If the municipal administration has already set a date for the start of the pedestrianization of Piazza Federico di Svevia, 15 June, «an imagined dead line but – specifies the mayor Enrico Trantino – although susceptible to remodulation», it is for another pedestrian area, “Crociferi”, already decreed way back in 2012 as well as a UNESCO heritage site, that the activation times of the electronic gates accessing from via Sant’Elena are getting longer. Gates already installed and which, despite the activation resolution of the council dated 15 April 2024, are not yet installed. The reason? To activate the electronic gates, which will be managed by Amts, all that is missing is the connection from Enel. An unnerving impasse, which in fact still makes the area from via Sant’Elena to via Crociferi and via Cerami a real “free zone”, rather than a protected pedestrian area as had been imagined.
The situation is different on Piazza Federico di Svevia. The Trantino administration had in fact given a clear acceleration in this regard, confirmed also (or despite) following the public meetings with the merchants, their trade associations and the residents of the square and surrounding areas. Meetings during which all the doubts and opposition to the project were expressed on several occasions, which then resulted in the latest “appeal” of Fipe Confcommercio, Fiepet Confesercenti, Cna and Mio Italia to the city council, which is scheduling a group leader with the technicians and representatives of the operators to take stock of the planned parking and road plans. Also in light of the vote in April on the motion on the topic of pedestrianization in general, signed by 10 out of 11 group leaders and which committed the municipal administration to contemplating not only the simultaneous activation of the area with the provision of alternative parking, but also the sharing on the choices and signing a memorandum of understanding with the traders’ and citizens’ associations regarding the “modalities for implementing the choice to pedestrianize the area”. For Castello Ursino, to date, no memorandum of understanding has yet been signed.
The mayor, who reminds us, as he had already said, “naturally we will have a press conference to present everything, and not a post on Facebook.” In the meantime, we are proceeding with the installation of the electronic gates (nine planned), the creation of a protected lane for pedestrians in via Zurria (where 75 stalls will be made available in the evening) while the 145 stalls planned at the port “are already ready”, as well as the “shuttle plan” with the Amts garage in via Plebiscito.
