“Mayors are on the front line with their citizens every day. They face emergencies, find solutions and grow stronger together. If dialogue between nations is indeed more complex, dialogue between cities is more immediate and dynamic. We need cities to build stronger communities and to foster dialogue between nations.”
– Mayor Dario Nardella
Dario Nardella was born in Naples in 1975. He graduated from the University of Florence, with a PhD in Public Law, Construction and Environmental Law. His political career started in 2004 when he was elected Councilman for the City of Florence in the Democratic Party. Since then he has held different public offices, and in May 2014, Nardella was elected Mayor of Florence. He also serves as Mayor of the Florence Metropolitan City, which includes 44 towns of the metropolitan area. In June 2014 Dario Nardella was elected as ANCI (National Association of Italian Municipalities) coordinator for the metropolitan cities. He is a member of the Global Executive Committee of ICLEI, as Representative for the Europe Regional Seat and Vice President of Eurocities. In May 2019, he was re-elected on the first ballot, and is currently serving his second tenure.
To encourage residents back to the centre of the city, Mayor Nardella has introduced new urban planning regulations to enable local businesses to continue to operate in the city centre, where rental costs have increased significantly. The aim is to keep a balance of small and large businesses operating across Florence.
An initiative to address sustainability and housing issues affecting the city was also developed. The initiative converts unused public buildings, such as central civic premises, into social housing to support young families and the elderly in need of affordable accommodation.
The Mayor’s office runs a citizen engagement program to collect community input into projects. By reshaping the city, according to a new urban plan and infrastructure investments, the administration aims to build a more inclusive and sustainable city that will allow improved provision of social and cultural services.
Florence has instigated investment in technologies to provide more online services such as the development of smartphone applications providing local services for residents and useful information for tourists to improve well-being, facilitate access to the historic centre of Florence, and reduce congestion.
Building upon earlier investments in sustainable urban mobility, including two tramway lines and bike-sharing services that led to 1,300 fewer cars in the city per day and 6,300 tons reduction of CO2 per year, Florence has launched a Public Mobility Plan and created more than 30km of cycle routes. The aim is to simultaneously improve transport in and around the city, to increase the liveability of suburbs by reducing the discrepancy in services accessibility between central areas and suburbs, and to continue the impressive progress already made to tackle climate change.