On the afternoon of yesterday June 6th, over 1600 citizen signatures were deposited in the municipality of Molfetta, asking for the immediate suspension of the cutting of the pine trees in Via Don Minzoni and the trees in the Levante Park and the immediate convening of a discussion table between Citizens and Municipal Administration. Some political and social forces, movements and associations have joined this request, asking to participate at the table. Among these the Rinascere political movement and the City Councilor Felice Spaccavento.
It may be useful to remember that the projects for the two batches of work, the redevelopment of Parco di Levante and Via Don Minzoni, date back to 2020 and 2021 respectively. The intervention as a whole is part of the National Innovative Program for the Quality of Living, financed with PNRR funds.
We regret to observe that, in fact, the involvement of citizens was very lacking in the planning of this intervention intended to revolutionize the face of Via Don Minzoni and finally make the Levante Park usable again. We remind you of a citizens’ meeting shortly before the approval by the council, Thursday 25 February 2021, at 10 am. How many workers can participate in a meeting at 10 am?
The project did not even pass through the discussion in the City Council (except very quickly, in December 2022, for the approval of a financing supplement).
It makes no sense to call a meeting in February 2024, a few days before the opening of the construction site, when the executive project had been approved and published several months earlier.
We remain perplexed and saddened by the technical solutions adopted: given the huge funding involved, is felling the fifty-year-old pines really the only way to fix the sidewalks and road surface of Via Don Minzoni?
As Movimento Rinascere we make the requests of the citizens self-convened to the Committee our own: a moratorium on tree cutting and, above all, rapid discussion and adoption of a Plan for the design, management and maintenance of urban greenery. Molfetta, in fact, has not yet equipped itself with an indispensable green plan.
Finally, regarding the safety of road infrastructures, we are surprised by a serious omission. In the plans of the project, freely accessible among the tenders of the Metropolitan City of Bari (and not on the website of our Municipality), there is no trace of any intervention to secure the infamous intersection between via Don Minzoni, via Gen. Amato and via F. Carabellese, the scene of frequent accidents. It was here that, in 2008, one of our young fellow citizens lost his life.
We trust that the Administration will not let this opportunity pass and, as part of the “redevelopment”, will also resolve this age-old safety problem, right in the vicinity of the municipal nursery.
“We have become accustomed to thinking of trees and urban greenery as simple furnishings, aesthetic supplements that move from one side to the other on the renderings” – states Felice Spaccavento, city councilor of Rinascere – “We have not understood that our cities are becoming ovens in summer and swimming pools on rainy days. The trees, in addition to purifying the air that our children breathe (and even in the case of Via Don Minzoni the CO2 absorption capacity was not calculated), they produce shade and, therefore, calm the summer heat. And that’s not all. Trees, like all permeable surfaces, effectively counteract the hydraulic risk to which we are increasingly subjected: the famous water bombs. We must start thinking about our cities differently: green is not a frill. It is essential. In the budget sessions we will also fight for this.”
Reborn Political Movement
