Vantaa – young since 1974

Many people’s lives start to become established between the ages of 16 and 25. Young people become independent, make career choices, and perhaps start a family. Some people keep the hair and dress style they discovered in early adulthood for the rest of their lives. Many of Vantaa’s characteristics also developed in the city’s youth in the 1990s.

Of the gems of Tikkurila, Heureka opened while the 1980s were just about still in progress, while Sokos Hotel Vantaa and Tikkuri Shopping Centre were completed in the early 1990s. Peijas Hospital rose in Asola, and Martintalo and Myyrmäki House were built in western Vantaa. Myyrmanni was completed and became the second largest shopping centre in Finland.

The beginning of the decade was clouded by the recession and even Vantaa, which was in financial distress, decided not to celebrate its twentieth anniversary in 1994. The city struggled on a student’s budget, but fortunately its residents had a neighbourly spirit. Associations did charity work and organised cultural activities. Vaskivuori Upper Secondary School became known for its musicals, Vantaa Orchestra specialised in light music, Vantaa Baroque was founded, and so were the Icehearts, an ice hockey club for underprivileged youth. 

In the 1990s, Vantaa also put itself on the map in the world of sport. The 1995 World Hockey Championship team included Vantaa residents coach Hannu Aravirta, goalkeeper Ari Sulander and defenceman Mika Strömberg. In the same year, Petri Kokko, Vantaa’s athlete of the year 1992, won the European Ice Dancing Championship with his partner and Valentin Kononen won the 50 km walk World Championship. Vantaa’s own Mika Häkkinen and Mika Salo raced to world fame in their Formula One cars.

At the end of the decade, Vantaa’s economy began to improve, and, with the courage of youth, the city began to invest in its future. Vantaa began to develop into an airport city, attracting both industrial and export companies. Finally, the young city seemed to have found its place in the world. In the 2000 vision, Vantaa’s decision-makers were no longer defining their city as a satellite municipality but as an actual centre.

You can get a greater sense of Vantaa in the nineties at Vantaan Ysäri - “The Nineties in Vantaa” exhibition opening on 26 March at the old Tikkurila railway station, where the City Museum has been displaying its exhibitions since 1990. The exhibition is free of charge.

_{This article was published in issue 1/2024 of Asukaslehti (Vantaa Residents’ Magazine). Read more articles from the magazine on the Asukaslehti website!}