San Zeno Celebrates 25 Years of Local Leadership and Community Initiatives
In 25 years, eleven mayors have been elected, two of whom, unfortunately, have since passed away. They have contributed to their neighborhood in some way, knocking on the City Hall door to request solutions for the most urgent issues.
This is the “mayor of via Rambotti”, an alter ego of the institutional one who sits at Palazzo Bagatta. Well, a few evenings ago, at a Rivoltella venue (though via Rambotti is in Desenzano), the last meeting of the Millennium was held, after which the initiative of the via Rambotti mayor will be definitively shelved.
«Instead, another will be conceived in its place», says Roberto Soncina, who, along with Renzo Cobelli, Maurizio Zanetti, and other friends, organized the charming and peculiar event to mark a quarter of a century. The last mayor elected in the 20th century was Gianni Turrini, 83 years old, a barber for three generations, now retired and punctual every morning at the Desenzano hospital to shave patients.
The figure of Gianni Turrini and the other protagonists
Turrini, one of the nine residents of San Zeno, received 49 votes. The evening was also attended by the administrators from Palazzo Bagatta: the “real” mayor, Cino Anelli, and his deputy Emanuele Giustacchini, a manager with his parents of the “Nova” bar in via Rambotti, and the parish priest of San Zeno.
Interventions from the candidates were not missing: each presented their own electoral slate. Maurizio Zanetti, over 2 meters tall and owner of the transport company sharing his name, struggled to avoid “vote trading” during the quick electoral campaign.
Of course, the evening slid into a festive atmosphere, filled with jokes and pranks of all kinds. The San Zeno neighborhood was the first to rise in the post-war period on the outskirts of the center.
Characteristics of the San Zeno neighborhood
It is divided in two by via Rambotti, which runs parallel to highway 11. It is made up of public housing and cooperative housing; in the middle is the San Zeno church. Then, there are middle schools and, later, elementary schools.
In the 80s, the first nursery school was established, presided over by the late Professor Anna Bonatti. It is a neighborhood where practically nothing is missing: from sports facilities to schools, from youth centers to supermarkets.
The desire to gather and do charity has never retired. Even on the evening of Mayor Turrini’s election, funds were raised for local associations.
Solidarity initiatives
At Christmas, Roberto Soncina’s group makes and distributes gifts to children and raises money for the most needy families.