The Bear Park is a city park that was formerly occupied mainly by drunks and small-time criminals and avoided by most citizens. The project has reclaimed the park for ordinary citizens¹ use as a "living room". The project is based on co-operation between local citizens¹ organisations, the City Parks Department, and the police. The key element of the project are the "Bear Park Godparents", residents who have committed to tending for the flowerbeds in the park and, in general, to using the park regularly.

The physical and social character or the park has changed radically and its problems of disorder have declined considerably. Anecdotal evidence suggests that fear of crime and sense of insecurity have decreased particularly among elderly people. Although specific measurements are lacking, it is likely that the change has had a positive influence on more serious crime as well.

The Bear Park (Karhupuisto) is located on a hill in the middle of the Kallio district, a densely populated area in the eastern part of central Helsinki. Kallio is historically a working class district. Now the level of education and income are close to the city averages. It is still a district of small flats. Kallio is now inhabited mainly by adults of all ages, many of them living alone. There are few families with children - only 6% of the Kallio population are 18 years or younger, as opposed to 19% in the city as a whole. There are all kinds small shops in the streets close to the Bear Park. Some of them are sex shops and massage parlours - and one of the streets has been known as a centre for indoor prostitution. In sum, Kallio is a lively district.

In a 1997 survey, Kallio residents were more worried about moving around in their district late at night than the city average. There was also less neighbourly co-operation and working parties than in the city on average, according to the survey. Three streets enclose the Bear Park in a quasi right-angled triangle whose short sides are about 70 meters long. The area of the park is 2570 square meters (the surrounding pavements excluded). The Bear Park became to be so called after 1931 when a statue of a bear was erected in the park. The statue is cut in red granite and depicts the bear, the totem animal of ancient Finland, stooping on top of an anthill.

The park is a few hundred meters removed from the busiest streets that carry major traffic between the city districts. Both metro stations serving the Kallio district are over half a kilometre from the park. It is not an overly quiet area, however. The street running along the East side of the park is a major thruway across the Kallio hill, and there is a bus stop at the park. On the other street defining the Southwest border of the park there is a tram stop. A popular branch of the city public library is just East of the park. Close to the Northeastern corner of the park, there is a fire station and just slightly further, the Kallio church.

The problem. Before the project started in 1997, the park had for a long time been a disturbing haunt of drunkards and petty crooks, considered dangerous by the population at large. Members of the Bear Park project tell that they used to avoid the park whenever possible. A heavy stench of urine and rot met anyone who approached the park. There were also bushes that prevented visibility to some parts of the park. Inspector Reijo Muuri, who came to work in the local police district in 1985, tells that during his first years of work, there were usually several daily calls for disorderly conduct to Karhupuisto. On record nights, the police would pick up more than 20 drunkards in the park. The plants in the park were not in a very good shape, and the people monopolising the park were perceived as threatening by most of the residents.

The Idea. The Karhupuisto Park project is based on an idea proffered by the Wholesome City project of City of Helsinki that public parks be turned into "living rooms" for the residents. The idea that lead to The Karhupuisto Park project was further developed in "The Future Kallio Workshop", an idea conference of the district of Kallio in the autumn of 1996. Such seminars take place once every two years and bring together people from different branches of the city government, the police, and voluntary organisations. They include the City Social and Health Services Department as well as the Public Works Department, the local branch of the city public library, the police district, the church, the Red Cross, local schools and colleges, and local neighbourhood associations. The Kallio Neighbourhood Association is one of the most important ones for the Karhupuisto Project. A participating police officer and a minister of the local Lutheran parish are credited with first conceiving the idea.

The City Parks Department was concerned with finding ways to improve the parks of the city. An idea was to engage local citizens in the use and maintenance of selected parks and offer them adequate support from the municipal parks department and the police. This would encourage other law-abiding citizens to make use of the parks. According to the "Broken Windows" theory such actions that promote peace and order in a neighbourhood very likely also may help reduce more serious criminality. They would make the places more appealing to ordinary citizens, particularly older people, who had felt insecure in the parks occupied by gatherings of drunken and disorderly persons. The representatives of local neighbourhood association pledged that they would bring in volunteers if they were guaranteed adequate support from the police against disturbances in those parks.

Concretely, the idea was to plant annual flowers in the park in the beginning of the summer and to engage volunteers both in planting and caring for them. This would imply a change in its vegetation ­ until that time it consisted of mainly of sandy paths, grass, and bushes that required much less maintenance than flowerbeds. At this point, the engagement of the City parks department was essential. The department started producing seedlings for planting the next summer and drawing up plans for the renewal and replanting of the park.

Realisation. The Karhupuisto Park project was launched in 1997 under the title "Parks into living rooms". The first "planting party" was organised on the third of June 1997. Over fifty volunteers planted nearly 5,000 seedlings during the afternoon (in later years the number of volunteer planters has exceeded one hundred). A police band provided music at the event. A number of people volunteered as "godparents" of the park.

The godparents have made a commitment to use the park, to tend to the plants under guidance from the parks department and to report disturbances to the police. The planting of the flowers every year, in the beginning of June, is a special event. Another event takes place in September, "the opening festival of the fall season", with live band music, a barbecue, and a flea market. The annuals are removed when the weather turns cold, usually some time in October.

Organisation. The Karhupuisto project has an informal organisation, but it has some rules and tacit conventions. The most important part is the volunteer godparents. However, daily and weekly co-operation with the local police is indispensable for the success, as is, of course, the support from the City Parks Department.

The project invites people to volunteer as "godparents" of the park, particularly during the planting party of the early summer. A godparent is given the right to tend for the flowers (cut dry flowers, water the plants) and can wear the cap of the City Parks Department. She or he is also encouraged to call the police for any vandalism and intoxicated persons who disturb the peace in the park. A godparent also makes an informal and non-binding commitment to use the park, to tend the plants and meet with other godparents "especially on Sundays between 1 and 2 p.m." but also on weekdays at 4 p.m. However, she or he is free to leave the godparent status at any time. Over one hundred godparents usually volunteer each summer. One of the godparents, Ms. Saara Tolonen - let¹s call her the co-ordinator - has the key to the bin for garden tools set up by the Parks Department. She has arrived at the park practically every day for the six summers that the project has been up and running. In addition, there are other people, usually at least half a dozen of other godparents, but often many more. The godparents do what they promised to do: they tend and water the flowers; they also water the lawns of the park.

A remarkable characteristic of the most active godparents is their age. Eight of the ten top activists of 2002 are 70 or older, and three of the top four are 80 or older. Since 1997, three of the most active members have passed away, as have about ten other participants. However, new activists appear every year, so the number of active godparents has increased.

In 2002, only one of the top 10 activists is male. A look at the tallies for June and July of 1999 supports what the activists tell: the gender distribution of the active participants is strongly female-dominated. Just one or two of the ten most active godparents in those 1999 months are men. The 1999 diary also shows the most active people attending almost every day. The majority of the park guardians are Kallio residents, but some of them live in other districts of the city as well.

The project has no paid administrators and the members do not burden themselves with irrelevant bookkeeping. However, the co-ordinator keeps track of who is present, how many people were served coffee at the planting bee, of unusual events in the park, and so on.

An important part of the support infrastructure of the Karhupuisto project is the availability of the police. Inspector Muuri tells that he has given instructions for police patrols to try to visit the park if possible every day during the time the godparents meet there. Of course, the City Parks Department is indispensable for the success of the project. They drew up the physical plans for the change of the character of the park. They also continue performing several tasks at the park, such as fertilisation, and mowing the lawns. At the start of the Project, they promoted Karhupuisto Park to Category 1 park, which means, for instance, that there are daily visits to the park by the staff. Karhupuisto is presently the only Kallio district park in this category.

The city public library across the street furnishes a place for making coffee. The library is also the site of monthly open meetings where citizens, city authorities and voluntary organisations discuss different matters relating to the development of the district. 6.3. How to Keep a Project Up and Running? The participants of the Bear Park Project have carefully thought out how a project of this sort can be kept up and running. The principles drafted at the beginning mention the three main actors, the residents, the police and the Parks Department, and their division of labour. They also outline ways in which the residents¹ interest can be aroused and how the district residents will be kept informed of the project.

No doubt, a crucial element creating stability and trust among the godparents is the fact that the co-ordinator is there reliably every day. "So no-one [else] will have to fear that she or he might be going there alone", Ms. Tolonen says.

Lingering Conflicts over Control of the Park. Some of those people who earlier felt they could control the park did not give up without protest. During the life of the project, particularly during the first few years, there were several open conflicts. While some of the drunkards that used to frequent the park took part in the planting bees and helped clean the area, some old users expressed open hostility and issued threats to the godparents of the park. The police were called several times to remove disturbing drunkards from the park. Several people were sued for the crimes of defamation, illegal threat, assault, and damage. The godparents of the park identified some individuals who resisted their taking over of the park and had made threats.

This even lead to several crime reports to the police. Offences reported included several assaults and incidents of defamation as well as reports of vandalism. One case that the godparents recall vividly involved a man who threatened several godparents with a drawn knife and also threatened to kill some of them. He was brought to trial and was sentenced to paying fines and damages to the victims. (However, the compensations required were moderate.)

One day a probable drug addict was greatly irritated by the sound of the watering hose. His was not the only attempt to take the hose or its nozzle. The co-ordinator believes that the readiness of the godparents to call the police and take matters to the court has convinced most people that the godparents mean business. She is also generally very satisfied with the response time of the police. The availability of the mobile phone has also made a difference in that the people in the park are able to call the police much more easily than would have been the case earlier.

The Results. A clear an undeniable change is the physical one that took place when the large flowerbeds were introduced into the Bear Park and when its standard of maintenance was generally elevated. The park looks much more pleasing and clean now than it did before 1997. According to the Broken Windows theory, this fact alone would have a positive effect on crime in the area. Another undeniable change concerns the people who populate the park. Drunks no longer occupy the Bear Park. This has had a positive effect on the reputation of the park and its vicinity; it has turned over. There are no population surveys that would reliably establish this, but many pieces of evidence support the claim.

The reputation of the park and its vicinity has turned over. It is no longer a haunt of drunkards. Elderly people are not afraid of the park any longer. This is an important achievement considering that old people, particularly old women, often very feel very insecure about moving in the city. A lady who had been a widow since the late 50s started using the park and said she had hardly moved from her apartment for ten years. Housing advertisements are said to use the vicinity of the Karhupuisto Park as an attraction.

The City Parks Department employees tell that ordinary people use the park much more than before at all times when the weather is not bad. Many people come to the park for lunch. Visitors to the library sometimes come to read their books on the benches of the park. The sandy area of the south corner is used for the game of boules in the evenings and weekends. The project is active only in the months of June to October. However, even in the cold months of the year the park has stayed much more tranquil than it used to be.

The police experience is clear in that the character of the place has turned around. Earlier, it was a place for drunkards and small-time criminals to congregate. They tended to monopolise the park. Now, it is a place in which elderly women gather to tend flowers. Hence, it is clear that general order in the park has improved as a result of the project.

The transformation of the Karhupuisto Park has not made drunks sober or made them disappear from the public spaces of the Kallio district. Quite likely a few of them now behave better, particularly when in the park or its vicinity. Many of them have moved to other places to pass time and continue drinking. However, it is possible that the total disturbance experienced by the Kallio residents and visitors is now lower than it would be if it were not for the Karhupuisto Project.

Disorder emerges when certain social and physical conditions converge in time and place. A movement of a group of people to another place does not necessarily imply a similar movement of those problems of disorder that they were associated with. A new location may imply less nuisance and experiences of disorder for most residents. This may well be the case for the Bear Park project. At any rate, it is clear that the reclamation of the Karhupuisto Park has turned one central spot of the Kallio district into a much more hospitable place for the vast majority of its citizens.

Regarding the effects of the Bear Park Project on more serious crime, no hard data can be given on this. Police computer data on crime with specified map position are only available from 1998, i.e., the time after the project was launched. Hence, no before - after assessment can be made of police recorded crime. However, one might add that taking into account the small scale of this grass-roots level project, it is doubtful whether such effects could be reliably shown even if the police data were available.

The Bear Park Project has succeeded in creating a method to engage local residents in the maintenance and use of their district. This may be considered an additional result of the project. The method found is a variation of authorities - citizens - partnership, a theme in which the authorities provide certain basic tools and preconditions while the residents take on the use and maintenance of some targets. A remarkable feature of the Bear Park Project is the strong role that elderly women have played.

Replicability. The Karhupuisto Project seems replicable in principle. The crucial elements are (1) finding a group of citizens that are willing use a designated park often enough for the project to float and (2) adequate support from the authorities. Both elements seem easy enough to achieve in many places. In practice, of course, there are many concrete requirements that can go wrong. It is, therefore, instructive to ponder why it was only the Karhupuisto Project that succeeded in Kallio, while another similar attempt that the authorities and the residents association tried to implement did not succeed.

Certain geographical qualities may have made success easier in Karhupuisto Park than in the other park. All these differences tend to make it easier for local residents to reclaim "ownership" of the park in Karhupuisto than of the other park. Residential buildings surround Karhupuisto from two sides (out of three), and it is easily conceived of as a centre of the local housing neighbourhood. The other park, on the other hand, has residential buildings only on one of its four sides, and very busy major streets carrying inter-district traffic bound two other sides.

An underground station and a major alcohol retail shop are located just a hundred meters away. It is close to a branch bureau of the city Social Services Department that dispenses social assistance to Helsinki residents who lack permanent addresses - all of this make it an attractive neighbourhood for drunks and many kinds of marginalised people from all over the city. Furthermore, the vendors of the market place that is located next to the park across one of the busy streets did not feel they had a stake in the development of the park. In the case of other park, the drunkards were able to intimidate a key figure of the nearby residents so that he withdrew.

All in all, the local geography is such that this park may be more difficult to sense as belonging to the immediate neighbourhood. However, the Helsinki City Parks Department has similar co-operative projects in process with the residents in many other districts as well, particularly at the stage of planting annuals. None of the other co-operative projects are as intensive as the Karhupuisto Project, however. Neither have they involved as clear a reversal of the character of the park. The tenets of the Karhupuisto project are a very determined group of citizens who want to use and care for the park, and very smooth co-operation between them and the police and the Parks Department.

2003.10.23