questa è una città and its election campaign. Atypical and constructive.

questa è una città (this is a city) is a list of 46 candidates running for mayor at the next election for Milan local government – by chance, none of them has ever been engaged in a political career. The election campaign has started and questa è una città will put its 120-item-programme into action. The programme is called "Le cose da fare" (To do list) and it collects a series of interdependent tasks that stem from a holistic conception of the city and of all the issues linked with it.

questa è una città is a list of people that share a common and different vision of the entire city, that aim and are able to change the city, that believe that Milan must not be an arena for right-wing and left-wing conflicts and that the city administration must not languish in a central and centralizing way of making politics which citizens do not trust anymore; a list that runs to win, i.e. to mark a turning point and realise the programme in which it believes, because it doesn't just aim to "fill a post" in the City Council; a list that opposes the current classification into first and second class candidates and firmly believes in its ability to administrate the city; an atypical bottom-up list, that doesn't represent any lobby or guild, that derives from a group that has worked in Milan for 11 years*. questa è una città now starts its election campaign and intervenes in different fields and in ways that typify its wish for change – as if it were already a group of mayors.

Meeting, tackling problems, discussing and trying to solve them. Priorities are set by citizens, solutions must be searched together; according to questa è una città, both in Milan and in any other place no one should be marginal nor emarginated, neither poor nor suffering: whatever the reason may be, the point is not the cost, but the solution, it's not "how much", but "how". The city is not a machine, but a living community.

Utopia, foresight, political anomaly, pragmatism; but also a new vision, a change in perspective. questa è una città refuses the logic of unproductive complaints, fights for self-determination and influence of the citizens through participation. And it shows the way that leads to change and risk, because everything is always and still possible.

* esterni is a group that has devoted itself to Milan, to its inhabitants or occasional visitors, to social interaction, public spaces and suburbs; in a nutshell: it has tried to turn it into a better, open and liveable city. And it will keep doing it. Ideas and projects on www.esterni.org

Items of the programme to be put into action between May 9th and 14th 2006

9-10 May – Parks/environment/street furniture – The campaign starts with a useful action to return a previously unliveable place to the citizens, after transforming it in a little forest. In a corner of the city, where via Sturzo crosses via M. Gioia, in full view of everyone but accessible to no one lies an abandoned field, where, on Thursday, 30 trees will be planted and surrounded by pieces of street furniture – circle benches and zebra crossing – to return this hidden spot of the city to the public. On Wednesday the new urban forest will be ready and enjoyable, an urban void will be filled and returned to the entire city.

11-12 May – Public spaces/we can/upgrading forgotten areas – these items of the programme will be put into action at the Arco della Pace monument between Thursday and Friday, as the former tollhouse, that has been abandoned for more than 10 years and stolen from the citizens, will be restored to be experienced as a public space. The collaboration of city talents and workers will be required: urbanists, architects working in the field of conservation, art historians and citizens.

Friday 12 – Variety of religions/openness/hospitality – the candidates, together with catholic priests and representatives of the Jew community and other religions, will temporary halt traffic in viale Jenner (Milanese Muslims use to pray on the pavement of this street, since in Milan there is no real mosque). This will be a mark of respect to the Muslim community, one of the most neglected ones. A meeting between the citizens and the religious authorities that will take part in this initiative will follow in the park.

Saturday 13 – Helping young parents/children/piazzas/security – at the Arco della Pace monument, the renewed tollhouse will become public again, and with the help of citizens it will turn into a multifunctional space. In the afternoon, it will become an exchange point for parents and children: a market of useful objects (prams, clothes and toys), a nursery and a meeting point with round tables where spontaneous associations will perhaps form, so as to meet the needs of parents and children. In the night, it will turn into a cheerful piazza with music.

Sunday 14 – Participation/piazzas/missing things – the cahier des doléances, a collective event that mixes a public forum and a popular referendum, gives voice to the citizens, records their requests and needs, helps to plan together all the things to do. Important figures of Milan and its cultural scene will take part in the event.

More Infos:
   Press release 8th May 2006