Koskela (, lit. "rapids village") is a district in the city of

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. There are about 3 300 inhabitants. The borough is surrounded by

Käpylä Käpylä (; ) is a neighbourhood of Helsinki with 7,600 inhabitants. Administratively speaking, Käpylä is a part of the Vanhakaupunki district. It is located between Kumpula, Oulunkylä and Koskela. Käpylä has a terminus for route-1 of ...

Kumpula Kumpula () is a verdant neighbourhood in Helsinki, bordered by Eastern Pasila to the west, Vallila to the south, Käpylä and Koskela to the north and Toukola and Arabianranta to the east. As of January 1, 2003, Kumpula had approximately 3,6 ...

Vanhakaupunki Vanhakaupunki (; ) is a neighbourhood of the city of Helsinki, Finland, to the north of Toukola. It is also the name of a district of the city, which contains the neighbourhood and its surroundings. The name (meaning "old town") comes from the fa ...

, and

Oulunkylä Oulunkylä (, also known as ''Ogeli'') is a suburb and a neighbourhood of Helsinki, the capital of Finland. It is located north from the center of the city. It has been inhabited since the 13th century. Earlier an independent municipality, it ...

. Koskela is located in the

subdivision Subdivision may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Subdivision (metre), in music * ''Subdivision'' (film), 2009 * "Subdivision", an episode of ''Prison Break'' (season 2) * ''Subdivisions'' (EP), by Sinch, 2005 * "Subdivisions" (song), by Rush ...

of ''Vanhankaupungin peruspiiri'', near the rapids close to the mouth of the

Vantaa River The Vantaa (, ) is a long river in Southern Finland. The river starts from the lake in Hausjärvi and flows into the Gulf of Finland at ' in Helsinki. One of the tributaries of the Vantaa river is Keravanjoki that flows through the town of Ker ...

. The earliest mention of the

human settlement In geography, statistics and archaeology, a settlement, locality or populated place is a community of people living in a particular location, place. The complexity of a settlement can range from a minuscule number of Dwelling, dwellings gro ...

in Koskela dates back to 1417, which makes it the oldest part of Helsinki. Koskela can be divided into two distinct areas: the small north side dominated by detached housing and the dense south side with apartment buildings. The streets of ''Puu-Koskela'' (wooden Koskela) have been named after municipalities in

Uusimaa Uusimaa (; , ; both lit. 'new land') is a region of Finland. It borders the regions of Southwest Finland, Tavastia Proper (Kanta-Häme), Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme), and Kymenlaakso. Finland's capital and largest city, Helsinki, alo ...

. Before the recession of the 90s, Koskela had many kiosks and stores. After the financial collapse, only one

Alepa Alepa is a grocery shop chain in the Greater Helsinki region of Finland. It is currently owned by HOK-Elanto, a part of the nationwide cooperative S Group. Alepa was founded in 1918, when Edvard Pajunen and his wife founded a shop in Sörnäinen ...

remained in the center of the apartment building district.

Koskela teenage murder

On December 4, 2020, a teenage murder occurred in Koskela that shocked the entire country. The victim of the homicide was a 16-year-old boy. Police suspect the perpetrators of three boys of the same age who were imprisoned in the Helsinki District Court on December 10 on suspicion of murder. The perpetrators and the victim already knew each other. According to police, the motive for the act was to punish the victim for some previous activity. Prosecutors have demanded an absolute prison sentence for perpetrators of suspected minors.

Politics

Results of the

2011 Finnish parliamentary election Parliamentary elections were held in Finland on 17 April 2011 after the termination of the previous parliamentary term. Early voting, Advance voting, which included voting by Finnish expatriates, was held between 6 and 12 April with a turnout o ...

in Koskela: *

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Form ...

24.2% *

True Finns The Finns Party ( , PS; , Sannf), formerly known as the True Finns, is a right-wing populist political party in Finland. It was founded in 1995 following the dissolution of the Finnish Rural Party. The party achieved its electoral breakthro ...

16.8% * Left Alliance 16.0% *

Green League The Green League, ( , Vihr; ; ; ; ) shortened to the Greens, (; ) is a green political party in Finland. Ideologically, the Green League is positioned on the centre-left of the political spectrum. It is a reformist party and it supports femi ...

15.3% *

National Coalition Party The National Coalition Party (NCP; , Kok; , Saml) is a liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative List of political parties in Finland, political party in Finland. It is the current governing political party of Finland. Founded in 1918, the ...

14.5% * Centre Party 3.8% *

Christian Democrats Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well a ...

3.2% *

Swedish People's Party The Swedish People's Party of Finland (SPP; , SFP; , RKP) is a Finnish political party founded in 1906. Its primary aim is to represent the interests of the minority Swedish-speaking population of Finland. The party is currently a participant in ...

2.4%

References

Districts of Helsinki {{SouthernFinland-geo-stub