In the Station area the situation is dramatic: the picture described by the Friends of the Viale is disconcerting, given that even the public cameras installed about two years ago would have stopped working. The residents are responsible for filming the crimes that take place in the railway district area – from drug dealing to prostitution – evidently exhausted by the conditions of what was once a thriving area, precisely ‘The Living Room of the City’. .
Despite the countless complaints to the competent authorities and the interventions carried out by the ‘State Team’ to restore public order, there is anger and mistrust among the inhabitants of the area. There is no exit life on the horizon.
And in the meantime, squatters continue to sell material of undoubted origin, occupying pavements and streets, excrement and the release of animal entrails, together with the indiscriminate abandonment of waste, complicate the situation from a hygienic-sanitary point of view: “A serious problem which, with the summer approaching, can no longer be postponed” warn ‘The Friends of the Avenue’
Furthermore, among the streets of the railway district, scooters and bicycles circulate in the opposite direction to that indicated by the road signs or on the sidewalks with serious risks and dangers for pedestrians and vehicles: “Furthermore, drug dealing continues in broad daylight, gang-mastering with illegal taxi services in defiance of regional regulations on the transport of workers to the workplace, prostitution is practiced in every nook and cranny, including the entrance halls of buildings.”
Furthermore, residents report, “just a few days ago an elderly woman was subjected to heavy sexual attention while she was returning home.”
All this was discussed on Tuesday 21 May at Palazzo di Città in a monothematic meeting on legality and safety of the railway district in the presence of the councilors of the Municipality of Foggia Giulio De Santis, Alice Amatore, Daniela Patano; of the deputy mayor Lucia Aprile and the president of the Council Lia Azzarone.
Participating were the trade associations Confcommercio, Confesercenti and Confartigianato, the community Difendiamo il Quartiere Ferrovia, the association I Fratelli della Stazione and the Aps Amici del Viale represented by their president Maria Luisa De Niro and the other members of the board, Francesco Iudice, Alessandro Villella, Pietro Di Taranto and Roberta Apicella.
“While appreciating the administrative action implemented by the Episcopo administration, the worthy operations of the police forces and the announcement of the installation of a new video surveillance system and while understanding the age-old shortage of personnel of the Municipal Police, the institutions cannot and must not give up guaranteeing respect for legality and civil coexistence in the present time, with the risk of conveying the message that the State does not exist and there are no rules to respect”.
The president of the Friends of the Viale Maria Luisa De Niro observes: “Aren’t the elderly perhaps entitled to live in a safe and healthy neighborhood and to be able to take advantage of disabled passes? Many residents are in wheelchairs and cannot access the pavements, whose slides are constantly occupied. It is normal for the boys and girls of every ethnic group must witness such moral decay on the sidewalks of their city. Beyond political propaganda, electoral walks and beautiful abstract words about the inclusion of migrants, what do we want to do to stem bivouacs, drug dealing and the release of waste? ?”.
The Friends of the Viale have asked for a Limited Traffic Zone in via Podgora, via Piave, via Isonzo and via Monfalcone; a fixed presence of the Local Police in via Podgora to combat the display and sale of goods on the pavements; an anti-bivouac union ordinance with a relative ban on the consumption of alcohol in the street and another for respecting the operating hours of commercial activities. The pedestrian area from Saturday afternoon to Sunday evening on the avenue; the elimination of rubbish bins and the collection of waste at the door, to be kept inside commercial activities.
