CREMONA – «More live music, new spaces for culture, study rooms and exhibition halls. More pitches and free areas for sports in the neighbourhoods, new cinema halls in the city and incentives for youth start-ups. In other words, a city suitable for young people». The path was traced by the centre-left mayoral candidate Andrea Virgilio who decided to focus on the new generations “to give a new face to Cremona in the coming years”.
A renewal that starts from the path started for the transition to a university city: «Ours – we read in the note released by Virgilio – is an increasingly university city: the investment in Santa Monica and the Manfredini Barracks project confirm this. But the campuses are the pivot on which to leverage for an offer of services that allows us to welcome and truly include young students, even those away from home, within our community”.
A university city, one might say, is not just a city with universities: «We need spaces to be made available to young people – continues Virgilio – for study, sport and free time. The recovery of the San Francesco sector and the Frazzi area, for example, go in that direction. The old hospital will become a hub of youth culture, with music rehearsal rooms, study rooms and spaces for associations. And in the ancient kilns an exhibition space will be created, the headquarters of the ‘cotto laboratory’ and new rooms available to associations”.
But that of young people is a theme that has always rhymed with cultural promotion in cities: «We want to strengthen the presence of cinemas in the city, not in a logic of competition with large cinemas, but as places of cultural education and, since in recent years many ‘live clubs’ have been created, i.e. places where music is played live music, we will activate calls for tenders to give space and support to a musical offering that is more heartfelt and appreciated by young people.”
A city designed for future generations is also one that puts sport at the centre: «Next to the large sports facilities – added Virgilio – I imagine more free areas for sports, basketball or five-a-side football pitches, in all neighborhoods, available to everyone. Because sport, in addition to being fun, stimulating healthy competition and educating on a correct lifestyle, is aggregation. This is also why we will continue the inclusive paths in favor of young university students by promoting free and competitive activities in collaboration with the many sports organizations in the area.”
There is also a look at the link between young people and safety, in particular with regards to nightlife: «Looking at large urban centres, such as Bologna for example, we will introduce a ‘Night Plan’ or nightlife management policies that take into account take into consideration all the varied worlds that revolve around it – cultural, social, economic and entrepreneurial – and share their choices together”. Culture, sport and nightlife therefore, but also a look at the opportunities for youth development and entrepreneurship in the city: «The technological center – concluded Virgilio – was born with this objective. In the coming years we will continue to consolidate the collaboration with the realities that are present within and to promote, also through new benefits and resources, the birth of new youth start-ups”.
