La Città metropolitana di Reggio Calabria fra scelte strategiche e ricerca di futuro

In the case of Calabria, law 56/2014 intervenes in a geographical area that, for decades, has faced situations of economic, social and environmental emergency, now exacerbated by the health emergency that began in 2020, and it does so in a particular way. In fact, this law includes Calabria among the ordinary regions with Metropolitan city, while the previous legislation (142/1990 and 267/2000) excluded it. Moreover, unlike all the other ordinary regions, the law gives Metropolitan City status to somewhere which is not the regional capital and lacks many of the criteria which define the other MCs listed in the law. Lastly Reggio Calabria is unique in being a Twin City with Messina, also a Metropolitan City by decision of the Region of Sicily. All these elements are likely to have a major impact, both on the region and on the trans-regional area of the Strait, and make it very interesting to see how law 56 is implemented locally. The analysis of the Metropolitan Strategic Plan, which should make it easier to understand the strategic direction of the new entity, is still ongoing. This is a choice of extraordinary complexity, and because of the delay in declaring Reggio Calabria a Metropolitan city, and the ensuing pandemic, it is still in an interim phase.