Milan thrives on market and innovation but it also needs good policy
‘In a city, it is not the seven or seventy-seven wonders that you enjoy, but the answers it provides to your questions,’ wrote Italo Calvino in The Invisible Cities, considered ‘a final love poem to cities at a time when experiencing them is becoming increasingly difficult’. This was in 1972, at the start of a challenging and contentious period marked by terrorist and criminal violence (the ‘years of lead’), as well as political and social tensions, aspirations, and reforms, including the introduction of the Workers’ Statute, the establishment of the National Health Service, and the passage of laws on divorce and abortion, alongside the abolition of mental asylums, among other developments.
After the economic boom of the Roaring Sixties, Italy was trying to come to terms with a modernity full of shadows and contrast. Consumption and customs were changing, but many national vices remained, starting with the widespread lack of civic sense. Cities were the greatest focal point and the most obvious symbol of this struggle. “Hard to live in”, in fact. It is indispensable, if anything, over time, ‘to look for and recognise who and what, in the middle of hell, is not hell, and to make it last, and give it space.’.
In these days when we are once again reflecting on current events and the future of Milan, Calvino’s wise and poignant words come to mind. Like any true poet, he reminds us to balance our satisfaction at the positive news (such as the preparations for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics, the completion of the Torre Velasca restoration project, the launch of the City Council’s housing plan for 10,000 affordable homes, and the San Cristoforo and Scalo Farini real estate projects— to name just a few) with our concerns over unresolved issues. The aim is to understand how to cope with the ‘Urgencies of Milan’, the theme of the latest meeting of the Centro Studi Grande Milano. Chaired by Daniela Mainini, the meeting was attended by a wide range of scholars and key figures from the worlds of economics, culture and society. It took place in a hall at the Triennale, next to the spaces where the large international exhibition on ‘Shapes of Inequalities’ is being set up.
The point is this: Milan must finally try to answer the Calvinian question. How can it reproduce its historic capacity to be productive and supportive, competitive and socially inclusive? In short, how can it build wealth and social cohesion? This is important because the economic, cultural, geopolitical, generational and cognitive gaps — the ‘inequalities’ of the exhibition at the Triennale — are growing and becoming increasingly intolerable. Strategic choices are therefore needed to avoid fractures that undermine the relationship between democracy, the market economy and welfare, and alter the balance between freedom, resourcefulness and well-being, even here in Italy and in other Western societies. In short, to be able to continue to be ‘free and equal’, even in our uncertain and lacerating times, using the terms of the ‘Manifesto for a Just Society’ written by Daniel Chandler, an economist and philosopher at the London School of Economics (the book just published by Laterza has been described by Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize winner for economics, as ‘a lucid and important essay’).
What is the answer? It is not the nostalgia of the past or the melancholic amusement of being ‘with one’s heart in one’s hand’. Nor is it the arrogance of success, or the boast of always working and producing, despite everything. It is not the exasperation of the fear of insecurity — violent crime and robberies have decreased, yet there are still those who remember the seventies, when terrorism and massacres dominated the city, as did shootings between criminal gangs such as those of Turatello, Vallanzasca and Epaminonda. Nor is it the indifference to social hardship in the suburbs, nor the just concern for microcrime and scams against the elderly.
Milan is a city of contradictions because it ‘contains multitudes’. To face these contradictions, it needs intelligent planning and a strong cultural, economic, political and administrative foundation. For example, we should heed the words of Lewis Mumford, one of the greatest sociologists of the 20th century, who distinguished between the ‘utopia of flight’ (building castles in the sky while leaving the world as it is) and the ‘utopia of reconstruction’, which involves positive thinking in order to imagine and find the tools and methods needed to create the future.
Let’s return to the Torre Velasca. A symbol of Milan’s dynamic and innovative Fifties and Sixties, it was not initially popular with many Milanese, who called it ‘the skyscraper with suspenders’. After years of restoration, it has returned to the top of the luxury rankings. Owned by Hines American, it has 26 floors of offices and apartments. It opens onto a well-kept pedestrian area in front of the Assolombarda palace, which was designed by Gio Ponti and has recently been renovated. It is also well connected to the solemn Renaissance building of the Ca’ Granda on Via Festa del Perdono, which is home to the State University. It is therefore located in a unique urban space: the Milan of history and innovation, of great architecture and enterprise, of visible prosperity and of the most sophisticated knowledge economy.
But Milan is also much more. It is both the flashy ‘thousand lights’ of the new international elite, attracted by post-Expo Milan’s reputation as the place to be, and the fashionable events. And the housing hardship of tens of thousands of middle-class people who are unable to cope with the boom in real estate values. This is a disparity that needs to be addressed through political choices and good administration.
Milan is, in fact, a metropolis with a strong corporate and market culture, and it can only continue to be so. However, it must not be left to market dynamics alone; otherwise, it will deteriorate into a ‘city of the rich’ that pushes out young people, scholars, novice entrepreneurs, researchers, tram drivers, company and bank employees, high school professors and traders who are unfamiliar with luxury but who are indispensable to daily life.
In short, it risks continuing to lose citizens who are attentive to the positive dynamics of daily life, and who follow the fashions and rhythms of city users. Losing its very soul and its complex ‘social capital’, which is strong in diversity of backgrounds, characters and aspirations, as well as in a solid sense of belonging.
So it is good news that the Municipality, led by Mayor Beppe Sala, has announced a housing plan for 10 thousand low-cost homes over the next ten years. The first 24 offers for the areas to be developed have already been received (Il Sole24Ore, 29 May). In the real estate world, alongside the large international funds, new players in the affordable housing sector are emerging.
Discussions are ongoing on the urgent issues for the city’s relaunch, considering it is a large metropolitan area and its interconnectedness with other metropolises (Turin, Bologna) and medium and medium-sized cities (Brescia, Bergamo, Verona, Pavia, etc.). Milan has the ability to be critical and self-critical and to recover in the face of crises, such as after the end of the boom, the years of lead and the storm of Tangentopoli, and the end of the ‘moral capital’ myth. It can also count on its available resources: its continued appeal to people, ideas and capital; the spread of the ‘knowledge economy’, thanks to its growing prestigious universities; and widespread resourcefulness in relations between cities and their industrial areas. Not to mention the solidity of its civil virtues, which are both ancient and contemporary.
It is crucial that political forces address these issues responsibly in view of the upcoming mayoral elections in 2027. Rather than discussing potential candidates or power games between parties and factions, it is crucial to address real issues, such as balanced development, security, relations with Europe, the impact on national life, quality of life, the increasing ageing and loneliness of citizens (28% of Milan’s population is over 60, compared to a national average of 21%, and 56.7% of Milanese households consist of one person), new poverty, and the legitimate concerns of the younger generations, who continue to view Milan with interest and hope.
So, once again, we return to Calvino and the qualities a city needs: combining security and the pursuit of happiness, growth and sustainability, individual needs and general values, and pragmatism with a long-term vision. Thanks to the effective leadership of its mayors in the recent past, Milan has succeeded in being a virtuous mixture of reformism, political wisdom and administrative skills. It is worth revisiting and repeating this lesson.
(photo Getty Images)
‘In a city, it is not the seven or seventy-seven wonders that you enjoy, but the answers it provides to your questions,’ wrote Italo Calvino in The Invisible Cities, considered ‘a final love poem to cities at a time when experiencing them is becoming increasingly difficult’. This was in 1972, at the start of a challenging and contentious period marked by terrorist and criminal violence (the ‘years of lead’), as well as political and social tensions, aspirations, and reforms, including the introduction of the Workers’ Statute, the establishment of the National Health Service, and the passage of laws on divorce and abortion, alongside the abolition of mental asylums, among other developments.
After the economic boom of the Roaring Sixties, Italy was trying to come to terms with a modernity full of shadows and contrast. Consumption and customs were changing, but many national vices remained, starting with the widespread lack of civic sense. Cities were the greatest focal point and the most obvious symbol of this struggle. “Hard to live in”, in fact. It is indispensable, if anything, over time, ‘to look for and recognise who and what, in the middle of hell, is not hell, and to make it last, and give it space.’.
In these days when we are once again reflecting on current events and the future of Milan, Calvino’s wise and poignant words come to mind. Like any true poet, he reminds us to balance our satisfaction at the positive news (such as the preparations for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics, the completion of the Torre Velasca restoration project, the launch of the City Council’s housing plan for 10,000 affordable homes, and the San Cristoforo and Scalo Farini real estate projects— to name just a few) with our concerns over unresolved issues. The aim is to understand how to cope with the ‘Urgencies of Milan’, the theme of the latest meeting of the Centro Studi Grande Milano. Chaired by Daniela Mainini, the meeting was attended by a wide range of scholars and key figures from the worlds of economics, culture and society. It took place in a hall at the Triennale, next to the spaces where the large international exhibition on ‘Shapes of Inequalities’ is being set up.
The point is this: Milan must finally try to answer the Calvinian question. How can it reproduce its historic capacity to be productive and supportive, competitive and socially inclusive? In short, how can it build wealth and social cohesion? This is important because the economic, cultural, geopolitical, generational and cognitive gaps — the ‘inequalities’ of the exhibition at the Triennale — are growing and becoming increasingly intolerable. Strategic choices are therefore needed to avoid fractures that undermine the relationship between democracy, the market economy and welfare, and alter the balance between freedom, resourcefulness and well-being, even here in Italy and in other Western societies. In short, to be able to continue to be ‘free and equal’, even in our uncertain and lacerating times, using the terms of the ‘Manifesto for a Just Society’ written by Daniel Chandler, an economist and philosopher at the London School of Economics (the book just published by Laterza has been described by Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize winner for economics, as ‘a lucid and important essay’).
What is the answer? It is not the nostalgia of the past or the melancholic amusement of being ‘with one’s heart in one’s hand’. Nor is it the arrogance of success, or the boast of always working and producing, despite everything. It is not the exasperation of the fear of insecurity — violent crime and robberies have decreased, yet there are still those who remember the seventies, when terrorism and massacres dominated the city, as did shootings between criminal gangs such as those of Turatello, Vallanzasca and Epaminonda. Nor is it the indifference to social hardship in the suburbs, nor the just concern for microcrime and scams against the elderly.
Milan is a city of contradictions because it ‘contains multitudes’. To face these contradictions, it needs intelligent planning and a strong cultural, economic, political and administrative foundation. For example, we should heed the words of Lewis Mumford, one of the greatest sociologists of the 20th century, who distinguished between the ‘utopia of flight’ (building castles in the sky while leaving the world as it is) and the ‘utopia of reconstruction’, which involves positive thinking in order to imagine and find the tools and methods needed to create the future.
Let’s return to the Torre Velasca. A symbol of Milan’s dynamic and innovative Fifties and Sixties, it was not initially popular with many Milanese, who called it ‘the skyscraper with suspenders’. After years of restoration, it has returned to the top of the luxury rankings. Owned by Hines American, it has 26 floors of offices and apartments. It opens onto a well-kept pedestrian area in front of the Assolombarda palace, which was designed by Gio Ponti and has recently been renovated. It is also well connected to the solemn Renaissance building of the Ca’ Granda on Via Festa del Perdono, which is home to the State University. It is therefore located in a unique urban space: the Milan of history and innovation, of great architecture and enterprise, of visible prosperity and of the most sophisticated knowledge economy.
But Milan is also much more. It is both the flashy ‘thousand lights’ of the new international elite, attracted by post-Expo Milan’s reputation as the place to be, and the fashionable events. And the housing hardship of tens of thousands of middle-class people who are unable to cope with the boom in real estate values. This is a disparity that needs to be addressed through political choices and good administration.
Milan is, in fact, a metropolis with a strong corporate and market culture, and it can only continue to be so. However, it must not be left to market dynamics alone; otherwise, it will deteriorate into a ‘city of the rich’ that pushes out young people, scholars, novice entrepreneurs, researchers, tram drivers, company and bank employees, high school professors and traders who are unfamiliar with luxury but who are indispensable to daily life.
In short, it risks continuing to lose citizens who are attentive to the positive dynamics of daily life, and who follow the fashions and rhythms of city users. Losing its very soul and its complex ‘social capital’, which is strong in diversity of backgrounds, characters and aspirations, as well as in a solid sense of belonging.
So it is good news that the Municipality, led by Mayor Beppe Sala, has announced a housing plan for 10 thousand low-cost homes over the next ten years. The first 24 offers for the areas to be developed have already been received (Il Sole24Ore, 29 May). In the real estate world, alongside the large international funds, new players in the affordable housing sector are emerging.
Discussions are ongoing on the urgent issues for the city’s relaunch, considering it is a large metropolitan area and its interconnectedness with other metropolises (Turin, Bologna) and medium and medium-sized cities (Brescia, Bergamo, Verona, Pavia, etc.). Milan has the ability to be critical and self-critical and to recover in the face of crises, such as after the end of the boom, the years of lead and the storm of Tangentopoli, and the end of the ‘moral capital’ myth. It can also count on its available resources: its continued appeal to people, ideas and capital; the spread of the ‘knowledge economy’, thanks to its growing prestigious universities; and widespread resourcefulness in relations between cities and their industrial areas. Not to mention the solidity of its civil virtues, which are both ancient and contemporary.
It is crucial that political forces address these issues responsibly in view of the upcoming mayoral elections in 2027. Rather than discussing potential candidates or power games between parties and factions, it is crucial to address real issues, such as balanced development, security, relations with Europe, the impact on national life, quality of life, the increasing ageing and loneliness of citizens (28% of Milan’s population is over 60, compared to a national average of 21%, and 56.7% of Milanese households consist of one person), new poverty, and the legitimate concerns of the younger generations, who continue to view Milan with interest and hope.
So, once again, we return to Calvino and the qualities a city needs: combining security and the pursuit of happiness, growth and sustainability, individual needs and general values, and pragmatism with a long-term vision. Thanks to the effective leadership of its mayors in the recent past, Milan has succeeded in being a virtuous mixture of reformism, political wisdom and administrative skills. It is worth revisiting and repeating this lesson.
(photo Getty Images)