WORLD WORLDWIDE ITALY News Journal Update - (en) Italy, Galatea AG: Catania: ethnic cleansing and gentrification - Part One (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 

On the morning of 19 October, a "high impact"1 operation began aimed,
according to what was reported in the press release from the Prefecture
of Catania, "at identifying situations of illegality within the old San
Berillo neighbourhood, with particular reference to those phenomena
which cause particular social alarm, such as illegal occupations, drug
trafficking, illegal immigration and prostitution."2 ----- The police
departments employed (State Police, Carabinieri, Guardia di Finanza,
assisted by the Local Police) were placed, for the most part, in the
external streets that delimit the perimeter of the neighborhood (Via San
Giuliano, Via Di Prima, Via Sturzo, Via Ventimiglia, Via Coppola and Via
Biondi). The practice followed had been tested in previous years: the
police closed the various accesses to San Berillo, some of them entered
the neighborhood, seizing the narcotic substances found and registering
and/or arresting the migrants.

On this tour, however, in addition to the police forces, the
firefighters, the workers of the Provincial Health Authority, the
workers of Multiservizi SpA (a subsidiary of the Municipality of
Catania) and the employees of the GEMA Consortium (a company that deals
with the collection of urban waste in the city centre).

In the following hours, according to the Prefecture's press release, the
following objectives were achieved: " liberation of two public roads in
which there were seven shacks that prevented access[...]A total of 247
people were checked, of which 59 were found to have police bias , 104
cars and 10 public businesses[...]several house searches were carried
out, equipment for the cultivation of marijuana was found and
approximately 500 grams of the same narcotic substance were seized.
Furthermore, nine non-EU foreigners were accompanied to the offices of
the State Police for checks, of which one was arrested and three will be
the recipients of an expulsion order because they do not comply with
their position on national territory. Finally, animals entrusted to the
veterinary service of the Catania Provincial Health Authority were found." 3

Mayor Enrico Trantino was present at the operations and, in a statement
released to newspapers, expressed his complete satisfaction: "
illegality cannot have free reign by using illicit means to deal drugs
or carry out illicit conduct, effectively making it unliveable. an
entire area. I am sure that this initiative will be repeated, with the
aim of all taking back the city together. Today is a good start for the
neighborhood because in San Berillo there are also healthy forces
working for integration that must be supported and encouraged, but we
will continue because the projects are concrete and must have a context
of legality."

This statement was followed by others (both applause and "criticism").

Pierluigi di Rosa, current editorial director of "SudPress" and former
councilor of the former Christian Democratic council of Antonino Mirone,
complimented the commissioner Bellassai and the mayor Trantino, urging
the latter 4 to "activate those controls that had already been arranged
in the years, without ever drawing the necessary consequences ",
identify " the inert owners or accomplices of the illegalities, put them
in default and if necessary intervene to their detriment to make the
properties safe ", " establish a daily security garrison that prevents
the usual resettlement of the gangs, as has happened every time after
every operation of this type" and, finally, " accelerate as much as
possible the implementation process of the projects with public funds
that are already underway in that neighborhood for at least 25 million
euros. "

The Catania secretariat of the " Movement of Democratic and Reformist
Policemen " union (MP) thanked Police Commissioner Bellassai " for the
timely joint public security operation launched today, a few weeks after
his inauguration, on the sadly well-known and infamous district of Old
San Berillo, in relation to which, on numerous occasions, for about two
years now, we had launched heartfelt and vain cries of alarm, also
through television interviews, due to the enclave of widespread
illegality that had been created within it." 5

Marcello Rodano, provincial general secretary of the Catania MP, shared
the news of the operation by writing publicly on his Facebook profile: "
Today a purulent sore in the city of Catania was healed, which risked
turning into gangrene. Sometimes, it is enough to give the scalpel to
the right surgeon for the desired recovery to occur."

Pietro Ivan Maravigna, lawyer, former deputy commissioner and former
advisor of Forza Italia, commented enthusiastically on the operation on
the Facebook group "La Vergogna di Corso Sicilia": "GO ON LIKE THIS! THE
EX SAN BERYL IS A CANCEROGENOUS BUBO ERADICATE FROM THE CIVIL FABRIC OF
THE CITY Significant operation underway in the former San Berillo to
clear out the activities in the ruins occupied by drug dealers and
traffickers. They had installed outdoor bars and discos in third, or
perhaps fourth, world hygienic conditions. You couldn't sleep at night
in Via Sturzo because these people don't give a damn about the needs of
normality and civility, the hygienic and health safety of the residents.
Our heartfelt thanks to the new Mayor Enrico Trantino and the new Police
Commissioner Dr. Bellassai. Keep going like this!"

Giovanni Leone, architect and activist present in San Berillo, asked for
" an alliance between inhabitants, parishes, associations, social
services of the Municipality..." and related " police operations " 6 to
regenerate and make the neighborhood safer.

Graziano Bonaccorsi, municipal councilor of the Five Star Movement,
expressed doubts about the operation as a reversal of trends (i.e.
public management and control of the neighborhood) and requested "a
traveling session with the Urban Planning Commission and the Social
Services Commission, so as to be able to immediately address the
historic critical issues of the San Berillo neighborhood"

Other police operations (albeit smaller) took place between the late
night of 23 and the early afternoon of 25 October. In those two days,
the police did their utmost to search for the last drug depots and close
the last ground floors occupied by migrant people - who protested
strongly against the police present (dog unit and the flying squad of
the Prevention Office General and Public Relief (UPGSP)).

These repressive institutional actions are in line with what the Catania
city center is today: an epicenter for the provision of services (real
estate, financial and restaurant-tourism). Real estate investments and
the allocation of PNRR funds intended for the urban regeneration of the
San Berillo district (considered degraded and everything else negative)
are useful pieces in protecting and increasing existing tourist demand.

Air properties , accommodation facilities and social housing in San Berillo

In "The residential real estate market" (2023) drawn up by the Real
Estate Market Observatory (OMI) 7 , the San Berillo neighborhood falls,
for the most part, in the OMI B1 Zone " ' Teatro Massimo, Civita, Antico
Corso, Duomo, Sangiuliano, Alcala, Dusmet, Porto, Universita, Piazza
Dante, Etnea/P, Garibaldi/P' "; a small part, however, falls in the OMI
B6 Zone (to be precise, Via Di Prima and part of Piazza Turi Ferro
(formerly Piazza Spirito Santo)).

The Number of Normalized Transactions (NTN) 8 in 2022 was 240 (+31.1%
compared to 2021 (which was at 182)) with a "real estate market
intensity" (IMI) 9 of 3.17% (+0.7% compared to 2021) . The average
purchase price increased by 0.8% compared to the previous year, bringing
it to 1193 euros/square metre. The data exposed by the OMI are
indicative and serve as a means of support for owners and real estate
companies who want to calculate the average prices of the value of one
or more properties.

On the " Real Estate Market in the Historic Center area of Catania " of
the mercato-immobiliare.info website - and linked to caasa.it, the main
search engine for properties in Italy -, it is reported that the city
center area is " a very active from a real estate point of view and
represents approximately 21% of all real estate transactions in Catania.
The average price of apartments in the Historic Center area is
approximately EUR1,335/m², higher than the average city price, equal to
approximately EUR1,270/m². The price of individual apartments in the
Historic Center area of Catania is very diverse, even if approximately
60% are offered at a price between EUR8 20 / m² and EUR1,770/m². " 10

The choice to make San Berillo fall into the OMI B1 area was not
accidental: until 2013 the neighborhood was included in a separate OMI
area (B7 to be precise); since 2014 it has merged into the known area,
according to the " Detailed study of the historic center. LR 13/2015 ",
as "Homogeneous Zone A" 11 (generally known as "Historic Centre").

Located in this area, the prices of properties in the neighborhood have
had a constant increase (compared to before which they were constantly
decreasing 12 ). From the data published on the "Immobiliare.it" website
(August 2023), we can see how the average price for the sale of
residential properties in via Zara, Buda, Pistone and Reggio (excluding
via Carro, Maraffino, Gian Battista Caramba, Ciancio, De Pasquale and
Finance) are between 1800 and 1850 euros/square metre.

The increases that have occurred - or, rather, the revaluations - are
not attributable so much to the change of area but, rather, to a general
economic diversification of the city supported by bonuses (such as 110%)
and allocations of PNRR funds for regeneration of the neighborhood
itself. This explains, for example, how "Expertise RE", a company
founded by Vincenzo Cavallaro and focused on the sale and rental of
properties, made a sort of public "call" in June this year: San Berillo
will be a good opportunity for investment thanks to " the redevelopment
works of the area, with a total value of 136 million euros " and the
high tourist flow of the Etna city. 13

The "call" did not come by chance: the real estate company is managing,
within the neighborhood, the sale (as a future residential/tourist
complex) of the former Reba Museum. And where is this structure located?
On the corner between Pistone and Buda streets and in front of Via
Carro, precisely the arterial roads involved in the clearing and
clearing of the "high impact" operation.

Beyond the "call" of "Expertise", around and within the neighborhood
there are other types of investments aimed, specifically, at short-term
private hospitality: B&Bs, hotels (such as the Romano House) and Airbnb.
This touristification of the city center presents itself as a great
economic opportunity for those who own a property and a social disaster
for those people who rent (especially if they attend universities and/or
have a precarious job (in particular for those who work in the service
sector )).

The increase in the rent is a typical consequence of these hospitality
phenomena: on the one hand there will be the forced return of the rented
properties by the tenants - as they will not be able to pay for these
structures and will be forced to move towards the margins of the city
or, even and in the worst case scenario, to live on the street -; on the
other, there will be the owners of the properties who will make rooms
and/or entire apartments available to a typically tourist clientele with
a medium-low or medium-high income.

In the case of the Etna city center we can see these effects with the
aforementioned increase in tourist flow 14 and the increase in rental
prices - reaching 8.38 euros per month per square meter (data from
August 2023; increase of +8.41 % compared to September 2022) 15 , with
peaks of 9-11 euros per month per square meter in the historic city
center area. 16

With prospects like this, living in San Berillo will become increasingly
difficult. Who offers a sort of panacea (or rather "placebo") within the
neighborhood is the social housing " Sottosopra: Collaborative Living ".
The project is located inside Palazzo de' Gaetani - the latter managed
by the Community Cooperative "Trame di Quartiere" -, supported by the
"Fondazione Con il Sud" 17 and directed by "Oxfam Italia Intercultura". 18

Unlike accommodation facilities and rented properties, this social
housing is aimed at those people considered fragile but with a minimum
of economic stability and is presented, at a media and public level, as
a form of social and economic reintegration with respect to aggression (
also tourism) present in the city.

Moving away from media dynamics, this housing experiment, inserted in a
context of social and economic isolation (vulgarly defined as
"degradation" by the media and public figures), focuses attention on the
housing problem in San Berillo and, more generally, in the city same as
Catania. We could define it, in a very risky way, as better than the
corporate hospitality practices of the various Airbnbs, the Romano House
(via Di Prima) or the future hotel under construction (also in via Di
Prima) 19 present in San Berillo .

But beyond the risk, the social housing project " Sottosopra has long
struggled to find its tenants given the access conditions that do not
respond to the needs existing in the neighborhood: a residence permit,
an employment contract, certificates doctors of good physical and mental
health and one hundred euros per month to be donated for a shared room.
These requirements have led to the repeated refusal to give hospitality
to people living on the streets, including the many who spend their days
under the windows of co-housing." 20

Specifically, this welcoming social structure does not overturn the
capitalist logic or, more generally, the logic of existing powers. In
fact, it's the exact opposite. The so-called social and economic
reintegration (or in simple terms "work reintegration") of "Sottosopra"
takes place within the current system where, essentially, one will have
to compete with one's peers (understood as exploited people) to gain a
workplace and thus be able to become an integral part of the great
capitalist producing and exploiting machine. 21

The associations "Oxfam Italia" and "Fondazione con il Sud", as well as
the Catholic associations present in the neighbourhood, defend an order
based on hierarchy and privileges of class and race (and we add gender
and species), push against discrimination of race, gender and sex and,
at the same time, focus on the basic needs of human beings (having a
home and food).

These methods create and retain potential customers - especially if they
are marginalized on a social, sexual and racial level -, normalize
relationships based on delegations and pyramidal hierarchies and, above
all, prevent any questioning of the entire violent capitalist structure,
patriarchal, racial and speciesist.

The discussions on inclusiveness , on social reintegration and on the
profit obtained from tourist rentals and/or sales of houses are fully
part of the beginning of that process of renewal or "rejuvenation" given
by capital investments in properties and normalization (a sound of
future racial expulsions and removals or "displacements") of
neighborhoods considered degraded like San Berillo: gentrification.

Continues...

Note

1 By "high impact" operation we mean a strategy aimed at deploying all
available police forces; the goal is to stamp out a tipping point of
lawlessness. Who coordinates and synchronizes these forces or, better to
say, "joint forces" is the Committee for Public Order and Security
chaired by the Prefecture.

2 Press release from the Prefecture of Catania. Links

3 Ibidem

4 "San Berillo Vecchio: finally a clearing operation. Very good, thanks,
but that's not enough", Sudpress, 20 October 2023. Link

5 "Legality in San Berillo, Rhone (MP): "When the good morning starts in
the morning"", FreePressOnline, 19 October 2023. Link

6 "Blitz San Berillo, the architect Giovanni Leone: "The police are not
enough here"", livesicilia.it, 19 October 2023. Link

7 "Regional statistics. The residential real estate market. Sicily", 6
June 2023, pages. 41-42. Links

8 The NTN is the indicator of market dynamics (i.e. the movement of
properties sold in a territory and in a specific time interval
(half-year, year)); represents the number of transactions, normalized
with respect to the share of property sold, which occurred in a given
period of time; it is data extracted from the Real Estate Advertising
Offices Database. Source: "Glossary - Economic-Real Estate Glossary -
Section I: BUILDINGS AND BUILDING AREAS". Lin k

9 The IMI is the percentage share of the stock of real estate units
subject to purchase and sale. It allows you to perceive what the
"movement" of properties sold has been compared to the real estate stock
present in a specific area. Source: "Glossary - Economic-Real Estate
Glossary - Section I: BUILDINGS AND BUILDING AREAS". Links

10 Last consulted: 28 October 2023. Link

11 The "Homogeneous Zone A" present in the "Detailed study" is
approximately 3.24 km2 in size, divided into four sub-zones: "A":
constitutes the part of the city center rebuilt after the 1693
earthquake, with reference to the survey of S. Ittar in 1832, also
including the area of Viale Regina Margherita, characterized by the
presence of noble villas built between the end of the 19th century and
the beginning of the 20th century; "A1": constitutes the historic center
of San Giovanni Galermo, a neighborhood located to the north-west of the
city, first an independent municipality and subsequently merged with
Catania in 1926; "B": mainly constitutes the expansion of the second
half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth
century, east of the Via Etnea; "San Cristoforo-South": falls within the
city redevelopment plan following the Decree of the President of the
Sicily Region of November 2002 and the Decree of 9 October 2008,
"Approval of an urban planning variant to the general master plan of the
municipality of Catania." Extract from "Catania: restructuring and
bourgeois investments" . Links

12 In this regard, see the territorial notes of the OMI on Catania in
the years 2010-2013, in particular the progressive lowering of the value
of properties in San Berillo. Links

13 After the two-year pandemic (2020-2021), starting from 2022 the
regional and city tourism sector has recovered quite quickly. As
expected from the declarations at the beginning of 2023 by Ivana
Jelinic, CEO of the "ENIT National Agency for Tourism", in the first
nine months of this year there was a substantial increase in tourist
flows in Sicily. Source consulted: "2023 is a record year for the
tourism sector but Sicily is stuck at 15 million overnight stays",
Quotidiano di Sicilia, 26 April 2023. Link; " Tourism in Sicily,
Confcommercio: "good, but more can be done"", 8 September 2023. Link;
"Tourism, Amata: «13 million visitors in Sicily in the first nine months
of the year»", 11 October 2023. Link

14Ibidem

15 Data extracted from the real estate.it website. Last consultation: 28
October 2023

16 Data extracted from the mercato-immobiliare.info website. Last
consultation: 28 October 2023.

17 As reported on the home page , "Fondazione con il Sud" is a private
non-profit organization created on 22 November 2006 from the alliance
between foundations of banking origin and the world of the third sector
and voluntary work, to promote the social infrastructure of the Southern
Italy, i.e. paths of social cohesion and good networking practices to
encourage the development of the South. " The main financial supporter
of the "Foundation with the South" is the "Association of Foundations
and Savings Banks spa" (ACRI spa). Within it there are 106 members: 83
foundations of banking origin, 11 banking companies, 8 territorial
associations of foundations and 4 other companies and foundations.
Regarding the foundations of banking origin, we have those linked to
Intesa San Paolo and Unicredit: according to the " XXV III Annual Report
of 2022 " , the two banks have invested respectively between 7.3 and
1.166 billion euros within their foundations . (page 48) and are the
largest (in terms of employees, branches and investments made) within
ACRI. Despite their apparently philanthropic character, ACRI foundations
are managed by political figures or former fixers. It is no coincidence
that the current president of ACRI (as well as of the Compagnia di San
Paolo, a foundation linked to Intesa San Paolo) is Francesco Profumo,
former Minister of Education during the Monti government (and continuer
of Gelminist politics) and former president of CNR.

18 At an international level, Oxfam (acronym for "Oxford Committee for
Famine Relief") is an International Non-Governmental Organization
(ONGOI) structured as a confederation; deals with humanitarian aid and
development projects in countries or situations considered poor and
degraded. In order to carry out these projects, Oxfam is financed by the
European Union, governments and other private bodies (in particular the
Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation). Despite
the various humanitarian activities, Oxfam has received very severe
criticism: from the sexual abuse perpetrated by the staff of this NGO in
Chad and Haiti (a territory considered a true paradise for NGOs across
the planet, as reported in the notes of the article " Haiti: long live
the revolution ", Umanità Nova of 2 December 2019. Link ) up to the
collaborations with multinationals (such as Starbucks) famous for
exploiting people and entire ecosystems of the so-called Third World.

19 "San Berillo, demolitions away", Argo, 2 October 2021. Link

20 Repression and redevelopment observatory of Catania, "bell hooks in
Catania. Of social enterprises and redevelopment", originally published
in "The State of the Cities", n. 9, November 2022, pages. 59-63. Links

21 See the paragraph "Unemployment as a weapon of Capital" in "The
bourgeoisie's war against poverty". Links

https://gruppoanarchicogalatea.noblogs.org/post/2023/10/30/catania-pulizia-etnica-e-gentrificazione-prima-parte/
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