Giglio, globe-trader "better shopping on foot”

La Repubblica [16 December 2007] 

“Pedestrian areas? They can only improve commerce.”

Federico Giglio, 36 years, together with his father Michele and his brother Giuseppe, runs the Giglio spa, one of the five buyers worldwide, owner of many shops in Palermo, he has a precise idea on how to improve the liveability of Palermo.

He goes around the world with his father and he is aware on how shopping works all around the world: on foot.

Federico Giglio, lots of traders complain that when the centre is closed to traffic on Sundays the selling decreases. Is it like this?

“No, shops do work also when the centre is closed. The problem, in fact, is the administration of the town, changing its mind every now and again, I mean…there is no planning. This is what confuses people.

Today the pedestrian area is on, but starting from Via Ruggero Settimo. It won’t include the area close to Via Libertà, where you are. Are you ok with that?

“No, because when Via Libertà is forbidden to cars, the lateral streets where shops are stay open and it all jams. It should be the other way round, and not only on Sundays.”

You wish the lateral streets forbidden to traffic for ever?

“Yes indeed, word of mouth says Via Libertà looks like the French Champs – Elysées, but in Paris the lateral streets are closed to traffic, and they are even bigger than ours, why not to do the same in here? It would be so much better, to enlarge the foot paths as well, to provide licences to bars to put some tables outside. More than that, it would be ideal to close to traffic Via Ruggero Settimo too, at least up to Verdi Square. When a street becomes completely pedestrian, it begins to live properly.”

Some associations of traders are, in fact, against this traffic limitation. Why?

“Because they are narrow minded, they are hooked to a wrong idea of palermitan citizen who wants to get inside the shop with his car! But it is going to change. The citizen of Palermo is a citizen of the world. He learns to live well in a place with a good administration able to take good decisions. Everybody enjoys a town better when it is more liveable. For sure it is not possible on alternate numbers.”

Are you against it?

“Yes I am as much as I agree with true pedestrian areas. It is not right to rob citizens of their right to move freely across the town. By having good pedestrian areas both traders and citizens would know that a certain area is closed to traffic and they would arrange themselves according to it.”

Every time people talk about it, traders complain by saying that efficient parking areas should be realized as first step…

“It would be really easy to create parking areas out of old unused buildings. If it was a permanent pedestrian area, traders could be actively involved, they could have conventions with taxis, for example. It’s all about wanting it. But I really think the problem is with the administration which is not of the best.”