Cecilia Del Re: Municipality of Florence Councilwoman Exclusive Interview

By Professor Costanza Menchi

Cecilia Del Re Municipality of Florence Councilwoman for Urban Planning, Environment, Urban Agriculture, Tourism, Fairs and Congresses, Technological Innovation, and Information Systems

Costanza Menchi (CM): How the Municipality of Florence has been facing the COVID-19 emergency?

Cecilia Del Re (CDR): Right from the beginning Florence took a hard hit from the lockdown decreed by the prime minister on March 9th making all of Italy a red zone. Generally, from the beginning of the crisis the mission of the municipal government has been to put into action urgent measures in order to help our citizens and those sectors of the local economy experiencing the most difficulty. First and foremost, our principle duty was to safeguard the health of our residents and healthcare workers to whom we owe an enormous debt of gratitude for their work on the frontlines saving human lives. With great internal organization and collaboration, in only a short period of time our hospitals and healthcare infrastructure adapted to meet the Covid19 emergency, and this permitted us to contain as much as possible the number of infections in the city.

CM: Which are the most significant initiatives the city council have put in place in order to stay close to the citizens, and especially those who are more fragile, such as elderly, people with disabilities, homeless?

CDR: Since the onset of the crisis, the City of Florence has enacted many initiates in support of all our citizens, especially for those who find themselves in fragile circumstances. In particular, we instituted the following:

- Volunteer groups for the home delivery of groceries and prescription medicine

- Trash removal assistance for those physically unable to leave their residences

- Activation of a city hotline for residents with disabilities

- Activation of a psychological and mental health hotline via the professional organization of Tuscan psychologists

- Activation of a domestic abuse hotline operated in collaboration with various anti-violence associations

- Activation of a childcare hotline, in collaboration with the children’s hospital of Careggi

- Most recently, we enacted a renter relief fund and delivered door-to-door masks to each and every one of our citizens

- We have also extended guaranteed service in food banks and dormitories reserved for the homeless population

CM: How the Florence citizens are responding to the emergency?

CDR: As they have demonstrated in the past, the citizens of Florence have responded to this crisis with enormous heart and a great sense of responsibility. Present in our city are numerous volunteer groups who moved quickly to put themselves in the service of the municipal government so we could in a timely fashion enact the measures mentioned above. Individual citizens and business owners also made themselves available to us with a great sense of altruism. Many business owners, for example, responded to our call to find lodging for nurses hired during this period of emergency to support our healthcare system. Without their generosity, there would have been serious difficulties finding appropriate housing for our healthcare workers. Obviously, our concerns are numerous, and some citizens have not abided by our measures, but overall the city has responded well to this emergency.

CM: How the technology is supporting the Municipality and the Police in keeping under control the territory?

CDR: Technology is an instrument that proved to be fundamental to the management of all the services provided by the municipal government. In a matter of only a few days thanks to the hard work of the city’s IT team, all of our employees were equipped to work remotely from home. The crisis revealed difficulties with home connectivity and the lack of hardware, but with a concentrated effort we were able to overcome them. Technology allowed us to continue offering services to the citizenry, and facilitated the functioning of the city cabinet and committees. New technology has also had an important role regarding the surveillance of of our territory, allowing us to enforce the stay-at-home mandate. For the first time drones were used to support our police officers, and wifi and cellphone data tracking contributed to decisions regarding some municipal regulations such as the closure of parks to avoid gatherings of individuals in public.

CM: Which role the technology, research, and innovation will play in the future Florence recovery?

CDR: It will have a fundamental role in this our New Renaissance. An operational plan to bring us into the future will be our principal instrument. It will not only determine urban regulations, but the entire redevelopment of the city. Our idea is to repurpose former industrial areas to house technology companies and research labs, and realize a technology campus specialized in bio-and-medical technologies. Additionally, thanks to funding in our urban planning sector, our fiber optic system will be extended to areas of the city still not covered by it. Another important objective is to realize a space completely dedicated to Coworking in the former Caribinieri barracks at Santa Maria Novella. It will be a center for digital innovation located right in the heart of Florence and open to all Florentines.

CM: How do you see the future evolution of Florence as a green, smart, sustainable city?

CDR: Sustainability and a sensitivity to the Green movement have a fundamental and central role for our city as part of the mayor’s Firenze Smart initiative, clearly they are central points in the operational plan we are drafting to guide the design of the Florence of the future. Specifically, we are projecting the realization of over 2 million square feet of new park and garden space that will be carved out of dozens of public areas currently uncured or non-existing. Micro-zones for only pedestrians and bicycles will be mapped out, along with therapeutic forest areas within our urban parks. We would also like to reduce regulations on agricultural lands as an incentivizing factor.

CM: Which is the message would you like to send to the Florida State University Florence Program, International Community, and to all the American and International students who deeply love Florence, Tuscany region and Italy?

CDR: At the beginning of this emergency a regional ordinance was signed guaranteeing health coverage to foreign students in line with the measures already in place for our citizens in Tuscany. Most importantly, since these students do not have a family practitioner, the region established an information and emergency hotline for those who needed it.

16,000 foreign students arrive in Tuscany every year, 10,000 of which come to Florence. In other words, Tuscany alone makes up half of the 30,000 yearly student entries into Italy, the majority of whom come from North America. The message I would like to convey to them is one that regards the extreme attention we are paying to their health - that Florence is preparing as always to offer high quality services with the maximum amount of safety.