La Nuova Venezia hosted a forum regarding SAVE’s plans for Tessera and the airport. Afterwards there has been widespread criticism of the plan for Tessera put forth by the president of SAVE, Enrico Marchi. The PD and LEU accuse him of speculation, while the M5S will call on Minister Toninelli.
By Gianni Favarato
MESTRE. On the day after the forum hosted by La Nuova with the president of SAVE, Enrico Marchi, there has been widespread criticism of his proposal to make the airport into a new city within the city; it already has a name (Marco Polo City) and includes the entire Quadrant of Tessera and the new stadium, with multilevel parking, a hotel with a convention center close to the dock, a covered plaza and a multipurpose pavilion with shops and accommodations.
“La Nuova’s forum has finally revealed Marchi’s true intentions” declared Deputy and City Councilor of the PD, Nicola Pellicani “after having given away control of SAVE to international funds, now he moves to put a swath of concrete at Tessera, between Triestina and the airport. A swath of 2 million cubic meters of concrete, despite the fact that the City Council has unanimously approved my motion that endorses the objective of reducing consumption of soil to zero, with major incentives for a process of urban regeneration that, in the first place, calls for restoration of existing buildings”. “Marchi’s project falls within the airport Masterplan, thus the responsibility falls to ENAC and the Ministry of Transport” Pellicani pointed out “but the City must have its voice heard. We need to promote an idea of the city that includes development as well as environmental and social protections in a fragile area like Venice. We will prevent the sack of the city”.
For Gariele Scaramuzz of Liberi e Uguali Venezia “Marchi’s project is a mangling of the city and a massive economic and real estate speculation. It saturates the eastern area of the mainland with commercial activity that has nothing to do with the idea of a sustainable city. His city within a city is made of theme parks, shops and accommodations; the only thing never mentioned are the citizens, without whom a city simply doesn’t exist. At this point the political and social forces of the city and the City administration need to stand up and take sides, so we can see the teams clearly, and we will know who has chosen to defend and protect the city, and who has chosen to massacre it”.
Scaramuzza accuses Marchi of also giving “misleading data about the employment levels at the airport without concerning himself about the job insecurity known by many of the workers at Marco Polo, beginning with the employees of the handlers”.
For his part the head of the M5S in City Council, Davide Scano said that “president Marchi has gone a bit too far with his declarations about the future of the Tessera airport: the idea of constructing a cable car system over the Lagoon is certainly unusual and interesting, but regarding the call for a project within the airport boundaries for his Marco Polo City, we need to pause and understand what the airport’s true function is, and what it is not”.
“Regarding these plans” added Davide Scano “we will call on the new Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Danilo Toninelli, as this involves a problem that affects all the airports and ports in Italy. The basic principle remains that it is the airport which should serve the city and not viceversa”.
Source: La Nuova Venezia, 30 June 2018
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