/ APPLICATION OF THE CITY OF PORI

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2 Increasing the vitality and the wellbeing of the whole city / APPLICATION OF THE CITY OF PORI Attractive towns. Green redevelopment and competitiveness in Nordic urban regions. Towns that provide a good life for all Pori is the administrative centre of the Satakunta Region in the south-west of Finland. The Pori City region comprises nine municipalities and has a population of 139,000 residents. The City of Pori itself has 85,400 inhabitants and. Thanks to its varied business structure, Pori has fared reasonably well, compared to other cities of the same size, during the economic decline that started in The significant changes in structure, due to the severe recession in the city in the 1980 s, have helped to cope with these challenges. The most important businesses of the technology industry have remained in the city and residential construction has remained active. These, combined with the multi-branch operations of the university centre, have all had a positive impact on the image of Pori as a city of easy living that offers varied recreational areas and cultural events of international quality. 1. Short retrospect on Pori s experience for promoting the principles of sustainable development Achievements of Pori as a forerunner in sustainability issues Pori had a leading role nationwide in some of the areas considered today as integral part of sustainable urban development even before than sustainability was incorporated to the planning policy of the municipal organizations in Finland. Partly as a professional reaction to the prevailing urban reconstruction resulted by the modernistic planning practice of the 1960 s a significant part of a historical wooden town area in Pori was succeeded to save by a conservation and renovation plans developed by the town planning office in the late 1970 s. Some 34 hectares of the residential area was a target area of a State renovation pilots in the early 1980 s. Pori s experience in protecting old wooden houses by detailed planning, impacted on the successful promotion of renovation principles among the residents and led to the improvement of the public image the old wooden town districts. The Renovation Centre Toivo established in 1995 by the City of Pori and a sign of the raised popularity of wooden town districts is the fact that in the last couple of years Urban Village Parties were organized by the local residents in the 5 th and 6 th district of the town. Besides City of Pori is participating in nordic wooden town co-operation (Den Nordiske Träbyen as the network of historical cities of Finland. Besides revitalizing wooden town districts Pori has other connecting issue to the shared scandinavian history of urban revitalization, namely the pedestrianization. Pori s first pedestrian street, small part of the Yrjönkatu street was pedestrianized by a detailed plan in 1977 and it was the first this kind of process in Finland. Later this pedestrianized section of the street was extended both to north and to south and as the core element of the Promenade Pori project was developed to the main shopping area of the town center. Pori has good reputation in revitalization of the suburban areas during the last 30 years. The first successful project was a renovation pilot implemented in Pormestarinluoto district in The improvement scheme affected for the seven-storey and three-storey apartment buildings executed between It is based on competition and detailed plans ratified Besides the renovation of the apartments, plots were reduced in size to provide an area suitable for park belt and non-vehicle traffic thoroughfares. Areas were reserved for communal use and play grounds were built for children and storage facilities. The work with the suburban areas has been continuing constantly in Pori comprising at least eight different areas. In the last ten years the suburban projects were led by City Planning Department and the objective was to integrate physically and symbolically as well these areas to the main part of the town. Both latest projects, Kompakti kaupunki (Compact City, ) and Kaikkien Pori (Pori for All, ) were co-financed by the The Housing Finance and Development Centre of Finland (ARA) that is a governmental agency of the Republic of Finland. The impact of Ålborg Charter (1994) City of Pori is one of the 32 Finnish signatory local authorities of the Ålborg Charter (1994) and launched in 1996 its own process for creating an action plan for the Agenda 21 in a cooperation with other municipalities forming the Pori City Region. There are two strategically interconnected document dealing with the development of the town that had been created by the Pori city planning department in the middle of the 1990 s. Both has central role in implementing the Ålborg agreement on sustainable land use and has an impact to the present day on the development of the central districts of the town. In the Pori Promenade City Centre Project 2000 (November 1994) aimed at keeping the city centre vivid and improving its environment and services. In this document eight main interconnected functional unit of the central area of the town was identified and their characters had been specified and to enforce their identity their further development was detailed way described. The Pori Promenade project essentialized the urban history of Pori and paves down the the versatile future use and revitalization of public urban spaces. Besides it highlighted the potential of new uses of old industrial premises and the cooperation with landlords and entrepreneurs and the municipality. During last twenty years the integrative aspect of the The Pori Promenade has been proven by a number of realized projects: Underpass of the railway and highway no 2 ( ), Areal project of Isomäki Sport Centre ( ) ; Development of the Kirjurinluoto Park (1995-), General plans for Pori River Centre ( ), Construction of the Travel Centre ( ). Component master plan for the Inner City 1993 The former Component Master plan for the Inner City (approved by the City Board ) was in line with the main ideas developed for the Promenade City Centre Project concerning the Inner city development. During the preparation of this plan a number of departments of the municipality were involved for evaluating the advantageousness of the plan from different aspects. It resulted a thematically structured description of the plan highlighting the specific context of services, business development, traffic network and environment. The plan was unfolded by these topics providing for each thematic maps, for instance in the case of the environment

3 both natural environment and the built one were evaluated and assessed from the point of view of preservation. Particularly the complex analysis of environmental harms caused by the industry and traffic, defining the zones for densification of the residential areas and identification of places of transformation from industrial to for versatile new uses indicate that this plan represent a forerunner in its time. The present day valid component master plan of the Inner city (approved in 2007) was set to target to the year It is merely an updated version of the former document and serves as a main strategic tool for the city development. Utilizing wind power, promoting circular economy and taking into account the climate change Pori is among the first towns in Finland which constructed wind turbines for industrial scale energy production (1993). More turbines were located at the seashore at the end of the 1990 s, and also inland areas became into the scope of interest of the turbine producers. A particular project was realization of the Peittoo Recycling Park in Pori, where a large area (760 ha) has been taken into the use of diverse companies working with recycling of waste material and also for producing wind power. Today the world first offshore wind farm planned for arctic conditions is under construction by Suomen Hyötytuuli Oy in Pori, Tahkoluoto. City Board of Pori approved has a Climate Program which engages diverse departments of the municipality to implement measures. Pori has long worked against the negative effects of the climate change. Ever since the 1990s Aalborg agreement, the city's strategies have always marked the goal of reducing emissions. Pori has the will to be profiled as a promoter of renewable energy. Pori conducts diverse actions for promoting carbon neutrality: Pori is leading the Satakunta regional emission reduction project, promotes wind farms and cooperates with energy producers to increase the use of renewable energy. City of Pori has already solar power plants, but the aim is to build more. By its HINKU (Carbon neutral municipalities) decision, Pori is now the largest city in Finland, which has pledged 80 percent emission reductions by The example of Pori is important to all of Finland when we want clean solutions to for the future. Pori is participating in numerous networks, for instance national network of Living city centers (Elävät kaupunkikeskustat ry), Centrum Balticum, Union of Baltic Cities. 2. Recent achievements in revitalizing the city focusing the sustainability The institutionalized National Urban Park concept is a peculiarity in Finland and secured by the Land Use and Building act. The aim of a National urban park area is to preserve the cultural or natural landscape, historical features or townscape, social, recreational or other special values belonging to the city environment. The urban park model used in Finland is recognized as a good way to protect and look after extensive areas of valued urban and natural environments. The accurately selected area of the Pori National Urban Park in the City Center at the Kokemäenjoki River is chronologically the second urban park in Finland approved by the Ministry of Environment. Thanks to its 15 years of existence the park nowadays represents the identity of Pori and deserves a particular attention when it comes to the integrative approach to the green area management and promoting urban recreation in the town. While the biggest issue of the past was a rapid growth of urban areas, nowadays towns are dealing with a totally opposite problem. Syndrome of shrinking cities brings problems such as decrease of attractivity, dangerous non-maintained buildings, potential pollution or higher crime risk in the abandoned areas. Empty holes in the urban fabric can create barriers between neighborhoods, cut off residents from each other, steal them the easy access to important services and activities. But how to fight with it? One of the answers could be a project of Pori National Urban Park. Since 2002 when we officially become a part of a national initiative of Urban parks we have turned many potential threats described above into advantages. By careful planning, cooperating between different city departments but also private stakeholders we have connected isolated empty lots into a network of green areas and relaxing zones. Different atmosphere of places provides a unique atmosphere of the whole area. Reused industrial buildings are appreciated as a memory of Pori s famous history, banks of Kokemäenjoki river as a great example of local nature and connection on the pedestrian zones in the city center increase accessibility to leisure time activities to all the residents, but also visitors. Scarf on the face of the city affecting the very heart of the town becomes a green vain bringing new opportunities to everyone. The biggest threat to the urban life and attractivity became the biggest lure. Increasing public participation and accessibility Concerning the participation of residents and other stakeholders we selected mainly projects conducted by the Pori City Planning. The first phase of the River center project ( ) represents a case where by a very efficient way succeeded to reach different stakeholder groups using various methods (e.g. idea workshop, Webropol internet questionnaire) to contact them and mobilizing a massive apparatus for successful interaction. Citizens involving and new participation methods used in Pori can be represented by the results of the Kaikkien Pori project ( ). It analysed physical and social environment aspects, both of which have great importance for people's overall well-being. The target was increasing the involvement, participation, cooperation, and services, as well as comfort of the residents of the suburban areas in five different district of the town.

4 Open interaction and cooperation create new, diverse and surprising projects increasing vitality and preventing social or economic segregation. We believe that it is a way how to reach a truly comfortable and socially sustainable environment. Residents, associations and other actors were invited to cooperate. For example students and researchers of the University of Turku School of Cultural Production and Landscape Studies degree program involved in Lähiön henki (Suburb Spirit) implemented a cultural mapping in their main target area at Sampola district. The project succeeded to strengthen cross-sectoral cooperation. The aim was to create a functioning continuity and stability, as well as to increase confidence in the operation between the different parties. Learning about participation in Pori was took place also by European cooperation of cities the URBACT framework. While focusing on specific problems and target areas of each town the knowledge sharing provides tools, concepts and guidance on sustainability to local governments. Between two the Pori City Planning coordinated locally two consecutive URBACT-projects. In the SURE project ( ) Pori created an action plan for whole district being converted from industrial use to residential one. In the second project, being labelled by the acronym P4C ( ), a specific area was chosen for piloting placemaking activities. Interdisciplinary cooperation and multi-level networking are cores of the URBACT project. Through sharing experiences with other cities connected by the international network the Pori discovered and directly tried out some new approaches how to revive the urban life in the chosen area. The main idea behind the network is a learning through the interaction. By sharing experiences from the bestdeveloped project in every area is gained an impulse from outside which is used for initiating the networking on the local level. The views of different stakeholder groups and the differences between them become apparent and a solid base of interaction and dialogue was created for future planning work, partnerships, knowledge exchange, and cooperation. Promoting cross-departmental operation and strengthening the networking between different operators in the city leads to better results even in other projects and city activities than the original Karjaranta area. Besides the above mentioned short-term projects below we want to refer to the work of the cultural sector of the Municipality made in promoting the accessibility issue with a broad perspective and inclusive aspect. Accessibility is the promotion of equality. Accessibility can be improved by eliminating barriers to participation. Obstacles may be related to the senses, information, the difficulty of understanding, attitudes, physical or economic factors, and the shortcomings in decision making. Cultural Activity Achievement and Diversity Action Plan has been completed by the Pori Cultural Accessibility Working Group. The planning has been supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture. In the plan, accessibility is seen as a broad-based issue for every human being. Good accessibility tells you how to take into account the needs of different audiences and easy access. Good accessibility offers the opportunity to participate and the experiences of different individuals regardless of its characteristics. City of Pori (Cultural Center) is participant in the Culturability BSR - Culture for Sustainable Development project, which is one of the flagships under the EU Action Plan for the Baltic Sea Region. Pori City's cultural department is working to promote a long-term, more accessible and diverse culture. In the Cultural Center, cultural accessibility advisers are given to Pori artists and art communities. City of Pori is now finalizing its own model for participation and inclusion. Five principles are emerged during development work are the followings: Participation - is an automatic part of the city's internal processes, ie the way to think and act - is transparent: what it seeks for, what is to be pursued, and in what direction it is going to be open and clear - is a conscious design and decision-making transfer of services to users - is the courage to abandon full control: the opportunity for genuinely interesting new things requires a culture of failure and no fear of risks - is agile and the means of inclusion change with the needs of the local people in the right direction Examples of the projects and services initiated by other departments of the municipality for promoting sustainability issues Department of Environment as a local authority also provides services for the local people. For instance it maintains one advisor who provides information in sustainable energy issues for entrepreneurs and residents. For several years it has promoted the recycling of spare parts for old buildings and interior design. Today the Varaosapankki (Spare part bank) is managed by a local association in collaboration with the Youth workshop of City of Pori. Implementing LED street lightning in large areas, in order to decrease their energy consumption equally gained success in Pori. In the list of the most recent projects of the Department of Environment are a project bicycles using solar energy will be tested and developed and another project dealing with waste management issues promoting circular economy which is a EU LIFE-funded project. In this presentation it is worth to mention the role of the street and park planning department of the technical service centre as the main stakeholder of the municipal organization in improving conditions for walking and using bicycle. Pori has constructed 320 km cycle path and is committed to developing traffic safety, thus increases the well-being of citizens. Within PYKÄLÄ project realized with the nationwide collaboration Pori has presented as good example for its persistent 40-years long work for promoting cycling and walking.

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