Bolzano. The narrow urban quadrant between via Rovigo and via Novacella up to the barrier of via Druso, that is, the one of the schools – Foscolo and Torricelli – is increasingly a trench dug between the opposition and the majority. And the ground of confrontation-clash is the parking lots. There has already been the case of via Visitazione, with the protest for the structure intended for people with disabilities in the area currently occupied by a parking lot. The new case was launched yesterday by the municipal opposition of FdI because of the pedestrian-cycle operation that will allow easier coming and going of students especially towards the scientific high school, between via Rovigo and Novacella. “The project of the councilor Fattor will take away more parking spaces from the district. For now there are only three”, attacks the FdI delegation, “but the lane will also create problems for those who leave the only underground garage in the area”. To sharpen the attacks of Alessandro Forest, the group leader in the council, and of Tritan Myftiu, the consequences of the operation: the moving of seven trees from the sidewalk to the roadway, which, in fact, will remove the white parking spaces for residents. But it’s not over. Because in the same urban agglomeration the construction of an underground garage is planned – which will be dug under the sports field of the Foscolo schools – and so far so good.
But where is the possible, further, stumbling block? “That once built, all the existing surface parking lots will be removed” attack the two Melonian councilors again. In truth, the strategy that underlies this latest project is within a general scenario, strongly pursued by the council, which is leading to a give-and-take on the urban planning level: for every new underground parking space there must be a corresponding disappearance of a parking space on the street. “Cars must be removed from view”, confirms Stefano Fattor.
Who responds to the FdI initiative by defending his operation in via Rovigo: «Transforming the sidewalk into a pedestrian and cycle path means guaranteeing a safe bike path towards Torricelli». However, the opposition says that in the opposite direction the cycle path would be incomplete… «But the idea is to guarantee a protected direction against the flow of traffic, so as to allow two-wheelers to go in the direction of traffic, even if on the road, towards via Novacella».
A compromise, in short. Which however does not satisfy Forest: «In this way the cycle path is interrupted at the most beautiful point, guaranteeing neither overall safety in both directions nor the permanence of precious parking spaces». The FdI councillors, who went to the site yesterday, underlined that the final stretch of the cycle path towards via Druso will not be built in any case so as not to remove the existing trees. «This will create a greater danger than the current one» underlines Forest.
Those coming from Viale Druso could in fact feel even more authorized to travel the first stretch of Via Rovigo in the wrong direction, to then enter the cycle path. In addition, “it creates an additional danger for cars that, exiting from the uphill ramps of the garages, will have to face the passage on the cycle path without visibility.”
Also under attack are the future 34 parking spaces under the Foscolo sports field, which will correspond to the same number of parking spaces removed from the street. At the center of this controversy, in any case, is an urban reality that is plain for all to see: those narrow neighborhoods between Via Druso, Via Roma and Via Milano suffer from the highest percentage of building in the city. A dense, often inextricable environment of condominiums. And all of them, Fattor observes, “built between the 1940s and the 1960s, when traffic was twenty times lower than today and no one thought of building houses with garages”. Today we are paying for all of this. But we are also projected toward an increasingly pedestrian-bike friendly city. This is the narrow passage, the point of friction between past and future that will certainly not end today. P.CA.
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2024-08-17 22:38:02