| Name: | Håkan Lövdahl |
| Year of birth: | 1978 |
| Municipality: |
Helsinki |
| Town: | Vartiokylä |
| Title: | Business owner, MSc(tech), MSc(econ) |
| Email: | hlovdahl@gmail.com |
| Phone: | 050-5351428 |
Håkan
Lövdahl
Helsinki
"For a dynamic and diverse Helsinki, with interesting activities and opportunities for everyone."
I have two sons who are of kindergarten age, so issues regarding daycare and school are important to me.
I am also the chairman of Malmin lentoasetan ystävät ry, which is an association that wants to preserve the Malmi airport in aviation use. The building policy in Helsinki is dominated too much by the interests of the developers. We need a more dynamic Helsinki where there are different types of areas and diverse opportunities. Soon electric aircraft will be as common as electric cars are today, and then a centrally located airport for smaller aircraft is needed.
Important political topics
Children, Youth, and Families
As a parent of young children, this is a very important theme for me, as it is an essential part of my everyday life. There is room for improvement in this area.
The size of the daycare centers' yards should be increased, not shrunk as the current management has done. In addition, the daycare centers should have sufficient space and sufficient resources, such as drying cabinets and sufficient staff. If there is a staff shortage, the city should increase salaries until the staff shortage is no longer a problem. If something breaks at the daycare center, it should be repaired immediately, especially if it causes disadvantages for an individual daycare child. The city should monitor how long it takes for the service company to fix things and use this information and set requirements when purchasing maintenance services. These statistics should also be made public.
Since autumn is the time when older children start school and daycare places are thus freed up, admission to the daycare center in the fall should be done as a single application round, not divided into two-week periods as is otherwise applied. The artificial division leads to major problems for parents who have more than one child. If the application for the younger child states the start date as 1.8 instead of 31.7, this can lead to all other aspects being thrown overboard, such as siblings at the same daycare center. This leads to the parents being forced to visit two different daycare centers. If you want to change this afterwards, the city asks for reasons for the change, such as what kind of holidays the employer has granted and similar inconsistencies. When a small child starts daycare, it is of course a major change and a sensitive period in the child's development. Then you don't want chaos that could easily have been avoided through better processes on the part of the city.
Municipal and urban vitality
Is today's Helsinki the best version of Helsinki we can imagine? In what direction are we heading? If you ask me, there is a lot of room for improvement, especially regarding the dynamics between housing construction and other needs. In my opinion, a city that is completely dominated by housing is not a particularly dynamic city; other things are also needed, such as spaces for businesses, marinas, airfields and sports fields. As it is now, housing construction dominates everything else, which leads to a poorly composed whole. Compare Helsinki to an orchestra where everyone plays the recorder and nothing else. Is that the future we want? We need a broader composition of the city, not just housing.
Then we also have to keep up with technological developments, so that we do not fall behind in important areas, such as the opportunities that the electrification of aviation brings. Malmi Airport should be put into use as an airport again. Certain measures should be taken for this. The lampposts should be removed and new asphalt should be laid on the runways. The lights next to the runways should also be renewed. Plans to build housing there should be scrapped. Plans for a light rail line there can be maintained, but the route must be changed so that it does not cross the airport itself.
Economy & Business
Since I earn my living from my own business, the opportunities of the business world are important to me. Helsinki is a good city to work in. There are many opportunities and interesting events to participate in. A certain stagnation has been noticeable in the city centre and there is a lot of discussion about accessibility and whether cars should be allowed in the centre. I personally do not want to make Kaivonkatu car-free, as it would make it more difficult for everyone who needs to reach the railway station by car. Banning car traffic in the inner city also makes it more difficult for those coming from outside to get to the centre of Helsinki. I see investments in public transport as a positive thing, as long as ticket prices are not raised too much.
Candidate's answers in election machine
1 / 11
Early childhood education should be free for everyone.
It might also be an idea to raise salaries in early childhood education.
2 / 11
Schools should prioritize traditional textbooks over digital learning materials.
It\'s not healthy to sit in front of a screen all the time. However, certain skills are needed in today\'s information society, so some digital learning materials can be good.
3 / 11
One of the municipality’s most important tasks is to invest in sports facilities and opportunities for exercise and recreation.
4 / 11
It is important to provide all residents with equal opportunities for cultural activities.
5 / 11
The municipality should introduce or improve opportunities for residents to influence how municipal funds are used through participatory budgeting.
This creates commitment and contributes to higher acceptance of the decisions made, provided that the wishes of the municipality\'s residents are taken into account.
6 / 11
The municipality should invest in public transportation.
7 / 11
It should be possible to be a resident in more than one municipality, for example, through digital municipal citizenship.
In the summer this could be an advantage.
8 / 11
The municipality should better facilitate the expansion of renewable energy, such as solar and wind power.
In today\'s troubled world, it is a necessity to have your own energy production.
9 / 11
The municipality should mix more housing types in planning than is currently the case.
It is not good if socio-economically disadvantaged areas arise. These are a breeding ground for crime and drug abuse.
10 / 11
The municipality should introduce anonymous recruitment.
11 / 11
If you could give a superpower to your future political leader, what would it be?
Corruption is society\'s poison, slowly but surely destroying society on many levels.