“We don’t want to complain about the situation of the historic center, but we have a lot to say. We want a discussion on our ideas with the future municipal administration, outside of political or associative alignments. There must be a reversal of course, and we are sure that in 5- 6 months of working together we can do it just as the San Rocco block improved in just one month after the New Year’s Eve events.” This is requested by a new group made up of traders, residents of the hexagon, professionals and customers. Marco Merola (of the Casimiro concept store) and Andrea Bottazzi (owner of a shop a stone’s throw from Piazza San Prospero) are the spokespersons and ask for “a gesture of love for one’s city”: to participate on Saturday 11th at 3pm in a silent sit-in in Piazza del Monte, “without slogans or polemical attitudes, open to all because the center belongs to everyone”.
The intent is to open a dialogue with the Municipality to stimulate a decisive change of pace. The organisers, given the change in purchasing habits (web, shopping centres, etc.) point out “the urgency of interventions to reverse the trend towards a ‘ghost city’, where going to the center means encountering the difficulty of parking, finding oneself in a neglected context of evident hardship and social degradation, in places that have become unsafe, where residents and businesses are fleeing”. They talk about their experience, from the bottom up: “For too long there has been no real interest in promoting activities and residentiality. We can, together with the public and private sectors, identify proposals to improve a situation that has dragged on for years and makes us tired, discouraged , disappointed.”
They underline that “for years, unfortunately, attention and investments have been aimed at other areas of the city: we ask for a discussion with the new administration, to sit at a table on equal terms, confident that we all love Reggio”.
The virtuous example is Piazza Fontanesi. Ideas? “Recover the properties now abandoned to themselves, prey to looters. Create new student residences and university buildings; mechanisms for subsidized rent for students and aid for landlords. Support to fill vacant shops with trade and above all for quality craftsmanship”. But above all, say Bottazzi and Merola, study together “a calendar of events planned in the long term, not like now that we often find out about it 15 days in advance. Events not concentrated in some areas, but widespread, throughout the year and all week: you don’t live only on the weekend and in the evening”. The starting point of the reflection is the failure of the Trade Table: “It was poorly coordinated by the administrators – underlines Bottazzi –. It was the forum for communicating the Municipality’s intentions, but the traders and residents were not personally involved”. Merola adds: “We arrived at the table when the package was already wrapped with tape: I don’t know what’s inside and I have no possibility of rectifying it. It’s not possible to create events without asking for feedback on the impacts from those who live and work in the area In twenty years, I have never been asked what I thought of a certain initiative. A discussion with those who experience the city not from the Palace but from the street is necessary.”
