The “No closure Leone XIII” Committee of Bergamo returns to the charge for the reopening of the road in the Redona district, this time in a letter addressed to the councilor Stefano Zenoni and to the mayor Giorgio Gori.
The group is calling for the 24-hour closure of vehicles to be replaced with an Upper Town-style ZTL, which would avoid traffic congestion in the surrounding streets, which for them has caused a worsening of the quality of life of residents.
The May meeting
An issue also raised at the meeting at the Civic Hub, held on 18 May 2023 with the participation of the associations that belong to the Hub, the Committee for Redona and the Committee against the closure itself. Of which, however, the latter disputes the partiality: «The Redona Civic Center is a territorial operational arm of the Council, therefore it is not to be considered an impartial and independent body. Furthermore, the associations and groups that belong to the Civic Center are “self-referential” recreational and personal support entities, therefore not representative of the citizens residing in Redona”.
At the meeting the new president of the Committee for Redona, Parazzini, said he was clearly in favor of the pedestrianization of Via Leone XIII, citing as reasons the safety of families, places of aggregation and meeting and the advantage of having thus obtained a square. Reiterating, among other things, that citizens have been involved in urban transformation in the past.
The Committee’s criticisms
A series of points which, however, are contested by the Committee against the closure: «To date, although three emails have been sent (registered by the Municipality of Bergamo), the Committee for Redona has not yet provided the evidence we requested , about the various steps that were taken with the residents and that is the evidence of where and when these discussions took place, or the minutes of the relevant meetings – the members of the group explained in the letter -. Ditto with regard to the request for the results of studies and simulations of traffic ex-ante closure of Via Leone XIII”.
In this regard, the association urged Parazzini to make available the list of residents who belonged to the Committee for Redona, at the time of the entry into force of the Pedestrianization Ordinance on 31 December 2020, who reside along the streets covered by the petition launched last year, to ask for its reopening which was followed by a counter-collection of signatures from those who, instead, want cars to remain banned. He also asked, as done in the past, the councilor and mayor to disclose the evidence and studies on traffic in the neighborhood.
Tags: closure Leo XIII Committee attacks Civic center associations impartial
