Kallio used to be a working class neighbourhood with small flats, one room housing a family with children, and sometimes even a lodger. Families are long since gone. Now most of the inhabitants are students and pensioners, and other solitary people.
Since the early 1990s the area has mainly been known for sex shops, private strippers, oriental massage, disreputable pubs, drunkards, the homeless ... The district is either romanticised or shunned by the respectable. Even Veronica, the celebrity domina of last decade, once spoke on TV of her old place "in the bowels of Kallio" in a tone indicating that my home street had been too humble for her. It is an inelegant but mostly quiet residential street. Although one summer I did meet a man who had started using drugs in the Vietnam war. He had gone there for the money, he said. Next year I heard he had been shot dead on the street. Interesting choices for one born in Finland. But as Tolkien wrote about another place, "there is --- in this land no evil, unless a man bring it hither himself."
Some claim that Kallio is more tolerant of different kinds of people and behaviour than better neighbourhoods. If so, it is a tolerance born out of necessity. Sometimes I've thought about moving away from there, but the location is far too convenient. And I suppose I am a 'Kallio romantic' after all, although Eira does have its - very different - charms.
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Here's a more versatile picture of street level business life on Vaasankatu, a part of my daily route, than the one given by Helsingin Sanomat in its article last summer:
- private shows: Hot Girls (21), Diva (21), Velvet Room (21), Sweet Ladies (23), LuLu (14), Adults Only (19)
- sex shops: Seksipiste (3), Sex Tavaratalo Susanna Q (19)
- oriental massage: Jiravan Phunsap (4), Tigon (14), Mimi (18), Song Anong (23), Happy Corner (13), Thai Beauty Shop (27)
- hairdressers, barbers, and beauty parlours: Zeidi (9), Salon Sina (13), Ramona (25), EL-Salonki (25), Hiuskarwa (20), Vaasankadun parturi (27)
- pubs and restaurants: Iltakoulu (2), Hilpeä Hauki (7), Kultapalmu (4), Kallion Maku (6), Pizzeria Apollo Express (8), Kustaa Vaasa (10), 100 Mauste (15), Kallionhovi (17), Heinähattu (23), Indian Villa (12), Little China (17), Mambo (18), Pub Pizzeria Noti (25)
- groceries: Valintatalo (2), Kallion Liha (29)
- videos: Casablanca (6), Video Bank (11)
- other shops: Vekan Kulta (3), Nahka-Sakke (11), Piippu.com (15), Geezers (4), Verkosta.fi (7), a nameless second hand shop (18), Ajan Tawarat (20), MM-Tekstiili (27)
- kiosks : Kioski Kasi (8), Korttelikiska (19), R-Kioski (29)
- travel agents: Zerkalo (10), Balt-Tur (21)
- sports: Savate Club (1), Hapkido Kudokwan (1), Shiai Kokushin Karate Dojo (1)
- computers, domestic appliances, and spare parts: Håt Data Huolto (15), Kodinkonetiimi (17), Vaasankadun Varaosa (19), Tietobusiness Fin (23)
- other: Autokoulu Ajotaito (1), Tattoo Nation (4), Kalkkers (5), Kallion Talohuolto (8), Isännöintikeskus SPP (9), Aviaclean Lakiasiaintoimisto (9), Alueuutiset (9), Kiinteistö-Pentti (4), Suutari M. Väisänen (8), Kultareuna (14), Siivouspalvelu Sunex (15), Omalääkäri MJ (18), Fysikaalinen hoitola L. Nurmela (18), Vidbet (18), HC-Urakointi (18)
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More of the neighbourhood in Finnish in Kallioblogi.
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