The air is ours
The crazy idea of having Sundays without cars is being repeated again this year. On a similar footing to an ancient pagan rite that is celebrated without being able to remember why, or like a modern way of invoking the rain to clean the air. Tomorrow the gas chamber called Milan will stop, while the employee administrators formigonialbertinipenati after destroying the Bosco di Gioia {Joyous Wood}, 180 trees, a tiny green lung, one of the few in Milan, they are now rushing to construct the new building for the Region, three massive skyscrapers in the area of the Fiera and carparkscarparkscarparkscarparks.
Are these employee administrators or property developers?
Are they stupid or just playing as if they were?
Carlo Monguzzi, the leader of the Green Party for the Lombardy Region, has declared that the 5 year plan for air has received a budget allocation of 2 million Euros for 2006. And only as a result of an amendment from the Greens. The plan was going to receive 600 Million Euro, but this money will go to finance the new skyscraper for the Region.
They tell us that the polluted air is the fault of the nice weather and because of central heating.
For us to be at peace, we have to hope that there will be rain, snow, or a tiny tsunami.
We have to choose whether to die of lung cancer or to die of cold or bad weather. Or an alternative choice: send these employees home, and claim back the air, our air.
In Milan, there are no cycle paths, or the few that exist, are occupied by parked cars.
The centre of Milan is a depot for four wheeled drives, trucks and buses.
In Milan the electric bus doesn’t exist, the buses use white petrol, cleanclean (they take us for a ride even with words). In Milan they construct car parks, but the car parks attract the cars.
In Milan the children have direct access to carbon monoxide in their baby carriers.
We need to do something and not just in Milan.
Let’s claim back the air.
Our air.
I propose a symbolic gesture to start off with. I’m asking for the help of the Meet Up groups.
Every first Saturday of the month, let’s invade the cities of Italy with bicycles.
Hundreds, millions of bicycles.
For our air.
Posted by Beppe Grillo at 10:59 PM in Transport/Getting About
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Comments
Recognizing a sign of cancer can be hard if you don’t know what to look for. A sign of cancer in most cancers can be the same and hard for a doctor to know where the cancer is in the body.
Posted by: sign of cancer | December 12, 2007 10:47 PM
Sunday without cars.. too little to make any difference, in Naples we tried odd and even numbered license plates the number of cars on the road actually increased and so did the abusive plates. In London there is a 10 pound charge to drive into the center.
Bycicles, walking ,mass transport, are all acceptable ideas until it is you standing in the rain waiting for the bus, or losing your job because the train was late again. I live in the Northeast US there is no other alternative than my car to get to work, I wish there was.
Posted by: GiancoG. | February 10, 2006 08:32 PM
A Walla come je stai???? Ti ricordi quando usavi la macchina anche per andare a prendere il giornale in quel dell'Olgiata?! E sfottevi gli amici non motorizzati??? Ah Walla Palla.....
Posted by: Giorgio Rossi | January 12, 2006 09:52 PM
Brilliant idea!! milan is a disgrace when it come to cycle paths. in a city which is flat, has more sunny days than rainy ones and is rarely really really cold why isnt more done to help people go to work by bike!!?? i cycled to work here in milan for 2 years. after being knocked down 3 times, having had numerous close misses with cars i have finally given up. its just not worth risking life and limb.
as you rightly say the few cycle paths that do exist are just another place for the idiots to park their cars on.
useless. look at amsterdam and berlin how come they can do it and milan cant? milan is the city where the car is god. its not as if the streets arent wide enough to have cycle paths added onto them either.
Via padova has just been given a make over. was a cycle path added on? what do you think? pathetic!
Posted by: pat kerr | January 10, 2006 10:30 AM
I have been reading the comments about starting a blog in English (which I can't find again because your instructions aren't clear or I'm just stupid!). However to those who doubt whether non-Italians will use the blog, here I am. I'm English and have lived in Italy for over 30 years. I can write in Italian - speaking is no problem - but I still have difficulty in expressing myself as well as I would like so that a blog in English is extremely useful for me. At this stage all I want to say is that I am grateful for this opportunity and to express my interest in everything that Grillo has to say (although not neccessarily agreeing with it all). There is no doubt in my mind that he plays an absolutely esential role in revealing that the (little and big) emperors have no clothes.
Posted by: Michael Segal | January 8, 2006 01:31 PM
I have been living in London for a few years and live now near Zurich. One conclusion which I came to is that, if you live downtown, a car tends to be more of a costly nuisance than a benefit...
Posted by: Fabio Guadagnuolo | January 7, 2006 04:55 PM
Yo Giovanni,
another cool thing that in Rome I was only dreaming of is the grocery delivery! When I was in Toronto I used to buy my grocery online and wait the day after to see it delivered to my door. Here in Mtl is quite old fashion, but still I walk to the grocery store, do my shopping, and then go home and wait my grocery to be delivered again to my door. Isn'it that cool? No car man!!!!! So happy! And yes I can rent it if I want, or as a friend of mine is doing, he's using sharecar.com or something like that, where you just pay for the houres that you are using the car...I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.
Well I'm going to make dinner...talk to you later..ciao
Posted by: Walid Mulla | January 7, 2006 01:41 AM
Hey, Walid!
I spent 11 years in Chicago and I can tell you that I have friends from there that don't own a car because they live and work downtown.
If they want to go somewhere they fly and/or rent a car.
To rent a car is cheap in USA and in Canada, compared to Europe because we don't have all those Bullshit taxes: you can rent a midsize for $60 a day, including insurance.
I must own a car because of my job and also because I was living 30km out of the city otherwise I tell you that I would happily sell it and use the money on something else.
Posted by: Giovanni Principe | January 7, 2006 01:10 AM
Yo guys, no body here is posting in English? That sucks man! Anyway, I'm living in Montreal, Canada, right now, and I must say that the traffic that I used to see when I was in Rome was killing me, while here it's different. It's been 3 years that I don't drive anymore, I don't even have a car. I live downtown, I take the subway and I go evreywhere! I wish Rome was like that...yeah, right!
Posted by: Walid Mulla | January 7, 2006 12:18 AM
But...there is even worse than formigonialbertinipenati, here in Bologna our super major, Cofferati, re-opened the centrum (downtown, I mean) to all cars, for all saturdays, and forever. Plus a Xmas special grand-opening for shopping.
Results? Skyrocketting pollution.
However we remain assured over the incoming desteny: we do have a GREEN assessore vigilating over us.
It's all guaranteed by the "new" left administration.
Posted by: Mauro Messori | January 7, 2006 12:09 AM