Thousands of Helsinki residents have voiced their opinions about how to spend nearly nine million euros on city development projects, in the so-called OmaStadi (roughly, Your City) online crowdsourcing poll.
The poll, which closed last week, asked residents what kinds of improvements they think the city needs, with the city setting aside 8.8 million euros to implement those ideas.
Among many other proposals, residents said they wanted the outdoor Olympic Swimming Stadium to remain open year-round, rather than just in the summertime.
The city's development manager Kirsi Verkka said it would cost about 300,000 euros per year to keep the large pool open all year and that an investigation about that proposal was in the works.
About 1.8 million euros out of the total sum is to be allocated to projects that jointly benefit all residents of the city. Meanwhile, each region of Helsinki will be beneficiaries of the remaining funding.
Projects moving forward next year
The most expensive project given the green light by residents will cost around 550,000 euros for development of outdoor activity areas around the Malmi Airport.
A half-million euro project towards hobbies and activities for city youths as well as a new skate park in western Helsinki.
Verkka said the exact location of the park had not yet been decided, however.
The planning and implementation of OmaStadi-generated project ideas will start as early as next year.
Around 47,000 out of 580,000 eligible residents took part in the poll. Verkka said that efforts were made to encourage widespread participation in the survey, including offering the opportunity to take part in several different languages..
"Of course we'd like people to participate even more actively in the future," Verkka said.