Riva Municipality’s Parking Woes Highlight Need for Local Growth

The owner of Italiana Parcheggi, the private partner chosen by the municipality to build the underground Pilati parking lot and subsequently manage the entire parking sector in the city, has publicly stated that its counterpart, the municipality of Riva, should “grow up.” So far, in fact, the municipality has only shown whims and hesitation, indecision, and a discouraging lack of ideas.

Examples of inefficiency in the parking sector

Lorenzo Lorenzi, a prominent figure among Riva’s merchants and former president of Palacongressi a few years ago, cites two examples of the chaos that prevails in the sector. “Canella parking lot: they’ve made it pay parking, and it’s always deserted. This despite the strong demand for parking spaces in the city.”

“Filzi parking lot: every day there are queues of foreigners struggling with the parking meter in a vain attempt to get a parking ticket: they can’t understand (but not because they are unable to figure it out) that this area is free on weekdays and only paid on Sundays.”

Regarding the Canella parking lot, it should also be noted that Italiana Parcheggi declared that before constructing the underground lot, no changes in regulations were supposed to occur: on the Viali Ottocenteschi, parking areas were to be charged only after the underground parking was built, to ensure a steady flow of customers to the underground facility.

The economic operators are deeply worried, also because of the overall impression of inefficiency that the administration projects externally, reflecting an inability to address and solve real city problems.

“They delegate everything, to AGS the energy policy, to Lido di Riva the tourism sector. They should be careful that the residents of Riva do not realize that in order to gain efficiency and decisiveness in solving problems, the mayor and the council could be contracted out.”