A colorful line of clothes hanging out in front of the Naples City Hall, in Piazza Municipio, while – not far away – some kids play football.
A wire stretched between two trees in Piazza Municipio and above some clothes hanging out to dry. A few meters away, still in the same square, in front of the Town Hall, a dozen or so kids are playing soccer. And between one bounce and another, the rope also becomes an improvised net for a volleyball game.
It is the symbolic protest of the 'Mezzocannone occupied' social center against the measures relating to urban decorum, under consideration by the competent commissions and by the City Council of Naples, which have already sparked many protests. The initiative attracted some curious people, who stopped in the square to understand what was happening.
“It would be funny if there wasn't anything to cry about – say the kids from the social center – the city administration, led by Gaetano Manfredi, continues its war against Naples, its youth and its characteristics undaunted”.
And they point out that the regulation also prohibits begging and camping on the streets, thus reducing poverty to "a question of mere city aesthetics. After all, social discomfort is dust to be hidden under the carpet."
By prohibiting hanging out clothes from balconies and playing football in the street, they explain, "a piece of the culture and identity of this city is being erased. It also seems surreal that in the face of a chronic lack of services and opportunities to offer, the administration manages to find the time for such embarrassing slips."
“Is this Manfredi and the council's idea of the city? – they ask – a silent city, where children cannot play in the streets, the poor must be erased, you cannot sit or lean anywhere, you cannot clean the street in front of your house?”.
Article published on 16 June 2022 - 17:57
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