Inequalities

In this essay i will outline some of the inequalities on hand of the example of Via Dei Portici in Bolzano (Italy), as well as compare them to City Road. The street itself is one of the oldest in town and situated right in the heart of the city. On its nearly a mile long stretch you can find a huge variety of retailers, cafes, banks and even a little fruit market. In some of the cafes you will find old black and white pictures of the street which then was not more than a dirt track exactly like City Road used to be. The inequalities I will be focusing on are the struggle of little shops to compete with the prices of the big chain shops, the accessibility of the street and the change of its usage between different times a day. While the first thing when walking down City Road which I observed were the various and numerous restaurants and Take Aways, walking down Via dei Portici you will notice cloth shops instead, all lined up next to each other in the ground floors of the old houses. The houses have been looking the same way since ages due to the safeguard of the cultural and environmental heritage. However the shops types and owners change so often that as soon as you learn and remember a shops name its gone and replaced by a new one. There are only a few shops which have actually been there since how long i can remember. They were passed on from generation to generation and stayed in family possession but over the years even them started slowly to disappear and make place to one of the big chain stores, which because of their size can offer goods much cheaper. While the older generation tries to fight these changes by shopping in the old established businesses the younger generation welcomes the new high street shops and its modern goods. We have seen something similar with Colin and his Newsagent shop which was in possession of his family since generations. Colin also describes the changes after some fo the big supermarket opened up nearby. (“Making social lives on City Road, 2009, Scene 3). The next point I am going to explore is the accessibility of the street and related to it the variety of people using it. Turning the History wheel a few years back, Via Dei Portici was nothing more than a dirt road with horse wagons running up and down. (find scene on dvd to compare) Over the years the street got paved so that cars could access it, however the council turned the whole street into a pedestrian zone with limited access for cars. In fact the only time more than one car is on the road is in the early morning when goods are being delivered to the shops and market. This is one of the busiest times of the day as the streets are also filled by kids going to school and adults going to work. Even though it is not forbidden you hardly see a pedestrian walking in the middle of the road. It seems like there has been some sort of silent agreement for the morning hours between pedestrians and suppliers to not be in each other way. Ones the morning rush hour is over more elderly people are wandering the road either to enjoy a walk or to do some shopping. Benches have been put down every few meters which gives even those who struggle walking a chance to enjoy the full length of the street with some breaks. Unfortunately because of the rough paving stones the road is made of, it is hard for people in wheelchairs to move along. The council made promises to make the street more accessible to disabled people however besides talks nothing has been achieved yet. While in my previous point I was mostly talking about the streets day use I am now going to describe how it changes during the night. As mentioned the day is clearly characterized by the older generations but the night is owned by a multicultural student crowd which grows bigger each year as they local university gains on reputation. Quite a few cafes have changed their opening hours to profit from the young crowds need for entertainment in the late hours. On the wooden stalls where during the day fruits are sold, during the night they are used as tables and chairs. Some of the local residents have complained about the noise during these hours and achieved that the local pubs are liable to keep the noise in a certain limit and closing down earlier. To conclude, Via dei Portici as well as City Road is permanently changing due to the different needs of society which changes all the time. Reshaping of society creates new inequalities and differences and it might reinforce existing inequalities and differences. (‘Making Social Lives on City Road’, 2009, Scene3)