The news recently arrived that in Massa, the former Cat area will be converted into a place of art and culture. The House of Arts will consist of music rooms, classrooms for theatrical activities, a 300-seat auditorium and an atrium with a refreshment point. With this umpteenth act, aimed at enhancing the territory, our “cousins” from Massa demonstrate that they have understood that to combat urban decay and social hardship it is necessary to intervene with actions aimed at intensifying culture and sociality. Beautifying the city and making it pleasant for residents and visitors is in fact preparatory to preventing many forms of social intolerance, violence and petty crime. On the subject of urban redevelopment, comparing Massa with Carrara, it is clear that in recent years the gap between the two provincial co-capitals has widened: the former is experiencing a season of rebirth, the latter is instead in a state of inexorable decline. Considering the repeated episodes of delinquency, drug dealing and vandalism, with a pinch of emphasis and profound sadness, it must be said that the historic center of Carrara and especially some areas of Avenza bring to mind the New York described by John Carpenter in his famous film “1997 Escape from New York”.
These criminal events have triggered a social alarm, reported several times by citizens and associations, which sees among its main causes the depopulation of some symbolic places of the community. In Carrara too many buildings and public spaces are abandoned to themselves (Ex Mediterraneo, Sala Amendola, Ex Cat building, Ex Carabinieri barracks, Ex covered markets, Ex scientific high school, southern building ex refugee camp, Fossola underpass) and many are currently closed (Marble Museum, La Caravella, Ex Capannone del Cat), but also those structures that currently host public services (see Via Giovan Pietro health district) appear to be dilapidated and only partially used.
Insecurity among residents is now tangible and if the intervention of the police, in this phase of explosion of the aforementioned phenomena, turns out to be fundamental, other tools frequently requested such as video surveillance do not find any real use in this context.
A serious and effective urban regeneration plan cannot pass only through the adoption of crime prevention and repression tools, rather it must have an enlightened vision of the territory, also aimed at maintaining and enhancing the historical and cultural elements of the country. However, for too long in Carrara it seems that the various municipal administrations have as mission not the common good but the satisfaction of third party requests. Requests that are almost never in the interest of the community and if they are, in any case, remain subsidiary to the primary interest.
The exemplifying paradigm of this “organized administrative chaos” lies in all those choices adopted by the Tuscany Region regarding health policies.
Example: the various Carrara municipal administrations that have followed one another from the 1980s onwards, adopting passive and hetero-directed behaviour, have accepted that the Region, through the ASL, should take possession of two school complexes in Avenza (even located in strategic positions) for the creation of the health district. Currently the “Swept” district is inexplicably divided into two locations, the initial one in Via Giovan Pietro (Ex Gil) and that in Via Campo d’Appio (Ex Scuola Leonardo Da Vinci) and both buildings are partially used. Just a nice example of rationalization. The Region occupies two buildings for half, does not implement what was established (House of Health and Nursing School) and in the meantime the municipality, in a school emergency, sets up a school at Campo dei Pini in Marina di Carrara, where there should instead be a sports facility temporary made of containers, with related costs and inconveniences borne by families. How brilliant! The conception of all these movements of locations and activities (Nausicaa and Intermediate Treatments of Fossone follow closely behind) is worthy of a world champion of Risk and certainly not of what is referred to as the world capital of marble. Carrara, if transposed into the famous board game, would be classified as a seduced, exploited and abandoned territory, just like the Kamchatka peninsula that all Risk players want to conquer.
On the sidelines of the above I would like to underline that this modus operandi of Carrara politics translates very simply into the “Pontius Pilatesque” choice of not wanting (or being able) to make any decisions, due to the fact that others (public bodies, entrepreneurs, industrial groups) take care of the decisions. A proven method, aimed at removing responsibility from public administrators, which determines an administrative void, which in turn is filled by public and private entities who, finding themselves dictating the local agenda, therefore decide the future of Carrara.
Precisely on the subject of political choices, possible cases of conflicts of interest that could concern some Carrara councilors and councilors have been discussed several times. In this regard, it is difficult for us simple citizens to express an opinion on issues that concern, moreover, the main economic sector of the city which directly or indirectly involve a good part of Carrara families.
Someone might say: let he who is without sin cast the first stone or better let him who is without conflict throw the first arrow. Therefore, while politicians rightly wonder about possible interference with administrative actions, the suspicion arises that the municipal machine is permeated by a constant disengagement towards the public interest. The “conflict of disinterest” in some circumstances causes administrative inertia no less harmful than the regulated conflict of interest. In fact, the former CAT building owned by the Municipality, and the former Carabinieri Barracks (building of historical importance) owned by the Province, are the two latest illustrious victims who, in almost total disinterest, are sacrificed with a view to raising money that if (and when) they enter public coffers presumably they will not be reinvested in the area. So, the Pro Loco of Avenza was right to ask that the money from the sale of the property owned by the Municipality (former Cat building) be reinvested in the recovery of the Sala Amendola. And if the Municipality of Carrara will soon publish a public notice of sale for the aforementioned building, the Province of Massa Carrara has been trying to sell the property for about 15 years without obtaining the desired results. In the meantime, unfortunately, the property has never been subject to maintenance and the structure is rapidly deteriorating and depreciating. The former Carabinieri barracks and former headquarters of the Mining District does not deserve to be in perpetual critical conditions, nor does it deserve to not have a worthy and adequate intended use. The historic house in Via Farini and the Sala Amendola, together with all the abandoned areas of the municipality, must be renovated and returned to the community as soon as possible.
Yes, but how? Article 21, equalization, mortgages, state, regional or European funding, it matters little to us which tools the policy intends to use, the important thing is that it solves the problems and quickly. Stop conflicts of disinterest, politics becomes the protagonist again. This is the solution. Decisions now. The city can’t wait any longer!
