government seized the opportunity in declared its independence a civil war broke out in a new state the Reds were supported by Soviet Russia and the Whites by Germany and Sweden the whites eventually won so that Finland was no longer dependent on Russia after gaining independence Finland of course was able to take advantage of those foundations those achievements which it had accumulated During the period of autonomy meaning that the state institutions already existed the relations within the Soviet Union were understandably as we know quite cold but they were still present nevertheless Finland was used as a Transit territory in the Soviet Union's trade within the countries of the Western Europe but it is also clear that it had something to gain from the transit in 1939 a war broke out between the USSR and Finland over border territories the Soviets wanted to push the Border away from Lane riding Mormons to protect them from The Invasion from a neighboring country eventually the Soviet Union succeed thereafter Finland fought against the Soviet Union in World War II and sided with Germany for widget paid reparations to its neighbors Finland as a neutral country after the so-called Cold War had already started was able to invest Less in its Armed Forces there's also a certain influence of these so-called preparations yes of course it was burdensome for Finland but there is another side to it because the Soviet side was ready to accept part of the reparations not in money but in some sort of goods some industrial produce this is precisely what contributed to the development of this Finnish Industries reminders of the complicated Finnish Russian relations can be traced not only in the architecture and historical textbooks but also in Finnish speech the Finn sometimes refer to russian-speaking newcomers in the regulatory manner in the first half of 19th century this word was neutral and referred to all the people from the Russian Empire however since Finland gained independence in 20th century the civil and the Soviet Finnish Wars the word ruse is considered offensive before the war with Ukraine relations between the two countries had improved Russians could travel here and vice versa without any strict restrictions since 3rd of September 2022 entry to Finland by Russians with tourist visas been banned according to the Finish Statistics office during 2020 there were more than 28 000 Russians living in Finland however in everyday life Russian speakers can still hear the insulting Russia during the 2021 World Junior ice hockey championship match between Russia and Finland a Finnish fan held up a banner with an offensive slogan Russia have been overthrown the picture was quickly taken down but the russophobic incident were still hardly debated on social media I talked about Helsinki in life in Finland with my Russians immigrant friends who moved here a few years ago what is this this is actually a common thing for a senate Square because they collect the snow from all over here pile it up and then take it out St Petersburg and Helsinki are very similar in terms of climate they are not far away from each other the temperature is almost the same they're both on the shore Baltic Sea yeah the question is why do they clear the snow of the streets better where is the most comfortable in terms of life during winter my friends in St Petersburg where I lived for 17 years will be offended but it's more comfortable living here yes it's more comfortable living here we've been living in Finland for three years now I have no complaints about how snow is removed in any of the finished cities look at that when it snows a lot the first task is to clear the main roads both driveways and Pavements then when they clear it all they start to clear Pavements pedestrian Crossings and they stack it in these huge piles they don't care much about it they pile up huge amounts of snow because they'll have to clean it all up anyway after the walk we drove to the town of asphalt where 11 and Julie can have a flat asphalt was only 20 kilometers away from Helsinki is the second largest city in Finland with a population of over 290 000 people whereas in Helsinki is 656 000. there are several types of housing there is housing provided by the city that's the cheapest option there is a state succeeded housing which is called ARA which means that the state pays extra money to the companies not to us the tenants but to the companies which is why this housing is cheaper than the market average and there are companies which own houses for profit they rent them out and this is the most expensive housing [Music] to rent a flat like this there's a wealth limit based on your income if you own a real estate if you have a big salary then most likely you won't be able to rent a flat in this kind of housing there is a limit to how much you can earn how much is your rent here Aflac costs one thousand and fifty dollars one thousand fifty a flat like this that isn't subsided will cost about two or three hundred more we've seen the courtyard now let's have a look in the coming room for all tenants there's quite a lot of Unfinished houses by the way and the cost of the maintenance of the size spaces is all included in the rental price a lot of children grannies and so on hardly anyone rides a bike in the winter you can see that only if you have studded tires talking about today's Hot Topic let me just remind you that I shot this video in February before the hostilities in Ukraine so this is also a bomb shelter Finland is always ready if someone attacks it and all the houses always have a bomb shelter let's go and see what it looks like if something happens everyone will go here there's water a ventilation system everything that's stored will be quickly taken out and people can wait for the attack to end here you can store things on balconies so there's a storage space here instead foreign traditionally all the walls are always painted white this is the children's room standard bathroom there are no baths in Finland it'll always be a shower another important Nuance in every flat is the sauna how often do you use it at least once a week and if I come home from shooting the video outside and I'm cold I can warm up in sauna here's our bedroom it's a little bit bigger the flats in Finland have this building wardrobes know this is the living room and the kitchen after our break of the war in Ukraine Finland fully supported the anti-russian sanctions and said that it's ready to tighten them in addition president Saul iniesto said that the country could cooperate more closely with the United States and defense issues there is even a speculation that Finland may join nato in the near future the country has also Frozen Finnish Russian cooperation between universities and research centers however the local Ministry of Education and culture noted that anyone can still apply to the study or research in Finland regardless of the citizenship what about the speeding fines how tough is it here it's harsh because the fines are progressive depending on your income the more you earn the more you get fined wow so the fines for the same offense are different for different people yes the biggest fine for speeding in Finland was imposed on the son of the richest businessman in 2004 when he exceeded the speed limit twice and was fined 180 thousand dollars before that the biggest fire for breaking traffic rules in the country belonged to Nokia's chief executive in 2002 he exceeded the speed limit by 25 kilometers and paid 125 000 for it since Finland gained its independence it has successfully coped all crisis and difficulties and is now considered one of the richest and most developed nations in the world in 2019 the country was ranked as third safest country by global finance magazine Finland is ranked 11th in un's 2020 human development report in terms of its standard of living and life expectancy and the happiness of its people depends among other things on financial equality in Finland it is created through strong social support and a narrow income gap between the rich and the poor it's the taxes that help to achieve this they are divided into Council and state taxes Council taxes depend on the region and residents are paid in any case but the state tax rate is set according to the person's income meaning the more person earns the more tax they have to pay if income of a person is less than twenty thousand dollars per animal they do not have to pay anything into state budget it's the same in kindergartens if a family is low income then child goes to kindergarten for free or for a small fee in this way all citizens have a possibility to send their child to a good preschool let me tell you about the public transport system in Helsinki 2. the most convenient way to get around Helsinki is on the tram a single tickle costs 2.6 dollars and to save money their daily passes that cost eight dollars a duty ticket for 12.5 dollars a weekly one for

33.5 the trim here is the main form of the public transport they say the roads run through the most picturesque places in Helsinki and they themselves are very comfortable it's rarely very crowded and they go strictly on the schedule all of the trams are painting a nice green and yellow this trend has adverts all over it don't take it into account by the way they didn't always look like that until the mid 80s all over the transfer Helsinki were petted in gray orange in addition to the current Broods there is a separate Museum line and a section of road where you can see a tram Pub the tram system in Helsinki is still growing with new lines planned up to 20 35. here's the classic color palette of the Helsinki tram a noble green with beige and orange colors the trams are very beautiful here I decided to take a tram to next point on my route so here we go foreign I got to the Campus Center it's a large complex in the heart of a Finnish capital and the place is an example of good space planning I'm currently outside and behind me is just a shopping center with offices and apartment buildings around it in reality there are two transfer hubs for buses and coaches and metro station and a warehouse what's more everything's underground so buses line up right here under these trees and people set up for different cities in Finland foreign in general when we are talking about combining retail and transportation functions you have to be very careful because when you do a shopping complex and give it to businesses for example to build your free transport Hub businesses will always be tempted to prioritize trade and the Hub will be inconvenient for people well let's see how the Finns have done it we are currently on the lower ground level where people are awaiting important they are standing here like an airport near the gates and you can see that the aisle is quite wide and when passengers are here with their suitcases and stuff the shops on the left don't get in their way here's the diagram on which you can see that we are on the lower ground level there's also the Underground Level for the metro and there's another level for buses so you can imagine how deep down these goes and the most important thing is that they managed to get rid of a huge Transportation Hub and it doesn't ruin the streets it doesn't take up space so it's all hidden underground on the left we have comfortable moving sidewalks and on the right there is absolutely disgusting advertising of course in terms of aesthetic the fiends haven't done enough maybe because it's many years old and they would have done something nicer now but there's quite a lot of advertising and one more disadvantage is that the shop signs are way too bright here for example the subway sign is huge and the Metro sign is too tiny that it's hard to notice so speaking about the priority of navigation it seems like the transport function should be primary but here it is apparently visible and the adverts are everywhere this is of course confusing of course a modern Transportation Hub can't exist without shops without cafes because people need to buy something to eat on the go but the primary function is still the transportation and we shouldn't forget that look I was just following the signs for the underground and I got thrown out onto the streets into cold finished wind it's Nightmare and now I have to enter the underground separately that is I had to go outside to find a separate entrance everything about the navigation is pretty bad here as well there is a display board that looks rather old they could have gotten round to change it in general it all looks pretty sad I'm trying to find the underground map but I don't see it I can see an advertisement here another one there and a third one here as well I see a very complicated transport scheme that shows where I am a map of the area but I don't see the underground map that's what the ticket vending machines look like by the way they're a little bit outdated too I guess they could be upgraded somehow for example they don't accept contactless payment you have to stick a card in here foreign helsinki's underground doesn't have anything to show off it's not Moscow St Petersburg or even Stockholm because in latter although that ground is new there are stations that looks like wonderful caves great we got down to the station and come on Ilya figure it out where you going it would be cool if there was a map here but there isn't one there's a lot of advertising it's really weird that there's no map with a city reference oh finally I just said there's no map and there it is look I finally found a map of the city and now I can see where I'm going for those of you who thought there aren't enough ads they've put a projector to show commercials notes that almost all the stations have 3D diagrams I'm not sure if the ordinary people understand it but since I have an architectural background I'm comfortable with it the question is if you don't have that experience would you know how to read these 3D diagrams would you understand where you need to go let me know in comments in addition to the standard escalators there are also this inclined lift that allows you to go down to the station on your own if you have a wheelchair or if you have a pram since Finland is full of bicycles there are special cars in every underground train special places where you can bring your bicycle this is what the lift looks like interestingly there are no turnstiles at the entrance to the underground so you just have to tap your ticket against the validator but there is a warning that if you don't buy a ticket there is an 85 dollars fine and there are people who monitor it on the Underground here I haven't seen him but I'm sure they are there this is what the bz's transport terminal of Scandinavia looks like you can't even tell from the looks of it that there are hundreds of people waiting for their buses under the mall in fact the city plans to develop the entire Central District of Helsinki underground in the near future along the same lines of this project the city Administration is hoping to move most of the transportation system warehouses and car parks on the ground as this will help reduce the load of the roads and the streets and will also help preserve the character of the city center so that the transportation infrastructure doesn't interfere with the joint of the city but even today it's possible to drive throughout helsinki's underground with car parks and tunnels for example there is a tunnel that connects the rule lakti and kluvi districts the shopping malls take deliveries and take their rubbish out using this tunnel so here's the question of priorities take a look Tramway is a priority number one the trams come in so the road got to be cleaned up there's a terrific tram coming along this super clean tram tracks beautiful the Pavements also been cleaned too so it's comfortable for people to walk it's been sprinkled with these fresh Granite chips it is clean it's not slippery and people don't have to worry that they'll slip but what about parking nobody cares about it parking is not priority it costs 4.2 dollars an hour to park in Center of course you can't say that the streets in Helsinki are perfectly clean because some of these small roads aren't the cities but the console's responsibility and so they aren't all shining clean there's quite a lot of ice and the cars are struggling to drive through here I like to use Helsinki as an example of a city with safe traffic in 2019 only three people were victims of traffic accidents here one motorist and two motorcyclists at the same time there are still quite a few accidents a total of 400 people were injured in traffic accidents in 2019 including 80 pedestrians I don't want to speculate what the statistics would be if the city administrations and private companies didn't keep an eye on the seat of roads in Winter the snow and icy roads are monitored by a network of web cameras that transmit real-time images on the condition of the roads across Finland Finnish modern authorities monitor with the cameras compare them with the weather forecast and quickly call in a cleaning crew to clean a particular section off the road for moderate convenience some remote sections are equipped with an electronic speed limit size that change the maximum speed depending on the weather in addition every moderation feeling is required by a law to drive only with winter tires from 1st November to 31st March otherwise they can receive a big fine study tires may only be used during the pre-scribed winter period as they damage the road surface which most Finnish motorists criticize in 2021 the country's largest newspaper helsingin sonamat published an in-depth piece on the state of the roads across the country and found out that over 13 percent of motorways were in an unusable condition so as you can see guys the Finns complain about the state of their roads too I decided to talk to blogger Ivan prakopchik about traffic in winter in Finland he moved to Finland from corellia region on the Finnish rushing border why would you need a car in Finland in fact you can manage without a car in a small provincial towns you need a car for traveling back to Russia and to go into another Finnish City like Helsinki is it possible to survive without a car in winter yeah of course you can I think you can do that in Helsinki too because in my opinion there is a good public transport system in Helsinki but then my question is how are you going to take your kids to school without a car you know we have kindergarten nearby and a lot of mothers They Ride bicycles in Winter yes in winter in Finland they sell such Brands I don't know if they have them in Russia but they probably do you put your kid in it close it on all the sides so it doesn't get blown away by the way and they strap it to the back wheel that's it off you go guys look yeah it's the no feeding Birds sign I've said many times that you shouldn't feed the birds and every time I face a backlash from some strange people who start telling me that you should feed the birds that pigeons have been sent to us by God angels in somebody's flying Souls friends I don't want to upset you but pigeons are flying rats if you feed pigeons you just breed more of them because pigeons exist in such way that they breed in exactly the right amount of food if you want your whole city to be full of dirt for it to be unsanitary smelly and filthy you can fit them you can pour tons of bird food on the streets and then live in these conditions but it's better not to feed pigeons The Pavilion is closed and it's not used so everything around is covered with ice I must be careful not to fall on water that would be unpleasant why didn't come here why did I come here you can fall here it's something beautiful let's see some pictures of what it's supposed to look like I see public toilets [Music] in Russia if you see public toilets 99 of the time they will be closed they only work if there's a person an old granny there who sits and collects money it's very rare well maybe in Moscow there are still a couple of public tools that work let's see how it works here I haven't gone in yet I'll show them to you now so let's go test the public toilets in winter in Helsinki this is what a block of toilets look like you have to press here to open oh wow this is what it looks like look a clean perfectly clean toilet there's a toilet paper there's showers faucets everything you need and it doesn't smell there's even a special Bean for syringes that's awesome there's even one big toilet for people with special need let's have a look at it the door here opens automatically wow wow it's like a little toilet Palace but because it's a big toilet people must have come here to do something naughty someone's been burning something maybe some matches I don't know a little bit of vandalism but still it's pretty clean it doesn't smell I can't say that it's a mess you can press this button to call the cleaner aha look I press close and there's a water under the floor that's how it cleans itself it's a miracle of Technology it's clean it doesn't smell it must be a bit dirty because someone came in here to roll some cigarettes or burn something in here I don't get what it is there's no smell it's not disgusting there's metal everywhere everything's clean and you can use it comfortably well someone will say that it's just a toilet but in fact it is one of the most important things because it is a need that every person had and people who for example have the opportunity they can go to a restaurant or something but when you are a tourist in the city or just walking with your child and you want to go to the toilet or you need to change baby's neighbors or babies wants to go to the toilet there is a problem and the kind of public tourists that there is in the city affects how comfortable people feel that's a problem in Russia you're always in pain and humiliation it's insulting the way some of our public toilets look they either don't have them or you have to go to some cafe or restaurant or order something it's uncomfortable to say at least [Music] fair weather didn't stop me from meeting with local urbanist timoham Island he's been working with Helsinki City Administration on Urban projects for a few years what are this how they do they they clean the snow and then they push it into big piles and then the next cycle they come with trucks and uh when like next year or yeah they wait for summer maybe no it's a very random schedule and then they what they do with the snow then they put their a few of these big mountains somewhere they make these giant mountains oh look a person cannot walk over it There's a Hero struggling for this now okay that's it he's done that well how's public transport uh handling uh this winter and if it was up to you what would be first thing uh to change in Helsinki transport system uh well here in Helsinki there's a like when they clear and clean the roads after after snow there's a priority system where they start with the main public transport corridors so if it snows then it's quite quickly uh clean for them so trams and buses can go very safely so it usually doesn't affect public transport very much so it's quite okay in that sense so I haven't had any trouble but I know some instances you know maybe doing weekends the snow clearing is not that efficient and I know I just saw a friend of mine who was on a on a trend at the tram and she posted on Instagram how they were the passengers cut out of the tram to to clean the the snow in front of the tram for a little bit so because for some reason there was a big pile of snow that which I'm gonna go so also residents have to help out a little bit in the matter in your blog you mentioned that winter in Finland has changed with a global warming How has climate change affects Helsinki its people well it's gotten warmer quite a lot well this winter right now it's very snowy and there's a lot of ice but there's been many Winters where there's practically no snow at all and how it affects me personally or how I see it is that I like to play Ice Hockey outside but now here in Helsinki you can't really it's rare that you have natural eyes or it's very it's a very short period and you only had to have artificial ice and then of course for children children want to use the snow for you know sledding down Hills you can't really go skiing in the city that well what can you do in a person here in Winter yeah first I'll tell you about the pool it's it's normally it would be open every day of the year but there was an accident well you know from Christmas time if you have a Christmas Market that's always a big attraction at least here in a lot of cities so I think that's one key that I think in Winter you should do this kind of event-based programming maybe for public spaces so in during Christmas time you'll have a Christmas markets maybe and then afterwards you might have another type of public space activity that you could have a normally we would also have a like an ice skating rink in the city center next to the railway station where people can just ice skate and then other people can kind of watch so this is one activity you can bring this kind of winter sports in some sort of way and well depending on what climate change allows you to do you could do that then then here we also in Helsinki there's this Lux Helsinki Light Festival it's always in the darkest period of the Year where there's Light Art installations and there's a route that you can follow and see them after my conversation with Teemo I've decided to have a look how do the residential areas look like in Helsinki [Music] here are our favorite prefabricated flat blocks I think this building is from the 80s and what interesting here is that even here even the 80s architecture is still in its original form this is what the entrance looks like the original glass door the original handles no one has changed them these are the authentic two beautiful handles it just looks amazing by the way there are these brushes in front of the entrance you needed to sweep out the stones and granite ships from the threads of your boots another thing that caught my eye is the in each entrance there is a shovel to clean snow out from the entrance there is a broom to sweep the granite crumb out of the house into the dustpan avenge it all looks great well here in Finland of course the cleanliness and the building is striking clean entrances authentic entrance is everywhere nobody broke anything didn't vandalize it didn't put metal doors and didn't turn into an ugly box with some housing and utilities art everything is clean and beautiful in spite of the fact these buildings is about 30 40 years old but it looks like it has just been built it is from some kind of advertisement leaflet you could even use it as a set for a movie about those times without changing anything it's very cool this is how fence respect their architecture their cities not just buildings that their monuments or historical sites but relatively new buildings that aren't even considered architecture in Russia by the way here's a map of the residential complex there are towers that are standing right here nothing exciting for me we're playing in the point of view of course but it is just interesting in what order and how close to each other these buildings are located no one has put the air conditioning no one replaced the doors here's a different house where we see the same breast door handles again and man is riding a bicycle but also with studded tires by the way when I was cycling around Moscow I used studded tires I've given up that idea now not in terms of tires but in terms of using bicycle and winter because it's very dirty people in Helsinki tend to live closer to the city center not outside of the city it is clear that there isn't enough space so the authority decided to use the former Port areas for development clots they only left one important Setter and the other ones including the industrial zones are being actively renovated and I've actually come to one of these very new areas in Helsinki it's called kala satella and now we're going to see how the Finns are building new housing I've been to this area before and filmed it but as you can see construction is still going on here there are cranes and your houses are still being built so every time I come here there is something new to show let us not praise fans for cleaning up too much because for example here is a lot of ice in a residential area of course there are some Granite chips but you can see the places where the ice is bare and you can slip and fall it's very strange that a car is here because it's prohibited to drive here and if we look this way we'll see an interesting case because here we have bicycles parking and someone has left their bikes for winter but if you look closely we will see that they aren't locked so it's just back wheel that's locked and they are not changed to the front it's obvious that there aren't many cases of stealing nobody wants these bikes but someone else ditched their motorcycle it's a shame because it looks great but as far as I'm aware it's not very good for a bike to be abandoned like this for the winter Without Shelter right come on let's go into Courtyard the steps are more or less cleaned up here these are Granite chips there is no parking in the courtyard obviously this area for residents you can let the children go and place you can see that there are quite a lot of children toys so children's play here leave their toys and no one take them away by the way you have to be careful with Finnish Courtyards because I have already a negative experience with police I was in Helsinki a few years ago and wanted to show how everything is organized here but the Vigilant residents called the police who came and checked my papers asked what was I doing there because they thought I was a bike Thief they thought I was taking photos of bicycles to steal them later there's already a lot of ice and not many chips so walking Straight Like That isn't easy there are several types of winter shoes here there are studded soles there are these special overlays that flip over and become studied there are also simple overlays that you can put on over ordinary boots that also come with studs to make it more comfortable to organize it for example I walked in the center of Helsinki and was absolutely sure that I wouldn't sleep I wouldn't be so sure about it here the architecture is very very simple there are no masterpieces it's nice that the buildings has a hole aren't too tall in the new areas the waste sorting system is quite interesting they have an underground rubbish disposal unit here it's a rubbish disposal unit for the whole neighborhood it's pneumatic and it works like a Pneumatic mailbox you put your bag in there it goes is on the ground to the Sorting station which is located in the end of the street but in addition to the underground trash shoot there are local trash bins that you can use for recycling what kind of rubbish can you put in here large cardboard for example large boxes that you can have fit into the rubbish sorting unit you have to put in Glass and Metal into separate bins so if you have rubbish like this you place it underground bolts where special machines come and pick it up and if you have General rubbish food waste bags paper newspapers and everything else you put it into pneumatic waste units it is a combined system that makes it possible to sort everything and handle waste responsibly by the way what is interesting is that you can't just open these compartments because you need a special card that only residents have because you have to pay for this service okay you ask Ilia why don't you show anything bad is there nothing better than Finland this is a pedestrian cross and that goes into a snow drift that's it if it makes anyone feel better now congratulations when we talk about building new neighborhoods Energy Efficiency cannot be overlooked in Russia no one really thinks about it because our utilities are relatively affordable well yes some Russians May disagree with me saying that the costs are high and they barely make ends meet but compared with what they pay in Europe utilities like electricity water and everything else is succeeded so people aren't interested in investing in the Energy Efficiency of their homes to do any Renovations because any renovation will be too expensive and will never pay off in Finland prices for everything are much higher so houses are built energy efficient here in Finland as many other European countries the utility prices are extremely high the resources are very expensive electricity water heating all of it costly so at the construction stage it is easier to spend more money to get an energy efficient in-house but then save on utility bills but it is gone further and some houses are built in such a way that they are fully self-sufficient in energy how do you do that through the wind turbines solar panels and so on and then there are modern technologies that make the most efficient use of all your buildings energy well we can explore ventilation as a simple example how does a standard ventilation system work they use their simply flows outdoors and the Clean Air from the street enters the building and if we talk about winter it heats up so a lot of energy is wasted how does this happen in Finland the warm exhaust air from the building is not immediately discharged outside but it is used to heat the cold air that comes from Outdoors consequently less energy is needed for here in the room this is just one example there are a lot of modern materials and Technologies we will not dwell on it because the topic of this video is a bit different what is interesting is that there are buildings in Finland where people do not pay utility bills because the building itself gives out energy what's more there are some buildings that produce more energy than the occupants need and they can even sell it and earn some cash it doesn't just work with electricity for example the same thing applies to water where rainwater is collected and later used for irrigation or service water for the house the same applies to Old buildings from 60s 70s with typical panel blocks of which there are a lot of here in Finland almost all of them have already been reconstructed because it is more profitable for tenants to take a loan from bank and reconstruct their house to insulate it to make it more energy efficient and then save on utility bills there are similar program in battle taking Estonia Lithuania and Latvia people are also renovating their houses tenants take out loans for bags to renovate their soviet-era apartment buildings and after five to ten years it's getting paid off thanks to lower utility bills while walking around kala satama I made a subscriber she offered to show me how the communal areas inside the houses are arranged let's take a look inside the new housing oh wow it is so clean here it is so nice that's not very clean to be honest every tenant or owner has a key to everything here come in please this is laundry my clothes are currently in there we have a dryer too on the wall to your right there is a calendar from the first to the last day of the month and time and we put our keys in for example Mikey opens like this and I moved it and changed the time when I'm planning to do my laundry this is where problems and bicycles and so on are kept all sorts of things that are purely for children there are certain rules that specifically in this room we can only store children's stuff not adults foreign thank you very much goodbye good luck and all the best I remember when my entryway in the center of Moscow looks like in Winter and everything's leaking there there's all of this dirt and sodium chloride from all the shoes it's just terrible there in the year you walk in it it's sterile there's a very big difference turns out that it can't be clean in Winter here's a small kindergarten a simple two-story kindergarten with playgrounds and there's a shopping center with the Mantra station under the ground here there's uh rubbish sorting unit with a Pneumatic rubbish pipes there are no icicles anywhere on any of these buildings you can see the heating wires everywhere yeah and again you'll see the all the downpipes they go straight into drain water goggles through them they are heated the water goes into the drain and no icicles or extra ice on the pavement are formed for example here's a house that has a pipe that doesn't go all the way into the ground but it is heated the water flows through this pipe absolutely calmly and nothing is Frozen everything works I talked to Finnish beautification officials about how the city Administration Works in Winter do you use bicycles in winter well personally me yes and we try to get more make it easier to bike year round to get more people used to bicycles because at the moment our bicycle traffic volumes drop to about 10 percent from what they are in in like BCR season in spring and summer and so on what's the reason why what's the problem in the winter yeah it the main main reason is that that it's not comfortable and and safe uh in many places to bike in winter so uh for example here when you have this clean asphalt it's almost like summer condition but then then outside of this uh prioritized route it's more risky and feels more dangerous too after Helsinki I go to Olu with an old world uh much more people will bicycle there yeah yeah inhaling you that the transit system is uh so uh the coverage is so good and the level of service is so good so that people then kind of switch from cycling to Transit more easily inhaling it that they're doing in all in all and in all they have they have concentrated a lot on how to make cycling comfortable in Winter today I work for several hours downtown see and I see no icicles well of course firstly snow is often removed from the uh from the roofs and also the like the ice forms when the house is let off heat from the inside and they finish buildings are generally pretty well insulated so so uh it doesn't get too free so much on the on the roof roofs and the drainage is uh mostly done done so that the melting water gets to get away better but in certain times it can be a problem and then then we have to close the close the certain sidewalks so we can drop the ice there's a tram maintenance tram for the tram Lanes have you been in Saint Peterborough you know okay well what about you how do you like it oh it was quite uh Corner oriented let's say and their whole environment was quite wide but but of course it has beautiful art history like it has beautiful architecture everything but but yes that the one the thing that I do remember was that there were cars all around yeah it's now investing about 25 million euros a year for cycling infrastructure so it uh over the last decade I think he has gotten a lot of new best practice uh cycling infrastructure so we're we are doing this uh unidirectional separated the solutions for cycling like in Copenhagen right now [Music] thank you [Music] this is a railway station it's gorgeous amazing station and near the station look they haven't removed the snow yet there are some pretty big snow piles and now friends let's take a look at how helsinki's Central Station is set up this is the lobby where the kiosks are located and they all have pretty much the same decorations they sell sandwiches magazines newspapers it's the typical European food for when you are on the go there's lots of advertising and I can't say that there's a strict utterance to the design code it could have been done in way more formal way and there's a door and they exit to the platforms the station is relatively old but there's nothing so super interesting that you have to say wow look at that it's nice little Scandinavian train station it's the architecture of it's that's interesting the architecture of the station is simply gorgeous the building historical and not in a bad condition not all the entrances are open 24 hours a day and this one for example opens from 5 AM to 2 A.M

the central Hall of Helsinki train station looks very cool and of course you can ignore the fact that there's no security check no guards I spent my time at the station absolutely unnoticed and no one comes near me and doesn't make any trouble using the station is easy and pleasant unlike what they have arranged in Russia with the theater of security with the endless screens with locked entrances creating a lot of problems for passengers here you can go straight to the underground station but we don't need to go to the Metro just look at this amazing doors they are beautiful wooden doors everything is capped and it's original form very cool the Helsinki Central Station was built in 1918. and this particular building is an architectural Monument not a bad example of Art Nouveau there's a tram right here you can get off the station there's a tram stop but now friends let's see what the finished post look like I know what Russian post looks like very well let's see what the Finns have done here is the central post office it's very stylish there is a self-service table where you can arrange a part so and there are mailboxes here this is a cash desk this is where you get your line ticket and there's a big shop comparable to Russian pot shops they sell the things you need like boxes postcards envelopes everything you need for packing also there are boxes post boxes for those who rent them here and then there are the stamps these are the current stamps in use now there are different churches on them there are all kinds of envelopes for sale wrapping paper boxes whatever you need for mailing one thing I don't understand is why we don't have that how come Russian post office turned into some kind of Mall stall on the ground I don't know anything but the post office they sell canned goods biscuits pads but if you try to buy stamps there try to buy a normal postcard or something it won't be that easy in short it's a complete disaster it's incomprehensible what they turned Russian post office into the most disgusting weather we have is this snow rain storm that is impossible to hide from and then there's the wind if any of you have visited Saint Petersburg you will understand what I mean in here is how the Pavements look like in this weather puddles ice but nevertheless it's possible to pass there are no insurmountable obstacles the granite chips helped from slipping I was soon joined on my journey through Finland by my urbanist Andrei ilbife guys I'll show you what a typical Finnish entrance hall and Courtyard look like you have to understand that in Finland almost all houses no matter if they're all the new look pretty much the same and number of principles are followed all the doors are exactly the same you cannot change a door they said these doors are quite old and it's all wooden door and no one has bought a metal one instead then on each door there's a name of the tenant who lives there and a flat number the doorbell is down here somewhere it's usually a mechanical bow it's an old retro escalator with chairs let's have a look thank you guys what's interesting is the bench the bench is ergonomically shaped like this what there are even some holes drilled in it apparently so your bottom doesn't sweat while you're sitting down it's super convenient it's got the flat numbers who leaves where and what floor are they on so you know right away where you're going another cool thing is that there are glass doors what's so good about it transparent doors in an escalator are safety measures because many people are worried about some kind of Chaos in the stairwells and someone will sleep there or use their some sort of substances and people who are constantly going up and down the elevator become observers Witnesses of everything that happens and so having a we

2023-01-28 12:04

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