THE HISTORY OF LÄNSIVÄYLÄ
Länsiväylä, about 20km long highway, which goes from Helsinki to Espoo, has a lot of good concrete walls for painting. About 15 bridges, hundreds of meters of walls – and all of them have been hit!
The first ones that painted alongside of the line probably were crews like TCA (The Colt Activities) and THV (The Hiphop Vandals) in 1987.
THV: Move, Asoy, Dee and Tonic were names that struck the line hard during 1989-1991. Though the golden year for THV was probably 1990 – almost all walls in the line were hit by them… and that’s how it stayed for a while. In 1992 Move was more or less the only one from THV that painted on the line (Tonic did few and Dee changed crew and got into CSK), and in 1991 summer HRC (HellRaisers Crew) got slowly involved into the destruction of the line.
Move painted all the way to autumn 1992 in the line, but those days it was HRC that was responsible for the major damage. In late ‘92 and early ‘93 almost all of the walls and bridges were struck by HRC.
Of course authorities have always tried to catch the painters, but the destruction of the line in ‘92/’93 got the city of Espoo really pissed. And when the roadwork in Tapiola/Otaniemi started and the new bridges that were still under construction were also hit, first by HRC and then DTS (Da Thugsta Set), the city of Espoo went berserk: they buffed all walls and bridges in the line (and most of the pieces were with colors). And the war began…
It’s said that Espoo has its own graffiti police and that the line, especially Haukilahti-Otaniemi area, is under heavy surveillance: police and STV-patrols searching for writers and ensuring that the walls stay clean. True or not, nobody’s been caught of any serious damage (even though it’s been really close several times!) and the line is still under neverending destruction! The only thing that Espoo manages to do effectively is buffing the walls and spreading the bullshit propaganda in co-operation with the police and the press.
Even though that the major damage nowadays in the line is made by crews like HRC & DTS and individuals like Fisk, Yug, Maus etc. there’s been alot “guest stars” painting in the line, for instance: Egs, Poe, Spy, Boke, Age, Mer, Beast, Fers, Easy… just to mention a few.