Dear Diary, Last night the new regulations for the Urban Forum were approved by the City Council… By Stefano Benaglia

The approval of this regulation is undoubtedly a victory for civil society and for all the forces that took action and worked in this direction. It is an important achievement for everyone, because commitment and pressure have channeled the will of citizens to participate in public life. Based on this desire, the Quartiere 5 association was born in 2020, which played an important role in the debate and the birth of this new form of participation. It is the result of four years of intense work, incorporating the experience of many friends met along the way and breathing life into what is today the Commission Coordination Mechanism, an informal tool but with great organizational and political influence.

I know that the Urban Forum solution is not 100% ideal and that some changes, even substantial ones, are necessary, but I believe that it is still a first and fundamental step in building public participation in public life. Based on this, we as associations and individual citizens must be very good at being present and vigilant. The parties have completely exhausted their aggregation capacity, lost in tiny self-referential power centers, the damage to common life is obvious to all, conflicts of interest and clients rule our territory.

Now that we have the tools to participate, it is necessary to be proactive and take advantage of the opportunity to have an impact and be heard. This is not the time to regret the old neighborhoods, they were a romantic ideal that allowed us to start anew and brought us together, but it is time to apply what we have to the depths of the city life. From today, the Forum combines our personal experiences, the life of our associations and committees, online and offline activities for territorial dissemination and knowledge, and coordination initiatives that allow citizens to influence the life of their territory as protagonists rather than spectators.

Last night’s meeting also proved that the real challenge is to get people interested in public life again, to participate in person, and not to replace Facebook groups with political commitments. Whether the forum is just a “complaint factory” depends entirely on the managers of the city, because citizens must participate, but first of all, their institutions must be given dignity.

We end this journey not entirely satisfied, but so is politics, mediation and compromise.

Now a new phase begins.

Dear Diary, the best is yet to come.

Stefano Benaglia