Urbanities,
Vol. 3
·
No 1
·
May 2013
© 2013
Urbanities
31
buildings; for a long time the central government froze the funds for the recovery of the soil
occupied by the Italsider plant (about 81% of the total industrial soil).
Going back to the questions, what kind of development, what kind of renewal one
notes that reclaiming an abandoned area means, in the words of some actors whom I
interviewed, starting with the reclamation of the soil and then proceeding to reclaim the
whole local environment (De Vivo 2000). The aim is to move toward a green city well
embedded in a broader process of sustainable development. This idea was originally
expressed in the variation to the Plan Controller presented in 1999 by the City Council, and
adopted at the beginning of 2001. Undoubtedly, the environmental cause has its reasons:
Naples needs to regain environmental quality through the re-naturalization of its territory for,
here, the ratio population/green in the city is the lowest in Italy. Thus, although neo-
industrialization and the consequent growth of employment is an urgent need, the idea of
making Bagnoli a tourist area, also including a technology park, is widely shared by the
citizenry. The pace and the extent of change pose interesting problems. Projects of urban
renewal like this require huge financial investment and far-reaching actions that cannot be
supported by a single entity; they call for new organizational decision-making mechanisms,
new operating tools to reach consensus and to bring together the interests of different actors.
Since the presentation of the project concerning Bagnoli, the City Council has placed great
emphasis on its willingness to rely on the active participation of citizens in every phase of the
project. This stand was heavily broadcast through press releases, announcements and
information campaigns. The results are, however, contradictory. A first issue that needs
attention concerns the apparent contrast between a good level of information to the public
about both the elements of the project and its promoters and the citizens’ little involvement in
activities related in its formulation and implementation. As a local man in his late 50s said to
me, ‘this year, a lot of politicians have come to Bagnoli during the electoral campaign and
they all illustrate to us the same project; so we have understood everything about the issue of
re-generation, but after twenty years we wonder when and how the project will be completed.
I think never’.
Information is not the only factor that can drive citizens to participate. Participation
can be more strongly stimulated by the mobilization of local associations. The willingness of
the City government to engage the local community in the redevelopment of Bagnoli extends
to the involvement of groups and associations, the assumption being that they could serve as
a link between civil society and the public sphere. Groups and associations could serve as a
