The city of Catania is undergoing a rapid transformation process. The
city, born as a place of exchange of economies, had, in theMediterranean world, as its center the agora - what we now call the
square. Today, no longer needing the real square but only the virtual
one, the contemporary city has become a non-place, a space for the use
and consumption of mass tourism, tourism that turns out to be the only
Italian economic sector not in crisis. ---- The pedestrian center, the
restaurants, the clubs, everything perfect to make tourists' holidays as
faithful as possible to the postcards seen on Instagram. We have finally
become the country of pizza, mandolin and spritz.
Short-term rentals and the right to a home It is a widespread idea that
making a profit from a house can be a good way to not work under a
master. True. But consulting the non-governmental site Inside Airbnb you
realize that 74% of the offer is apartments, the remainder private
rooms, shared rooms and hotels.
If you look at the data, small owners who try to round off their
expenses and/or avoid "working" under a boss, are a residual percentage.
The short-term rental system is in the hands of Srl/ SpA,
multinationals, who employ staff in various cities. In 2017, Il Sole
24ore highlighted a link between Airb&b and rent increases. "The study
discovered that in areas where the number of home sharing service offers
increased by more than 10%, rents also rose by an average of 0.39% per
year while house prices rose by 0.64%". According to the research, the
home sharing service contributes to reallocating part of the long-term
rentals in favor of a short-term offer aimed at tourists or in any case
temporary stays: this reduces the supply of long-term rentals available
on the market, contributing to the increase in prices.
In June 2024, for residential properties for rent in Catania, an average
of EUR9.19 per month per square meter was requested. In the last 2
years, the average price within the municipality of Catania reached its
maximum in June 2024, with a value of EUR9.19 per square meter.
Solutions? In Italy, Santanchè has created a register of these companies
to obtain a special code called CIN. The news of these days is that out
of 540 verified activities, a fifth is not in compliance with the
current legislation, and just over a tenth of the active accommodation
facilities, which are 4156, were checked. Industry experts are focusing
on the deseasonalization of tourism, that is, spreading tourists across
different places twelve months a year.
Against touristification In April 2024, a national meeting was held in
Bologna, the Social Forum on Housing, which drew up a manifesto with 19
points as actions to follow: 19 interventions that can be implemented by
the public to resolve a crisis that seems to be getting deeper and
deeper. Among the requests put forward is a new multi-year plan for
public and social housing, rethinking the role of municipalities and the
state and ensuring in every construction and renovation intervention an
appropriate quota of housing for those who do not have one: we need to
respond to the demand for more than 700 thousand social housing. It
proposes to regulate the short-term rental and private rental market,
suspend evictions and clearances, stop the disposal of public housing,
build student residences, guarantee assistance to out-of-town students.
Can public bodies be the right interlocutor to stop the excesses of
touristification and related gentrification? No, giving up real and
continuous revenues for municipalities like those in Sicily at risk of
default, with non-existent local economies, with polluted seas,
abandoned or over-exploited and water-poor countryside - would be
unthinkable. In Catania, the right-wing municipality wants to transform
mass tourism into a more qualified type of tourism, linked to cultural
tourism. There is talk of a candidacy for the city of capital of culture
for 2028. In the meantime, there are no essential services and those who
occupy empty spaces to offer primary social services are evicted.
Security, the Trojan horse for gentrification. Jean-Pierre Garnier, in
"The Indefensible Space, Urban Planning in the Age of Security", states
how security is at the heart of that architectural redevelopment of
buildings - strongly desired by the bourgeoisie and various building
contractors - by installing closed-circuit television cameras,
redefining spaces vertically and eliminating or reducing squares and
parks as places of passage. Miguel Amorós adds, bluntly, that: "In
cities, most people cannot live as they want; the human environment, as
it is, does not allow their personalities to be born and develop; it is
unsuitable to satisfy needs, organized as it is to the advantage of
something else. Everyone's activity, whether it be work, use of free
time, sleeping, cooking, studying is usually organized in spaces that
can only to a minimal extent be created, modified and managed by those
who live there. (The Totalitarian City, Nautilus).
It is no coincidence that Catania has been involved in the so-called
Caivano model, and red zones, all in areas of strong tourist development
and with a strong predisposition for gentrification, desired or forced
by the police. "What we must create in order to dissolve the bonds of
bourgeois society is not only a classless society, as envisaged by
socialism, but the utopia of non-repression, envisaged by anarchism".
Bookchin.
Alternatives? We need a participatory redevelopment process promoted and
managed by those who live in the city's neighborhoods, involving the
inhabitants from below, rejecting and refusing violent political and
social models such as the Caivano Model and the red zones.
Dansan
https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
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