“The beautiful things we will do together”, Enzo Lattuca’s electoral program was shared on social channels, summarized in 17 pages which indicate the outgoing mayor’s priorities on important issues for the city in the five-year period 2024-2029. Among the eye-catching projects are the schools open in the afternoon to support families, the speed camera along Via Cervese and an ad hoc accommodation system for talents and researchers who choose Cesena. Here are the various points of the program of the mayoral candidate of the center-left coalition.
Knowledge, solidarity and well-being in Cesena
The first point discussed is that of a Cesena open to knowledge and inclusion that recognizes diversity as a strength and richness. “In Cesena, well-being is measured in the possibility for all its citizens to have opportunities and tools to satisfy their needs, not in the numerical quantification of the average per capita income. It is a question of guaranteeing every citizen clean air, quality water, good, healthy and fair food. But also sustainable energy, affordable housing, green infrastructures that generate quality of life. And again, access to sport, education and culture, free healthcare and the possibility of move and live experiences in the city”.
“Away with architectural and cultural barriers”
In the program there is an immediate reference to “an even more open, inclusive and supportive city”. “We have considered the need to break down every physical, cultural and mental barrier as a priority. A city that wants to allow its citizens to contribute to community life must give everyone the opportunity to live and participate in it independently. Public spaces and places in the cities must not have architectural barriers and must be able to be enjoyed by all citizens”.
On the front of solidarity and the fight against poverty, “a new home is planned for the Solidarity Emporium. We have supported the Popular Kitchens and the Poverty Service Center in the direction of greater attention and care towards all types of poverty and progressive autonomy , in full respect of the dignity of the person, and we will open ourselves to new experiences of supporting the housing difficulties of precarious workers, of combating energy poverty and social isolation”.
“Schools open in the afternoon”
Then the theme of school and university is addressed, relaunching the proposal already expressed by Lattuca of schools opening in the afternoon to support families in reconciling private life and work. “In the coming years – to meet the life times of families – we will give elementary and middle school students the possibility of extending their time at school in the afternoonbuilding an integrated system of school, educational and sports centers to carry out social, laboratory, recreational, artistic and training activities beyond school hours”.
Housing emergency: “Investments for more public housing”
The chronic shortage of rental accommodation which hinders the possibilities of students and workers attracted to Cesena is then addressed “Not only will we complete – as already happened for the apartments in Calisese and via Parini – the interventions which, from Novello to Palazzo Roverella, will bring to the availability of 130 social housing units, but we will also invest further resources in the construction of new social housing identifying at the same time areas to be unsealed with a view to progressively making the urbanization cycle more responsible”.
The establishment of “a single public desk for those in need of accommodation” is also envisaged, in order to offer specific and integrated responses to every need and to prevent those in need from being forced to knock on the door of too many public bodies or the third sector. At the same time, we will invest in and facilitate private investment in student housing and worker housing.”
Spaces of culture and sport “fundamental social infrastructures”
The electoral program places emphasis on Cesena Sport City which “will soon allow the city to be equipped not only with new and more functional spaces for those who practice sports – such as the new municipal swimming pool, the renovated athletics track and the Villachiaviche sports center – but also to offer opportunities for socializing in welcoming places open to all”.
On places of culture, “attention will be paid not only to the valorisation of the Rocca Malatestiana and the Terre Centuriate, but also to the planning and launch of a “fourth phase” of the interventions of the Malatestiana Library which involves the valorisation of the courtyards, the reorganization of the Antica spaces now used as offices and the possible use of the spaces of the current archive in the Cloister of San Francesco”.
“More green areas to combat climate change”
The focal point of the electoral program is certainly the environment. “We have started planting urban forests with thousands of trees to absorb CO2 emissions and we are creating new natural spaces for the conservation of biodiversity. Gradually asphalted and paved urban areas of Cesena will become green and permeable to rainfall. This is also how we try to combat the effects of climate change: green areas, in fact, ensure that the city better resists high temperatures and violent rainfall. At the same time we are speeding up the creation of new expansion tanks along the waterways.”
Also considered a priority is “a better use of energy and a progressive abandonment of fossil fuels. For this reason we have made the city’s public buildings more efficient and will continue to make public lighting more efficient in the coming years”.
On transport “we will guarantee efficient alternatives to cars”
For transport, the priority is “to guarantee efficient alternatives to cars, everyone must be able to use public and non-polluting transport. Collaboration with companies to encourage cycle mobility on the home-work route as a replacement for the car”. The institution of Bussì was cited, “the on-call public transport service to connect the hamlets to the center in a way that is closer to individual needs”.
Parking, pedestrian and cycle paths
The Bicipolitana project is cited as an example, “a set of routes extended across the entire municipal territory for a total of 135 km. We will continue to create further sections of cycle and pedestrian routes throughout the urban area and in the hamlets, so that daily movements and to reach services, schools, sports centers and parks are increasingly efficient and safe”.
On the topic of accessibility to the historic centre, “we have approved the implementation of parking spaces through a dedicated parking area outside the walls, but, at the same time, we plan to redevelop the access route from the station and from the Mattarella car park to center and along the route that from the IV Novembre car park leads to the city’s shopping streets, continuing the redevelopment of the city”.
Defense and support of economic activities
To attract and keep talent in Cesena, the electoral program proposes “a widespread system of accommodation specifically designed for those who want to come to our city to work, taking into account above all the needs for qualified manpower, researchers and talent which can make our businesses more competitive. We will take care of all the bureaucratic procedures to allow those coming from abroad to settle in the city easily. We will help innovative entrepreneurial projects through cutting-edge acceleration programs.”
“New hospital, the nerve center of the Romagna Local Health Authority”
Regarding healthcare and the new hospital in Cesena, it is made clear that “it is not enough to ensure compliance with the construction times of the new hospital, it is necessary from today to try to imagine the future of a network of structures functional to hospitalization, assistance, care that it is increasingly closer to the citizens. Romagna”.
Cesena capital, more police forces. The speed camera arrives on Cervese
The issue of safety is also central and deeply felt by citizens; the program underlines that “thanks to everyone’s commitment, Cesena has become the provincial capital, and this It will also lead to an increase in the number of police forces in the city.”
In terms of road safety, a choice is made “the installation of a first speed camera in the high-speed arteries, on Via Cervesewhich will allow us to stem the plague of speeding beyond legal limits, the main cause of fatal accidents which are still too high in number (already 4 in the first two months of 2024)”.
There is also a lot of focus on “the control of sensitive areas, made possible by the infrastructure of the video surveillance network, together with the urban Daspo recently introduced also in Cesena, to stem petty crime and degradation”.
