The turning point in Barcelona, which will revoke short-term rental licenses from 2028, has finally given a boost to political discussion in Bologna too.
The starting point is now clear: Airbnb and short-term rental platforms are one of the vehicles with which rent is eating away at our city and are increasingly a tool for concentrating real estate ownership.
The result is that in Bologna, to rent a studio apartment, salaries of more than 2000 euros are needed, thousands of families are waiting for public housing and every hundred families of workers are expelled from Bologna, increasing commuting and therefore pollution.
Mayor Lepore, pressured by public opinion, said he shared the spirit of Barcellona’s action and wanted the next candidate for the regional elections for the PD to take charge of the issue, but what has been the spirit of Lepore’s action in these years? We want to raise three points.
The first concerns the proposed law that the Municipality of Bologna, together with other municipalities led by the PD, proposes to the regional and national government, arguing that the municipalities do not have the powers to intervene.
We will come back to this, but first it must be said that the national bill sponsored by Lepore and Clancy is not exactly “doing like Barcelona”, the proposal proposes to limit short-term rentals by large property owners to instead favor “small owners” and “those who rent a room”.
The logic is the same as the so-called “living plan” which focuses entirely on the “private social”: please ask private individuals to give up a bit of income, with the result that private individuals don’t care and the prices of rents and trades continue to rise.
The second point we raise is the tools that the Municipality already has in hand and has chosen not to use. Starting with the elementary introduction of a tourist tax. Today Bologna provides for a tax of 7.9% but up to a maximum of 5 euros per night.
In practice, above 63 euros of overnight stay (which is now the minimum for a night with Airbnb) the Municipality gives up on collecting. A serious tourist tax, which increases progressively, would begin to remove Bologna from the list of tourist destinations to be inundated with hit-and-run tourists who take away living space from those who live in Bologna.
Not to mention all the political tools that Lepore chooses not to use because, as he candidly said during the election campaign, “airbnb owners vote”. Just think of the red carpet that is rolled out every time at the feet of the Farinettis on duty, of the permission to open the large chains loved by tourists inside archaeological sites, of the CEO of Ryanair welcomed as if he were the Madonna of San Luca.
And this brings us to the third point: this model of tourism was strongly desired by the Democratic Party and its allies, in the Municipality and in the Region.
It was a precise plan with the development of Bologna airport as a Ryanair hub, with the donation of tens of millions of public euros to connect the airport and the central station with the People Mover, with large events organized explicitly to publicize the city.
It is enough to remember a Navile neighborhood council in which the eternal Mazzanti intervened to explain how strategic air traffic is for the city’s economy and that, therefore, the inhabitants of Bolognina must put it away.
Without mythologizing Barcelona’s proposal, of which we will have to measure the distance between the announcement and the facts, we think that this is the path to take, to return to having different channels for tourist reception and for the Bolognese people.
To do this, we must immediately begin to use the technical and political tools available to a city like Bologna, and we must break away from a development model based on income.
30 June 2024 – © Reproduction possible WITH EXPLICIT CONSENT of the CONTROPIANO EDITORIAL TEAM
Last edit: June 29, 2024, 11.01pm
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