Bari, bar tables replace drug dealers. Leccese's idea: "Enliven places to make them safe."

Animating places to make them safer: this is the city administration's strategy to address requests for greater safety in the streets and squares surrounding the central station. One approach could be to allow restaurants and bars to set up chairs and tables on the large pedestrian area in Piazza Umberto, a thoroughfare connecting the station square with the Murat district and the shopping, nightlife, and cultural and tourist attractions.

"The city administration, also welcoming the recommendations of the Piazza Umberto residents' committee, will seek to enliven the square by offering the opportunity to set up tables to spark a movement of healthy and virtuous energy, to try to bring beauty to a place of neglect." This was Mayor Vito Leccese's explanation, on the sidelines of the meeting of the Committee for Public Order and Security held yesterday morning at the Prefecture.

"This was an important meeting," the mayor said, "in which we conducted a comprehensive monitoring of several phenomena that have caused particular social alarm, particularly affecting certain squares—historic squares and central squares of the city. Unfortunately, these areas, also due to construction sites and redevelopment projects, are experiencing greater disruption and an even more acute sense of insecurity."

Leccese reiterated the Committee's stance: "The police force, in consultation with the local police, will ensure greater active presence." Their task is to "conduct operations to combat the criminal activity taking place in those squares that have become hubs for drug dealing and consumption, while the municipal administration," the mayor explained, "will undertake redevelopment projects."

Specifically, for the redevelopment of Piazza Umberto, "a major €6 million project is planned," Leccese noted: "The children's play area is already partially under construction, and the most significant project, the redevelopment of the entire square, will begin soon." Meanwhile, "I hope that the measures identified by the Committee for Public Order and Safety," the mayor expressed his hope, "will provide a sense of security and ensure greater safety not only for those who live in those squares but also for all citizens who pass through them, as they are highly trafficked, given that they are located between the city center—the commercial hub of the city—and the station."