New Yorkers live slowly

The 5th Slow Living Day will take place in New York on February 28. The event is organized by a movement that wants to explain the world why slow living is convenient.

The capital of slow living? New York, according to the experts of the sector, the organizers of the World Slow Living Day. The organization, which has an international influence but follows the Italian philosophy of a “sustainable life” has analyzed cities and countries all over the world, looking for the golden mean between efficiency and good lifestyle.

The result? “We will give an award to the mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg: his political choices perfectly meet our values”, explains Bruno Contigiani, the creator and president of a voluntary association called “Living slowly”.

“New York’s mayor has reorganized many areas of the city, transforming them into pedestrian areas. In doing so he reclaimed disused railways and closed busy streets to traffic, not to mention the investment in green areas that have been made.”

On February 28, for the 5th edition of the twenty-four hours dedicated to the people who are not in a hurry, the volunteers, led by Contigiani will leave their headquarters and head to the banks of the river Hudson.

This year’s motto is: “Ambitious and caring – Slow life, green life, better life”.

The trip has of course been planned according to the “slowmendments” , the rules that are the cornerstone of the movement. Like in previous editions in Italy, any hasty passerbies who run into the “missionaries” of slowness will be metaphorically fined and invited to keep on walking at a more relaxed pace.

“We have become an international movement, last year we were at the Expo in Shanghai.” explains Contigiani. He is a former Telecom and IBM manager and he founded the association ten years ago. “We started as a group of friends that hung out together and now we are 3 thousand members in thirty divisions, all over Italy .” says the president.

Is this movement just for the friends hanging out at the pub? According to Contigiani it is not so:

“I have recently chaired a conference with some enterpreneurs from the North-East of Italy and they have told me that they realized they were wrong: they were always rushing headlong without understanding where they were going.

Now they have understood that you can become competitive at an international level even at a slower pace.

The identikit: Bruno Contingiani 65, worked for IBM and Telecom Italia as a press office manager. He is the founder and the president of the organisation “The art of slow living”.

 Find out more: www.slowliving.info