Zevi: "With Felicittà 2025 we put Ostia and young people at the center. On Patrimonio indisponibile we are moving forward quickly"

It was May 30, 2022 when Councilor Tobia Zevi launched the Estates General of the Patrimoni o. With the Gualtieri administration in place for six months, the foundations were laid for a path of recovery and enhancement of the properties owned by the Municipality. But also those of an event that has now become a regular appointment: "Felicittà" .

The third edition will take place on July 3rd from 6:00 p.m. to midnight, and this year it will involve 25 locations, 6 of which are in Ostia alone. And this is one of the keys to understanding the 2025 event, which will end in the evening with "Felicittà Beach", a party on the Ponente beaches, the only ones left without offers for management following the municipal tender last February. For this reason, councilor Tobia Zevi, interviewed by RomaToday, is strongly focusing on the "sea of ​​Rome". And not only that.

Councilor, let's take a step back first. "Felicittà" has its own little history. Today, after three years, what has this event become and how is it renewed?

"A regular event that this year will try to provide new nuances, to make it captivating and innovative. I must admit that we thought about the opportunity to organize it for 2025 too, because the international conference on housing, "All you need is home", was a great success and we asked ourselves whether it was the case to postpone it, so as not to have two large events of this kind in close proximity. Then, however, by surveying our interlocutors, we realized that there is expectation. Not only from citizens who want to discover new places, but also from those who manage our heritage under concession and are happy to open their doors and tell the richness of the work they do".

So, the poster is clear: it is a special edition dedicated to Ostia. Why?

"Starting with Mayor Gualtieri, there is a very strong desire to focus investments and attention on the 10th district in general and on Ostia specifically, I am thinking of the Parco del Mare, the new Scafa bridge, but all this also translates into a new vision of the neighborhood. Ostia is seen as a problematic suburb, but it has extraordinary potential to exploit. It is a great waste not to enhance such a beautiful place. The Ostia special has this objective, that is, wanting to commit to ensuring that these large public investments are accompanied by the effort to inhabit these infrastructures, to make the neighborhood more beautiful".

It is also a clear message: the sea of ​​Rome, despite many contradictions and critical issues, cannot be abandoned.

"We chose to animate with Felicittà Beach the beaches of Ostia Ponente, in a difficult territory, where the tender for the assignment went deserted. We did not want to give up, but rather we invested directly and involved many subjects to ensure that a piece of Roman summer would also move to more difficult places. A very beautiful convergence was created, the aim of enhancing public heritage and the sense of Felicittà is precisely that of showing a more beautiful, inclusive and fair city. I also find it very positive and important, for this I thank Councilor Smeriglio, that the 2025 edition has been included in the calendar of the Roman Summer".

The beach party attracts young people. Are they also at the center of this edition?

"Yes. On the evening of July 3rd there will be a big party in Ostia Ponente. Thanks to the Jubilee, the Pnrr and the efforts of the Mayor, we are recognized for having been able to change Rome. Today, these transformations must make Rome increasingly attractive for the new generations. For too long we have been repellant to young people, from those who live away from home to those who left for work before the age of 30. We have the task of making Rome a place where people move to, not from which they leave".

Speaking of young people and students. The former Mira Lanza will become a university residence. An abandoned municipal building that is being reborn thanks to the collaboration with Roma Tre. Is this a project that says a lot about the administration's goals?

"If we think that everything had been at a standstill for 70 years, it's incredible. Degraded, abandoned, unsafe, full of waste. We managed for the first time to imagine a structural project, after two failed tenders, collaborating with Roma Tre. A great example of institutional collaboration. The synthesis of the city we want, where public assets are a driving force for regeneration, which creates an urban mending, with young protagonists and the knowledge economy that becomes a concrete fact".

Do we want to give other examples of the same trend?

"Well, on July 3rd the Casa di Pertini at the Trevi Fountain will be inaugurated, but we have in our sights the Mercato dei Fiori , the Hostaria dell'Orso and the Circolo degli Artisti. These three places are difficult challenges, complex also because of the bureaucracy involved, but by the end of my mandate I would like to bring them home, together with a master plan for the Campidoglio 2. "

Let's go in order. What's new at Mercato dei Fiori and Hostaria dell'Orso?

"So as far as the market is concerned, we are about to go to the council with a resolution of variation to put it out to tender later, after the passage in the council chamber. Regarding the Hostaria, I would like to publish a tender by 2025, hoping that economic and cultural reasons can be combined. I would like a place that is not only a place for catering, but also for culture. Opting only for the second option would not be sustainable, we have realized that the amount of work risks being an obstacle".

When you talk about Campidoglio 2, do you mean the transfer of the offices?

"No, absolutely not. The goal is to have a master plan within the next two years for the development of 80 thousand square meters of surface, a huge public space on which there are many ideas, but none yet defined or prevalent. The goal is to get down to business with the second mandate".

Two and a half years ago you approved the new regulation on unavailable assets . How is it going?

"We have reached a pace of ordinary administration, with 50 assignments through public notice and 10 large concessions. We aim to be even faster in completing the procedures, even if it is not easy: each time you have to do the 'due diligence', that is the urban planning and maintenance cataloging of the property, you need an estimate, you have to make a public notice, the anti-mafia checks must follow. But now the process is underway, and it will allow us to grant and legalize all the properties for which an interest is expressed.

There were also some critical issues, I think of the heavy arrears of several concessionaires and the controversies on the timing and calculation of the new fees. How did you deal with them?

"From my point of view, social realities can be proud of how we have managed, with respect to all the administrative and economic difficulties. We came from ten years during which they and the Municipality spoke only through stamped papers. We have made a new regulation after 40 years, in which a deduction of the work done is provided for on the highest rent, in which we deal with arrears. Every possible effort has been made, convinced that the only important objective was to open these spaces of culture, sport, sociality. The establishment of an ad hoc technical committee has allowed us to overcome apparently insurmountable situations such as that of 'Esc' in San Lorenzo, which is in the process of being resolved. In any dynamic, you can certainly ask for more. But I challenge anyone to find an Italian city where there has been a more favorable attitude, towards the concessionary social realities, than Rome".

When we talk about heritage, it is inevitable to mention the assets confiscated from crime. The citizens' forum, chaired by you, has existed for over two years now. What has been done so far?

“We have done a lot on the assets, both in terms of management and participation. We are faster. We not only manage but we create a process before and after that is also done by social realities. It works, we are satisfied. However, if I had to tell you my dream, it is that together with the National Agency that manages the assets, we could attack the large pool of properties under seizure that are not yet attributed to anyone. Rome Capital has about 160 confiscated assets in its ownership. On the Agency's website, the assets under seizure or already confiscated I believe are over 3,500, many of which are companies. There is a huge disproportion. At the government level it would be right to get our heads around this thing, giving us properties, such as perhaps the housing emergency, to create temporary mechanisms, in which these assets do not remain idle for years. It is a waste. We need more and better dialogue between all the institutions involved".

Let’s look ahead to 2027. What will happen in terms of asset management and recovery in the next two years?

“In March 2025 we approved the regulation on available assets, it was the last missing piece. There had never been a regulation. Very innovative because it has strong social correctives, because it is better to put it out to tender than to rent it to a private individual. The challenge for the near future is that, also thanks to the big real estate players, this asset sector is managed adequately, without gifts to the crafty and privileging social purposes, where obviously possible. But where this is not the case, then we need to increase the revenue for Rome, investing the proceeds in other services".