It will perhaps be one of the last debates between the candidates for mayor. And the theme this time will inevitably be “Beautiful and possible Florence”, which is the title of the notebook just published. It comes out today new edition of the Rosselli Foundation Notebook chaired by Valdo Spini. The title is “Beautiful and Possible Florence”, reflections on a city that has lost 100,000 residents since 1971 and has to deal with large-scale tourism, high costs and a green and infrastructure system that needs to be relaunched.
The volume contains contributions by Valdo Spini, Severino Saccardi, Massimo Morisi, Annick Magnier, Francesco Gurrieri, Mariella Zoppi, Biagio Guccione, Niccolò Gramigni, Alberto Di Cintio, Irene Micali, Mario Venturi, Laura Lucchesi, Tommaso Nencioni, Adriano Poggiali and Antonio Comerci. THEThe Notebook aims to move away from the usual continuity-discontinuity debate to pose the problems of Florence today and tomorrow.
“Florence is starting to renew the mayor and the municipal administration – states Spini -. There are many hopes, not a few disappointments which sometimes border on a resentment that expresses the almost nostalgic regret for a city of which one feels expropriated. The ‘Quaderni del Circolo Rosselli’ have returned continuously over the years to discuss the issues of Florence and its territory. A common thread runs through the various issues of the magazine which have addressed the problems of the city. This common thread arises from the observation that Florence, over time, has lost around one hundred thousand inhabitants from 465,000 in the 1971 census to the current 363,000. A figure that is certainly the result of a negative demographic trend. But above all it is due to the shift of residence of many Florentines towards the municipalities of the metropolitan area, motivated by lower housing costs, better services, greater liveability of the context both for school-age children and the elderly. And this from the point of view of greenery, pedestrian accessibility, a more community atmosphere and everything else relating to daily life”.
According to Spini, “in the last twenty years, moreover, another factor has forcefully been added: the ever-increasing tourist pressure, which shapes a ‘city of its own’ and tends to confine the city of residents. What we would like is a reversal of trend, which can only be the result of many policies, general and sectoral urban planning”.
The notebook will be presented at 5pm at the Conventino in via Giano Della Bella and will be an opportunity for a comparison between various mayoral candidates, from Funaro to Schmidt, from Saccardi to Del Re and Masi. In the Notebook, proposals and ideas: three new “doors” where residents/tourists can experience coexistence (Zoppi) and “ethnic” houses of culture in the Cascine (Spini).
