- The “Respect Ribbon” of Prà (Genova, Italy). Neighbourhood actions from the defence of local interests to the strategic urban project    729 kb by    Bobbio, Roberto | r.bobbio@arch.unige.it    Short Outline The inhabitants of a neighbourhood of Genova produced a project for minimizing the impact of the enlargement of the port and building a sport district; then they created an association for managing and improving the district. Abstract On the maritime littoral of Genova, the competition among different uses (and users) is very strong. In the 1980’s, the beach of a city neighbourhood was doomed to disappear by the (bottom-up) decision of building a new container ship terminal. During the years, the initial acquiescence of the inhabitants turned to opposition; and finally they were able to present to the City Municipality a proposal for reducing the impact of the port and creating a “respect ribbon”: a zone, inserted between the urban fabric an the infrastructures, were to build a park and sport facilities for the neighbourhood uses. The role of local leaders was of paramount importance in organizing the protests and addressing them towards a positive and constructive output that the City and the Port Authority could not ignore; the community as a whole was able to maintain attention to the negotiation and to assure support to its leaders. The project was widely discussed in public assemblies; first conceived as a form of compensation for the neighbourhood inhabitants, the “respect ribbon” grew in ambition to became an urban project that could produce benefits not only locally, but to the entire city. Actually, the construction of a canal for rowing sports has permitted to host a world competition for the first time in Genova; now the aim is to create an international rowing centre active all year round. The maintenance, the organization and the economic management of the “respect ribbon” is assured by a company that has about 1.000 members (individuals and local associations) and has rented the area from the City. This is either a case of a bottom-down strategy and an example for the maintenance of new facilities and public services, specially were (as in Italy) the City can no longer afford it. Keywords local action, participation in startegic projects Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2007: Urban Trialogues   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper