One hundred trees, up to seven meters high, will arrive today at 10 am on powerful vases equipped with wheels, in Piazza del Popolo. While waiting to see the charm of the now well-known “Walking Forest” – an environmental awareness initiative included in the Pesaro 2024 program -, controversy broke out over the “moving forest”. In the city council, a brawl even broke out between the majority councilors – Michele Gambini, Lorenzo Lugli – and the opposition – Giulia Marchionni and Dario Andreolli. Why? “In view of the planting of trees in the large external courtyard of the Santa Marta Institute, around eighty parking spaces will be eliminated as early as this summer – explained Marchionni, illustrating the urgency of a motion signed by the entire opposition for the identification of an alternative location to the Santa Marta courtyard -. Pesaro, it is well known, has an enormous problem: the scarcity of parking areas becomes even more evident along the entire coast between Pesaro and Fano, where, in summer, the tight parking of swimmers’ cars transforms the state road into a garage with obvious risks and dangers. Given this, it seems inappropriate to take away space for car parking in a strategic place like the one, on the sea side, at the Santa Marta”. The centre-right asked, with its motion, to “identify an alternative site for the planting of trees”. “Was the choice shared with the economic operators? – observes Andreolli, thinking of the hotels and businesses in Viale Trieste that use that car park as an exchange –. It is the only safe car park, free most of the time and with a rotation functional. Removing parking spaces means encouraging those outside the permitted parking spaces and creating danger.”
The centre-right motion was rejected. Consequently, once the tour is over, the “walking forest” will be definitively planted in the external courtyard of the Santa Marta. Planting will take place in October. From tomorrow, the group of mobile plants will tour the city in seven stages all animated by events, debates, installations and social moments. “From next week, at Santa Marta – explained Gambini – work will begin to prepare the land located in the courtyard, on the sea side, of Santa Marta for the benefit of the planting scheduled for October”. Since the land will be moved, fertilized, prepared to accommodate one hundred tall trees, it will no longer be available for parking. “It’s true – confirms Gambini –. The places taken away, however, are much fewer: around fifty and no more. We believe that the school and the children deserve to have a forest at their disposal: the area will also be usable for the teaching carried out in the green classrooms. It’s the time we take a courageous action in line with the principles of sustainability and environmental liveability: in fact that is a school property unduly used as a parking lot for 50 days a year. There are many parking spaces on the street side they will remain at the service of beachgoers and hoteliers. I see the problem: the benefits far outweigh the costs.” July? “I admit that the resolution does not meet with the full consensus of everyone – observed the Five Star Movement –, but supporting it is fundamental for the urban redevelopment that that area has been waiting for for too long. The time has come to proceed. The resolution gives the go-ahead to a process desired and long awaited”.
Solidea Vitali Rosati
