Good morning,
this letter of mine was born from the need to express a malaise as a citizen of Savona, who has always been in love with her hometown, and who sees its continuous degradation: the same malaise found in many fellow citizens. This municipal council has really exhausted us.
I have always believed that politics should have the well-being of its citizens as its ultimate goal and above all should take into account what the real needs are, starting from the foundations.
Have a safe city. Each of us must feel free and confident in being able to turn every street and be able to let our children go out without anxiety. Seeing the degradation that lives in neighborhoods that were in the past the hub of Savona is very sad. During Covid, carabinieri and police patrols everywhere, where are they now? Just trying to fill the Municipality’s coffers by issuing fines left and right. Piazza del Popolo completely abandoned to itself, benches that have become homes for vagrants, homeless people, drug dealers.
Have a clean city. There are not only Via Paleocapa and Corso Italia. All the streets of Savona, of any neighborhood, must be washed and cleaned in compliance with the taxes that are paid by us taxpayers, just as an adequate waste collection system must be provided. The latest news is indecent: traders must leave their rubbish piled up outside shops. Nice show!
Congratulations for this initiative. For goodness sake, no one claims to be Switzerland, but at least the creation of a collection point equipped with a padlock and well blended with the aesthetics of the neighborhoods, rather than considering spending 900,000 euros for the beautification of the pedestrian area of Corso Italia, the whose closure has however only caused inconvenience, especially to traffic, which was already congested before and is now absolutely unmanageable.
It’s pointless to have an initiative like the renovation of the theater square or the colorful streets every so often, we must first evaluate making the city efficient.
Having an infrastructure system that allows you to walk, use a wheelchair or stroller, go by car, or ride a motorbike/scooter without necessarily having to encounter sudden changes in the asphalt, or having to find sidewalks that are too narrow or too high .
Recover abandoned structures that could be exploited to optimize the same tourist influx. (see the Bank of Italy building: will it end up like the former hospital, decaying and unused for 30 years?)
Some abandoned and degraded areas even appear typical of the urban planning system of the former Soviet Union: see, for example, the dilapidated building in Via Luigi Corsi near the former railway elevation, a true miracle of architectural balance, in defiance of all rules on safety and urban decorum, which evidently only apply to some.
Having a parking system that favors residents wherever they live, without neighborhood limitations, allowing each of us not to feel like a stranger in our own city, but a privileged one as happens in many other areas, including Ligurian ones.
Having a city that can be worthy of the old photos that can be admired with such melancholy and amazement, because progress cannot be ugly or simply an income for a few. Create neighborhoods that remain in the hearts of tourists and cruise passengers.
If Savona’s objective is to apply for capital of culture in 2027 (unless it is, as many people think, a joke) we must try to make the most of its peculiarities and characteristics on a cultural level: the city of two Popes, the residence of the third Pope Pius VII, the Sistine Chapel unique in the world after that of Rome, the Priamar where many more events and art exhibitions could be organised, the Ceramics Museum, the Art Gallery, etc.
All combined with a receptivity worthy of the name. There is no decent hotel in the center of Savona, apart from the NH hotel, proof that the city is expanding only towards the port: those who leave the train station believe they have found themselves in a desolate land.
It is difficult to find civic sense in others if the example is not set by the institutions themselves which in doing so tend to exacerbate incivility.
Signed letter
