More trees and a new green policy in Cremona. This was the theme of the meeting held on Tuesday evening at Civico 81 with the centre-left mayoral candidate, Andrew Virgil. A delicate topic, which clashes with the many controversies raised by the Galimberti council in recent years and with the cuts made to the city’s green areas which in his time put the people of Cremona on a war footing. It is perhaps also for this reason that Virgilio intends to distance himself and relaunch on the city greenery.
“The design of spaces and green areas – reports a press note from the organizers of the meeting – it tells the vision we have of a city. It is the answer we want to give to the need to create increasingly livable urban contexts, which are true green lungs within the inhabited areas. For this reason, green policy must increasingly be a functional element and not just pure aesthetics. The result we start from is important.”
Cremona, it was remembered, “it is first in Lombardy for the number of plants per 100 inhabitants and second in Italy out of 105 provincial capitals, as confirmed by the ‘Urban Ecosystem’ study by Legambiente and Ambiente Italia. We have 260 hectares of municipal green areas and, from 2024, more than 80 thousand plants in urban areas. In recent years the green heritage has grown and, to protect it, the city has equipped itself with a Municipal Urban Green Regulation (RCdV) and the Municipal Green Plan (PCdV), two tools that will allow all activities to be planned and monitored. Now it is first and foremost a question of strengthening the investments made, especially in terms of maintenance, in light of the major redevelopments that will affect some city parks such as Piazza Giovanni XXIII, Piazza Lodi, Parco del Vecchio Passeggio, Parco Tognazzi, Parco Sartori”.
At the same time, Virgil highlighted, “to give a greater ‘green’ connotation to the city, we must give shape to the implementation projects of the Green Plan. The priority will be the creation of new tree-lined avenues and plantings around the city walls and along the entire perimeter of the ring road. We want to imagine a ring road surrounded by plants: a natural shield capable of absorbing fine dust and acting as a sound-absorbing barrier. We will create new wooded areas with a strong environmental and naturalistic value, both in the coastal part of the Po river and in the Morbasco area, we will encourage donations of trees by all city associations, we will extend the ‘Tree Museum’ from the Vecchio Passeggio park to all the gardens of the historic center. Green areas are vital spaces available to everyone and for everyone”.
“So that they can be welcoming and responsibly used places – added the candidate – we will invite citizens to participate more actively in the administration’s choices and in the development of projects through the Green Council, also strengthening collaborations with associations and educational agencies to also involve the new generations. Environmental sustainability is also closely linked to land consumption: new green areas can be created by ‘de-waterproofing’ some soils, removing asphalt and concrete surfaces through regeneration interventions. An example could be the Technological Pole sector which currently has no green areas. Finally, we cannot forget our campaign.”
Finally, talk about green policies.”cannot ignore the valorisation of the farms. The objective will be to design a territorial marketing network that protects all economic, historical and cultural interests linked to the rural world”.
