Milan discusses its fate as an enterprising and supportive city
When we say Milan, what city are we talking about? A city of 1.5 million inhabitants, into which at least another million people travel every day for work or study? Or a metropolis consisting of 133 municipalities and home to over three million people? Or Italy’s largest university city, with 230,000 students across ten prestigious universities that are also well respected abroad? We could also tell the story of an area that produces 11% of the national GDP and is home to 34% of the foreign multinationals based in Italy, according to data from Assolombarda, the largest territorial organisation of Confindustria which brings together almost 8,000 companies in Milan, Monza and Brianza, Lodi and Pavia — ‘the productive and innovative heart of the country’. Or we could talk about the metropolitan centre of gravity of a vast industrial and dynamic area in Europe, stretching from Turin and Genoa to Veneto and Trieste, and from the Alps to the Via Emilia. Milan is therefore the ‘infinite city’, to repeat Aldo Bonomi’s pertinent and famous definition.
And it is a Milan to be governed. But how? The sheer scale of the ongoing transformations and the radical nature of the changing processes (from economic growth to social issues) reveal that, although Milan is a market metropolis, it cannot be reduced solely to the logic of the market and productivity. Its attractiveness to people, capital, ideas and businesses requires foundations that are more solid than the fundamental parameters of competitiveness. Civic virtues and social values are needed, as are international cultural exchanges and, above all, good politics and effective public administration.
As the figure at the beginning shows, these issues cannot be governed solely at the municipal level. With one and a half million residents, and another million people arriving in the morning and leaving in the evening, Milan’s population almost doubles on a daily basis, with all the attendant problems of transport, cleaning, services, security, catering and waste.
Therefore, the scale must be at least of a metropolitan city, with better application of the relevant regulations (the founding law dates from 1990, inclusion in the Constitution from 2001, implementation from 2014 and formal operation instead of the old provinces from 2015 — a quarter of a century, a very long time). It must also be provided with financial and professional resources.
However, the trouble is that the metropolitan city has never worked well. ‘The Great Ghost of Milan,’ writes Corriere della Sera (28 October) and ‘A restrained but strategic giant’ (29 October). The mayor of the metropolitan city is the same as that of the capital, Beppe Sala. But the perception of the role and relative powers has always been marginal. With negative consequences for all the areas concerned.
So, do we need a ‘special law’ for Milan, like the one in force for Rome? Maybe, as long as there are adequate allocations for public services and fiscal incentives for private investment to accompany public resources, and as long as the standards are based on the metropolitan area.
However, we need to go one step further. The real issue with services is to consider them not only from an administrative perspective, but also in terms of the movement of people, products and jobs. This would involve developing proposals for unions, consortia of municipalities and public-private partnerships, depending on the services to be provided, and would create a new political, economic and administrative landscape. However, this would need to be tested, bearing in mind the positive fiscal examples of other European countries. Piero Borghini, who was mayor of Milan in the early 1990s, refers to Manchester’s experience of using locally produced tax resources to build governance of services ‘from below’ rather than ‘from the top’ of administrative leadership. New ideas, the dynamism of a society on the move (Corriere della Sera, 31 October).
In any case, Milan is multifaceted and, to use Lucio Dalla‘s words, ‘close to Europe’. And it is certainly not ‘livid and sunk by its own hand’, as Ivano Fossati wrote in ‘Steam Trains’ (but that was in 1992, the year investigations began into the Tangentopoli system of political and financial corruption). Polycentric Milan cannot be reduced to the stereotypes of a hectic and wealthy city, a ‘city of a thousand lights’ for fashion, design and luxury living. However, it is also difficult to understand based solely on the stylistic features derived from the widespread reports of corruption in public administration (although the judicial inquiries into alleged urban planning irregularities in the municipality have not found solid evidence), and the growing violence in the ‘movida’ areas, where petty crime is perceived as an emergency.
However, there are shadows over the soul of a city said to be losing its ability to combine work and culture, productivity and solidarity. Bonomi is right to write of a metropolis in the midst of an ‘interrupted metamorphosis’, at risk of losing its social cohesion (IlSole24Ore, 29 October). This is partly due to an increasing inability, or perhaps unwillingness, to combine the dimensions of needs and rights. However, even in the most challenging neighbourhoods, it is possible to find stories of solidarity and social commitment brought to life by organisations, institutions, and voluntary groups in the ‘third sector’ (Caritas Ambrosiana is a prime example, though by no means the only one).
Therefore, before the city plunges into the rhetoric of electoral propaganda for the election of a new mayor and city council in 2027, it makes sense to discuss in depth the ongoing transformations and the political and cultural tools needed to tackle the problems exacerbated by Milan’s status as the Italian region most affected by overwhelming economic phenomena, such as the transition from industrial to post-industrial production at the end of the 20th century, and the current mutations linked to the ‘knowledge economy’ and the pervasiveness of artificial intelligence.
Much has been said about the ‘crisis of the Milan model’. But Milan is by no means a model; it is a land in motion, an economic engine and a ‘factory of the future’ (a term dear to Assolombarda), as well as a magnet for attracting intelligence and capital. It is also a cultural and social hub with the capacity to engage in in-depth self-reflection, a rare quality in the Italy of the ‘strapaese’, the movement that championed traditional, rural, and nationalistic values over cosmopolitan and modernist ones and which is characterised by a sense of proud parochialism.
This is a Milan that needs to be understood and explained better. It should be severely criticised, and yet it should also be designed with love and lived in.
A good example of this attitude is the discussion organised by the Centro Studi Grande Milano and chaired by Daniela Mainini, with Roberto Poli acting as director. Taking place on Wednesday 26th at the Museo della Scienza e della Tecnica, the event is aptly titled ‘Milan is its destiny: ideas and projects for the city’. Speakers will include Cristina Messa, Agnese Pini, Venanzio Postiglione, Gianmario Verona and myself. Milan’s destiny stems from its history and character, and encompasses ‘enterprising dialogue’, culture and solidarity, innovation and reformist awareness, enlightenment, polytechnic culture, civic sentiment, education and science.
In fact, this is a Milan that must learn to take greater account of the opinions of other Italian and European cities. It cannot abandon the economic and social characteristics that underpin its activities and, over time, have enabled millions of people to ‘become Milanese’. Citizens who are both enterprising and supportive.
(photo Getty Images)
When we say Milan, what city are we talking about? A city of 1.5 million inhabitants, into which at least another million people travel every day for work or study? Or a metropolis consisting of 133 municipalities and home to over three million people? Or Italy’s largest university city, with 230,000 students across ten prestigious universities that are also well respected abroad? We could also tell the story of an area that produces 11% of the national GDP and is home to 34% of the foreign multinationals based in Italy, according to data from Assolombarda, the largest territorial organisation of Confindustria which brings together almost 8,000 companies in Milan, Monza and Brianza, Lodi and Pavia — ‘the productive and innovative heart of the country’. Or we could talk about the metropolitan centre of gravity of a vast industrial and dynamic area in Europe, stretching from Turin and Genoa to Veneto and Trieste, and from the Alps to the Via Emilia. Milan is therefore the ‘infinite city’, to repeat Aldo Bonomi’s pertinent and famous definition.
And it is a Milan to be governed. But how? The sheer scale of the ongoing transformations and the radical nature of the changing processes (from economic growth to social issues) reveal that, although Milan is a market metropolis, it cannot be reduced solely to the logic of the market and productivity. Its attractiveness to people, capital, ideas and businesses requires foundations that are more solid than the fundamental parameters of competitiveness. Civic virtues and social values are needed, as are international cultural exchanges and, above all, good politics and effective public administration.
As the figure at the beginning shows, these issues cannot be governed solely at the municipal level. With one and a half million residents, and another million people arriving in the morning and leaving in the evening, Milan’s population almost doubles on a daily basis, with all the attendant problems of transport, cleaning, services, security, catering and waste.
Therefore, the scale must be at least of a metropolitan city, with better application of the relevant regulations (the founding law dates from 1990, inclusion in the Constitution from 2001, implementation from 2014 and formal operation instead of the old provinces from 2015 — a quarter of a century, a very long time). It must also be provided with financial and professional resources.
However, the trouble is that the metropolitan city has never worked well. ‘The Great Ghost of Milan,’ writes Corriere della Sera (28 October) and ‘A restrained but strategic giant’ (29 October). The mayor of the metropolitan city is the same as that of the capital, Beppe Sala. But the perception of the role and relative powers has always been marginal. With negative consequences for all the areas concerned.
So, do we need a ‘special law’ for Milan, like the one in force for Rome? Maybe, as long as there are adequate allocations for public services and fiscal incentives for private investment to accompany public resources, and as long as the standards are based on the metropolitan area.
However, we need to go one step further. The real issue with services is to consider them not only from an administrative perspective, but also in terms of the movement of people, products and jobs. This would involve developing proposals for unions, consortia of municipalities and public-private partnerships, depending on the services to be provided, and would create a new political, economic and administrative landscape. However, this would need to be tested, bearing in mind the positive fiscal examples of other European countries. Piero Borghini, who was mayor of Milan in the early 1990s, refers to Manchester’s experience of using locally produced tax resources to build governance of services ‘from below’ rather than ‘from the top’ of administrative leadership. New ideas, the dynamism of a society on the move (Corriere della Sera, 31 October).
In any case, Milan is multifaceted and, to use Lucio Dalla‘s words, ‘close to Europe’. And it is certainly not ‘livid and sunk by its own hand’, as Ivano Fossati wrote in ‘Steam Trains’ (but that was in 1992, the year investigations began into the Tangentopoli system of political and financial corruption). Polycentric Milan cannot be reduced to the stereotypes of a hectic and wealthy city, a ‘city of a thousand lights’ for fashion, design and luxury living. However, it is also difficult to understand based solely on the stylistic features derived from the widespread reports of corruption in public administration (although the judicial inquiries into alleged urban planning irregularities in the municipality have not found solid evidence), and the growing violence in the ‘movida’ areas, where petty crime is perceived as an emergency.
However, there are shadows over the soul of a city said to be losing its ability to combine work and culture, productivity and solidarity. Bonomi is right to write of a metropolis in the midst of an ‘interrupted metamorphosis’, at risk of losing its social cohesion (IlSole24Ore, 29 October). This is partly due to an increasing inability, or perhaps unwillingness, to combine the dimensions of needs and rights. However, even in the most challenging neighbourhoods, it is possible to find stories of solidarity and social commitment brought to life by organisations, institutions, and voluntary groups in the ‘third sector’ (Caritas Ambrosiana is a prime example, though by no means the only one).
Therefore, before the city plunges into the rhetoric of electoral propaganda for the election of a new mayor and city council in 2027, it makes sense to discuss in depth the ongoing transformations and the political and cultural tools needed to tackle the problems exacerbated by Milan’s status as the Italian region most affected by overwhelming economic phenomena, such as the transition from industrial to post-industrial production at the end of the 20th century, and the current mutations linked to the ‘knowledge economy’ and the pervasiveness of artificial intelligence.
Much has been said about the ‘crisis of the Milan model’. But Milan is by no means a model; it is a land in motion, an economic engine and a ‘factory of the future’ (a term dear to Assolombarda), as well as a magnet for attracting intelligence and capital. It is also a cultural and social hub with the capacity to engage in in-depth self-reflection, a rare quality in the Italy of the ‘strapaese’, the movement that championed traditional, rural, and nationalistic values over cosmopolitan and modernist ones and which is characterised by a sense of proud parochialism.
This is a Milan that needs to be understood and explained better. It should be severely criticised, and yet it should also be designed with love and lived in.
A good example of this attitude is the discussion organised by the Centro Studi Grande Milano and chaired by Daniela Mainini, with Roberto Poli acting as director. Taking place on Wednesday 26th at the Museo della Scienza e della Tecnica, the event is aptly titled ‘Milan is its destiny: ideas and projects for the city’. Speakers will include Cristina Messa, Agnese Pini, Venanzio Postiglione, Gianmario Verona and myself. Milan’s destiny stems from its history and character, and encompasses ‘enterprising dialogue’, culture and solidarity, innovation and reformist awareness, enlightenment, polytechnic culture, civic sentiment, education and science.
In fact, this is a Milan that must learn to take greater account of the opinions of other Italian and European cities. It cannot abandon the economic and social characteristics that underpin its activities and, over time, have enabled millions of people to ‘become Milanese’. Citizens who are both enterprising and supportive.
(photo Getty Images)