Pasila

Pasila (Böle in Swedish) is a suburb in Helsinki, Finland. It is a central-northern neighbourhood, bordering Alppila to the south, Central Park (Keskuspuisto) to the west and Vallila to the east.

The eastern and western part of Pasila ar separated by a large railroad classification yard, which, as Central Pasila, is currently under development planning by the city administration. The major sports and music venue Hartwall Areena is located in the junction of the two main railways.

Eastern Pasila is a commercially active district with its own railway station, a Holiday Inn hotel and the Helsinki Fair Centre. It is also home to over 3500 people. Most of the buildings in Eastern Pasila were built in the 1970s and are made of prefabricated concrete elements. Educational facilities in the area include the Finnish Business College and Helsinki Business Polytechnic Helia.

Western Pasila was built during the 1980s. It is a mainly residential area with approximately 4500 inhabitants. The apartment buildings in Western Pasila are skinned with red bricks. The Finnish national broadcasting company YLE as well as the commercial MTV3 have their main premises in the northern end of the area. [ cite journal
url = http://www.city.fi/artikkeli/Helsinki+ranking/1643/
title = Helsinki ranking
date = 2005
publisher = City magazine
issue = 16/2005
accessdate = 2008-04-28 ] In the ranking of the best places where to live in Helsinki, Western Pasila is ranked 74th, and Eastern Pasila is ranked 92th, out of 94 different parts of Helsinki.

Before the Pasila-suburb was built, there were old wooden houses in the whole Pasila area and the area was called Wooden Pasila ("Puu-Pasila" in Finnish). Today only few of the old wooden houses still exist.

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