Darsena_Social Changes&Policies_Impact of Regulation and Control by Ceren Cagli

P O L I T EC N I CO C o nte m po ra r y L i di a

C i t y:

M a nzo -

D I

Social

M I L A N O change

S tefa ni a

and

S a bat i ne l l i

policies

D A R S E N A Impact of regulation and control team Marco Costigliola Paola Calanni Rindina Riccardo Meloni Emma Arlanda Ceren Cagli Gurkan Guney Fiorella Nataly Medina

RESEARCH

QUESTION

How the regulation influenced the changes in the uses of the neighbourhood? We would like to understand through our research which formal and informal rules affected the changes in the uses of housing, public spaces, night life and mobility.

ABSTRAC T

The borough of Darsena is not yet anymore a non value area. In fact, Porta Ticinese was called “Porta Cicca” from an old Milanese well know sentence “te varet una cicca” which means “you are worthless, you count for nothing”. This is the role of the door (Porta Ticinese), to create a distinction between what are inside, what are aggregated to the rest of the city; and what are outside, what are unwelcome, unwanted without any value for the inside of the city. This figure of a worthless area could be understand through its harbour and industrial function and the socio-economical profile of this area, that welcomes during a while a population belonged to the most disadvantaged people. Darsena is from now one of the most famous and one of the major night life areas in Milan that could not be called a disadvantaged area anymore. Indeed Darsena provides a beautiful landscape made up of canals, large pavement that allow people to wander along paved streets, passing table from restaurants, bars and pubs, meeting at night parties or ancient market in the morning. Darsena became nowadays an attractive area through the Darsena project linked to the Expo that will take place in Milan in 2015. This project especially shows a kind of new vision of Darsena from the municipality of Milan. This paper tries to examine the area of Darsena under the political prism. Here come our first questions: how to define what belong to the political field, because in a certain way everything has something to do with a political conception , every action has a political conception or a political origin. The matters was at the beginning how to apprehend the political field, how to touch and understand the political realm. We were thinking about the manifold policies that affect the area. It would certainly have been a skewed research only in a pure formal and neutral way. The point was to understand what differentiate this area to another one. From this point of view the idea was to catch the issue related to the policies and the rules. Understanding the fact that if there is a formal definition of a rule there is often and informal application according to different spots, different culture, habits, etc, the word regulation comes to our mind as one of the best and one of the closest definitions of the reality field. Obviously, one of the most controversial situations ongoing there is about the nightlife phenomenon. From this issues we lead many others one and it helps us also to understand better the area. In which one we include Darsena, Naviglio Pavese, Navigli Grande (Navigli), Ripa di Porta Ticinese and Colonne San Lorenzo

From the topic of nightlife and the way we began to approach it, we developed our methods to catch up the whole subject. It was a question for us to try to analyse the impact of the regulation and understand also which one comes first, between the regulation and the habits or behaviour. Through the interview and the analysis of the former policies the matter is to improve our first perceptions of the area and of the subject we have to dealing with. It helps us also to understand the dynamics behind a rule or a law. Also the interview we did with different group in order to understand the current social heritage, help us to confront our researches and to lead them afterwards. In some point it was for us a way to manage our idea and perception of the situation we are working on. In this sense, we settle our report in four main parts based on the central realm of regulation, according to the reality of the area. Through the housing, the public spaces, the night life and the mobility realm we try to expose here the result of our researches.

AREA

Darsena was used to be outside of the Spanish walls and Porta Ticinese was separating this area from rest of the city. A famous Milanese expression had been mentioning â&#x20AC;&#x153;te varet una ciccaâ&#x20AC;? while Porta Ticinese referred as Porta Cicca. The image of this area has been changed and now Navigli is well known for its night life attractions. As part of Expo 2015 Darsena is one of the changing visions of Milano.

7 a. Immage with different zone of Milan and are shown in red areas to our project. b. Area of our project.

INDEX

1. HOUSING 2 . P U B L I C S PA C E S 3. NIGHT LIFE 4. MOBILITY 5. CONCLUSION 6. REFERENCE

HOUSING

The aims of this chapter is to research and analyse the formal and informal rules which affected the urban pattern in the Darsena neighbourhood. To develop this research, we used interviews and newspapers to have an overview of the main important points, that influenced the changes in the use of the buildings. The difficulties, that we found in this research, was the impossibility to enter in touch with experts on regulations and control of this area. In this sense, we tried to study and focus on the regulations that we found it, and search in it the reasons of the main changes. Firstly, one of the major actions that influenced the changes of the area was the dismantling of the industrial dock inside the darsena harbour. The industrial Dock1 was built in the darsena during the duomoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s construction site, to facilitate the transport of building materials.

Source, from http://www.wikipedia.org

10 c. Immage of industrial harbor (www.flickr.com)

Darsena was a fundamental point in the last century to re-develop the city after the second world war. It was used to bring the building material from Castelletto di Cuggiono to the Darsena through the Naviglio Grande until the 31st march 1979. Then an important rules, at national level, that affect the area was the end of the low equo canone2. The equo canone was introduced in Italy in 1978 by the law n.392, is part of a system of rent regulation, administered by a public authority, which limits the changes that can be made in the price of renting a house or other real property. The objective of controlling the prices of rent is usually to counteract the inequity of bargaining power between landlords and tenant, as part of a minimum set of rights to make the market fair. At this time the flats conditions in Darsena was mostly in decay due to an overuse of the flats and the almost no individual renovation process. In fact many of these flats were inhabited by workers class peoples, with overcrowding situation (many families were living in small flats). In 19923 the end of equo canone reinforce the ongoing gentrification process in the area (Doppia and Bolchi4 explains that in Milan as in US and others European cities the process of gentrification began during the 60s).

d. Source, from http:// www.treccani.it 3 Source, from http:// www.sunia.it 4 Gentrification Waves in the Inner-City of Milan, A multi agent/cellular automata model based on Smithâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Rent Gap theory Lidia Diappi and Paola Bolchi, 2006 Departement of Architecture and Planning, Politecnico di Milano Technical University. 2

d. Immage linked to the law of Equo canone (www.lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;unitĂ .it)

In fact it contributes to a process of renovation of the flats by allowing the owners to renew some of it and increasing the renting price. In this sense, the working class moved to the periphery and the area became more for middle and higher class, some flats became office and the ground floors changed from house to commercial activities. To understand and identify this process, it was really useful the literature “Gentrification of the City” by Tom Slater and also the essay “Seeing Gentrification Behind the Window of Sicilian Bakery: Reflexive Ethnography and documentary practice in Brooklyn” by Lidia K.C. Manzo. To conclude, this research shows the fact that during the 80’s, after the redevelopment of the post second world war, the neighbourhood was affected by a huge gentrification which changed the social profile and the use of the stores. This analysis also remind us some questions and possible further implementation. Indeed, it was interesting to analyse the dimension of the flats inside the condos, to understand if the size changed from the past and, on the other side, if the dimension affected and determined the users typology located in the neighbourhood.

e. Immage of Darsena (www.skyscrapercity.com)

Link to night life. Pedestrian area create a safe place to night wandering and for night time users.

Link to mobility. The pedestrialization impact the mobility structure in the area.

PUBLIC

SPACES

In the 1980s there is the opening of the national and regional law on the complex program of urban requalification1. Actually this impulse is also expressed through the former context of the urban policies, which ones still impact the European culture of urban heritage conservation. The environmental considerations appear also in the same mood of conservation and develop the sensitivity about the subject of protection of urban landscape. In Milan especially this new underline idea includes pedestralization of some area. But first of all since the 1980s the municipal planning documents, PRG, include in a more affirmative way this precept. Nowadays the PGT of Milan encompasses a bride part of Darsena and surroundings in the N.A.F2 zoning. The N.A.F zoning stipulates particular rules in order to maintain or enhance the encompassed zone, for instance the types of materials, the aesthetics rules and norms that should also take care of the ancient structure. The beginning of the pedestralization of Colonne San Lorenzo meets this underline mood of urban policies. Indeed in 1986 began the project of pedestrialization of Colonne San Lorenzo, first of all it is a question of moving the tramway line from the inside of the place to the outside in order to create a pedestrian area. The point is here to reshape the commercial and artisanal function while enhancing the monumental elements. In this sense it came also to restructure the road network and public transportation in order to achieve the commercial goal and also to preserve the residential function. It came also in the environmental issue to preserve the area from air pollution that impact health, the built frame and the oldest monuments. This project ending in 2002 participated in the enhancement of the public spaces of this area and attached to the fact that the residential situation was changing linked to a change of social profile, it participated also in the gentrification process ongoing in this area. In 2012 pedestralization policies had been extended, with the total pedestralization of Naviglio Grande and the set up of ZTL3. These projects that had improved the quality of life of the area, indeed some changes related to the shops, theirs functions or target consumers. More and more there are shop and offices related to “design” or “fashion” activities, also there are less local commerce than before in favour of branding shop or leisure time shop as restaurant, bars and so on. 1 Source from Corinna Morelli, Milano la grande transformazione urbana, 2005, Universale Architettura 163, (p.75) 2 Nucleo di Antica Formazione, Core of ancient formation 3 Zona a Traffico Limitato, limited traffic zone. This particular zone is a pedestrian one from 8.00 pm to 7.00 am each days, the deliveries services are allowed from 5.00 am to 7.00 am

Ongoing there we could understand these reshape of the commercial landscape in the wider topic of “identity” and “authenticity”, as Zukin4 mentions it when she explains how cultural goods became an economic power. However this urban project seems to be the only one that impact Darsena and surroundings during years. In fact, after 2004, Prof. Novak raise this period as the Darsena “black hole” to describe the fact that after the parking plot project, any major urban project has been planned there. The parking plot project was based on the illegal parking situation that had taken place along Navigli for many years. Prof. Novak highlights this term of “black hole” as a sign of a disengagement of action in order to improve the area in these years. The parking plot project had been abandoned after the discovery of an ancient Spanish wall. This stress the fact that the try to regulate or normalise an illegal situation had been neglected even if the practices were effective. From the intervention of (consiglio di Zona) we understand that

Source from Sharon Zukin, Naked City: the Death and Life of Urban Authentic Urban Places, Introduction: The city that lost its soul, Oxford Press University, 2009

f. Map of the pedestrian zone in the area (www.naviglilive.it) h. Foto of Spanish wall before the Darsena project (www.skyscrapercity.com) i. Drawing of the parking plot project 2004 (www.skyscrapercity.com)

there was also a financial issue to built a new parking plot but also a lack in the taking into consideration the need and the comments of the neighbourhood. This aspect of the intervention through the project tends to stress the importance of public authorities in the process of gentrification. In the current scholarship debate the point is to define if there are multiplicity of actors in the process or if there is a major one, that could be public actions or private and individual interest. The case of Darsena is interesting through this debate because the expectation of the public authorities, through the national level to the local one is to preserve the area. However it seems to be a case of branding the city, especially for the municipality of Milan. As Zukin5 approaches the gentrification process through the change of the cultural aspect, that had get a financial power but also a real “cultural power”. This cultural power affects the spaces, when Zukin talks about new brand companies and notice a kind of “disneyfication” of spaces, here in Milan we could notice similar process. There are ongoing since many years an increment of the rental price but also a change of the frequentation and a change of the nature of activities. For the inhabitants they understand as a change of the neighbourhood image, some of them report a critical change for the local area. These changes could be understand also through some project and regulation that try to set up an entertainment city as Zukin describes it as a try to “make the city a 24/7 entertainment zone with safe clean, predictable space and modern, upscale neighbourhoods”. She refers also to J. Hannigan with the topic of “riskless risk”. In this sense, the installation of surveillance camera in Colonne San Lorenzo and the reinforcement of the security installation with 416 police patrols more, also more contracts with AMSA6 could be read as an essay to regulate and control the effects of a more and more attractive place and the perverse effects linked to. But also it could explain the concept of riskless risk based on the idea that a place is surely more attractive and productive while its surroundings are safe. These last years appear events have moved to a design and fashion aspect. One of the oldest events is the antiques market that participates to the reputation of Darsena in Milan, every last Sunday of each month or the second hand market in Porta Genova. The rest of the year most of the events that take place here seems to be deeply linked to the image of Milan as the city of fashion and design the appearance of design7 and fashion event.

Source from Sharon Zukin, Naked City: the Death and Life of Urban Authentic Urban Places, Introduction: The city that lost its soul, Oxford Press University, 2009 6 Azienda Milanese Servizi Ambientali, Milanese company in charge of the cleaning of the city 7 Source from Gentrification waves in the inner-city of Milan, a multi-agent/cellular model based on Smith’s rent gap theory, L. Diappi and P. Bolchi, 2006, Department of Architecture and Planning, Politecnico di Milano Technical University 5

Taking into account the participation of the public policies to impact the everyday life practices, we can say that Darsena and surroundings know an ongoing gentrification process, settled through an urban renovation. In the current discuss about the role of the public authorities in the gentrification process, the Darsena project linked to the Expo seems to apply a strange way of thinking. From the different interview we understand that this major urban project did not ask for the inhabitant’s participation, especially on the structure of the area during the construction site. Actually if the others project could have deeply impact on the practices, the frequentation of the area, they were not done to reach this particular process. But Darsena project is currently asking the future effect. If the façade of the project promote an increment of the quality of life in the area, even for the different business tenders which one declared to us they will see this project impact on their activities by bringing more customers, the fact is that this project seems not be set up for the current users (inhabitants, shop tenders or customers). In fact it emerges as a try to reach new users, the future one, the one that will live in a renew area leading by the worldwide image of “fashion” Milan. In this project the aim seems to be creating an attractive area for a “creative class” as Florida describe it. Actually this is an underline idea in many current urban project based on how cities should approach the turning point from the industrial city to the post-industrial one. Nowadays the popular terms of “creative” people becomes the new brand of cities. Through the Darsena project the fear of branding the city in such terms could be underlined because it is an obvious effort to change by urban project reach by rules and regulation a whole area without taking in consideration the current human heritage. Also the use of this supposed creative class in urban practices could reach to misunderstanding because from the cities it seems to be an attempt to reach an attract people that have as only qualities the financial one.

16 j. Work in progress of pedestralization (www.urbanfilemilano.blogspot.it) k. Work in progress of pedestralization (www.urbanfilemilano.blogspot.it)

NIGHT

LIFE

The concept of Aperitivo begins in Darsena area during the 90’s. The concept of paying for a drink and enjoy an Italian buffet became in Milan a shared custom. Indeed, it is a way to have a dinner and discover Italian and Milanese dishes in a friendly atmosphere or have a pre dinner. In the same time bars of the area of Darsena (including also Colonne San Lorenzo and Navigli) set up the concept of “Happy Hours”, the fact that during a certain time, especially during the after work time, bars are offering a lower price on drinks. Naviglio is especially renowned for being the area of Aperitivo in Milan. This popular custom affected the frequentation of the area1 to youngest people including particularly, student and young workers. This new frequentation impacts the offers of many bars and restaurant. Relating to the groups which are going out, “students are one of the growing and dominant group in night life and theirs practises are mostly based on typical stereotypes represented by the media”2; and along the Naviglio, many bars are exclusively used by young people, students, and de facto “theirs peculiars uses”. In Milan, a journalistic term defines this “movida”3 as “wild nightlife”, looking for a way to define the inhabitants complains about nightlife effects4 , particularly about noise, pollution5 and its perverse effects. From the field of research, observation and based this chapter on the work from the Urban Studies journal6 and their special issue article about Geographies of the urban night, it will be an analysis of the essay how in this field the regulation is in charge of controlling the nightlife7.

Source, from Prof. Novak discussion. 2 Source, Introduction: Geographies of the urban night, Urban Studies, I. van Liempt, I. van Aalst, T. Schwanen (p.414) 3 Italian word for nightlife. 4 Source, Introduction: Geographies of the urban night, Urban Studies, I. van Liempt, I. van Aalst, T. Schwanen (p.414), reference to Hubbard, 2008 and Sage et al., 2013. 5 The definition of pollution, here, get a wide sense from noise- and visual pollution to vomiting, urination or vandalism. 6 From the University of Glasgow, UK. 7 First publication in October, 2014. 1

l. Immage of movida in Navigli (www.ilgiornale.it)

Darsena and surrounding8 are nowadays one of the famous nightlife areas of Milan. This function of practised night-time creates issue with inhabitants and the residential function. From the interview we understand that the long users of the area9 observed a night time more and more younger people and also an increment of this area by night. From observation of this area, acknowledgements of which kind a situation nightlife uses could create between consumers and inhabitants, it will be to analyse the ongoing regulation on the spot. Through the regulation it is mainly a matter of dealing with significant economic opportunities from NTE10 and the residential impact of this11. These regulations affect first of all the night time businesses as restaurants, bars and pubs, that tend to control the management of these activities in order to contain the effect of night. Among these regulation, since 2011, the municipality of Milan talks about regulation anti-nightlife. The ordinance ad hoc anti-nightlife started in 2011 and set down the time closure of bars at 12.00 am, in 2012, the time closure has been extended to 2.00 a.m. From 2010 to 2014 in order to “protect the citizens and the areas affected by the massive presence of young people”, the municipality stated on an ordinance that forbid to bring outside drinks in glasses after 9.00 p.m. This particular rule leads us to consider formal12 and informal regulations. In fact, this ordinance came to an end in the middle of 2014 but it still apply by the bar tenders, as what we define like an informal regulation.

m. In which we include Navigli and Colonne San Lorenzo. Interview of Maria G., 70 years old, living in the area since 37 years “Navigli was used to be an elegant nightlife area and visitors were generally artists, celebrities but it became more touristic and also inhabitant’s profiles have been changed. Now youth population is more visible.” interview of M. Berteramo, 41 years old, restaurant owner and interview of Maurizio 28 years old, restaurant owner. 10 Night Time Economy, from Urban Studies journal 11 Also, van Liempt, van Aalst and Schwanen talk about an intensification of the regulation since the 2000’s when, both of them; popular press and scholar work began to highlight the big-scale health impact of the practises linked to night time. 12 Defined as something which exists in a determined way and which is setting worth in determined, clear and unequivocal way, from the definition of the CNRTL (Centre de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales). 8 9

m. Immage of movida in Colonne di S. Lorenzo (www.ilgiorno.it)

Link to public space. The ordinance give rules for territorial control, improving safety in public spaces.

Link to public space. The informal initiatives play an important role in combating pollution of the public space.

As a formal/ informal regulation we can add the one related to the AMSA13. It is a question of dealing with a formal rule, linked to the cleaning process of the city during the night but it is also an informal rule. In fact the cleaning hours for Darsena and especially Colonne di San Lorenzo have been fixed at 2.00 am, this schedule is based on the bar time closure. Since the summer 2014, a measure has been decided to allow any local to keep the tables outside until 2.00 am. Shopkeepers had to sign with the AMSA for exceptional cleaning of area. It is there a question of managing the night-business tenders and above all the flow of people going outside. Here we could re-use the definition of â&#x20AC;&#x153;assemblageâ&#x20AC;? from I. van Liempt who defines it as the combination of different systems, practices and also technologies in order to manage the manifold actors, interest and power involved in the nightlife14.

n.1.

n.2.

In Milan we can talk about a try of a soft regulation, a new form of governance that tends to regulate the nightlife phenomenon. In this sense, 2014 could be defined as a year of deregulation, because many rules expired and most of them have not been extended or resettled. In fact, even if there are currently many formal regulations ongoing about night time businesses, it seems that the local authority, especially the municipality are thinking Azienda Milanese Servizi Ambientali, Milanese company in charge of the cleaning of the city. 14 Safe nightlife collaborations: Multiple actors, conflicting interest and different power distributions, Special issue article: Geographies of the urban night, Ilse van Liempt, Urban Studies, Feb. 2015. 15 Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Associazione milanese dei pubblici esercizi. 13

n., n.1., n.2. Immage of AMSA intervention (www.ilgiorno.it)

about a new way to govern this particular field. But it is also the question of dealing also with different actors, one of the most virulent is the EPAM15, through is vice president, A. Zini. He is the main voice in the media who calls into question the management of the municipality especially about the closure time. He requires homogeneous time schedule for bar and restaurant all around the city. In fact, there are different time closure rules for different nightlife areas as Ticinese, Arco Della Pace and Navigli. Zini claims also for a harder control and hard rule about consumption of the youngest. The municipality stays on its flexible rules. Also each zone of Milan are asking for un “ad hoc” related to the specific night time issues of each zone16. The question is to explain that the regulation about night life was essentially about control the phenomenon according to the different complain and the different interest. Also the point to split the night life from the using of the public spaces is based on our lectures of the special issue article, Geographies of urban night, from the Urban Studies journal, stress the fact that the night time should be apprehended on a different aspect; “Night is a time to try to be something that, the daytime may not let you be, a time for meeting people you shouldn’t. This unique configuration of economic opportunity and pleasure as well as excess has resulted in several authors describing the urban night as a distinctive space-time (Hubbard, 2005; Middleton and Yarwood, 2013; Schwanen et al., 2012) an ambiguous space simultaneously composed of both regulatory control strategies and deregulatory liberalisation policies (Hadfield et al, 2009; Smith, 2007)17. This definition stresses the fact that there is any definition of night life and any well-known night time culture and de facto it is difficult to regulate properly such a phenomenon. That is why on the night time field regulation tends to prevent some behaviour but mainly it is about control behaviour that are already observed. Also, concerning this particular field of work it will really interesting to analyse in few times the decision of the local authorities about the regulation, in which way they will go from a multilevel governance of nightlife issues; that include to let each zone of Milan set worth rules for themselves and also take into account informal situation and regulation; or the decision of a rigid and unique regulation. It could be also interesting to work in depth on the different ongoing authorities formal and informal there from the police office to each doorkeeper as I. van Liempt did to understand the cases of Rotterdam and Utrecht; but our students status, define as the heart target of this “wild movida” and the lack of time were obstacle for us.

Interview of F. Spirito in “Basta movida a singhiozzo “Orari uguali in tutta la città”,F. Vanni, La Repubblica, January 2013. 17 Safe nightlife collaborations: Multiple actors, conflicting interest and different power distributions, Special issue article: Geographies of the urban night, Ilse van Liempt, Urban Studies, Feb. 2015, (p.487). 16

Link to public space. Give specific rules influence land use generating more control over public space.

View of the movida in Colonne di San Lorenzo

View of the movida in Naviglio Grande

View of the movida in Naviglio Pavese

21 o. Framework of nightlife areas

MOBILITY

Our study about the road network started with the analysis of the transformations of Darsena area through the time, which shows the different dynamics that have changed the places status. With our research, we reconstructed the processes used by Milan municipality for reaching the urban quality standards and decreasing the traffic flows, which have gradually also affected our project area. It wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t easy to find much of the information obtained; in general, one of the critical points of this topic is that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s really hard to find information and data about it. In fact, a big help for the reconstructions had given by people and their memories, giving us an idea of neighborhood changes and develop. Many important dates, traceable in the key events of development and change of the quarter, given us the opportunity to explore topics and dynamics that have changed the face of the neighborhood. The rest of the data, useful to our analysis of the area, were obtained through research of programs, plans or strategies that dealt specifically the recent transformations or predictions for the future structure of the district. This type of information has allowed us to face our analysis, based especially towards the end of a short timeframe, in a much more detailed on the latest events that have influenced and changed the formal aspect of this area. In the final phase, we gave our attention to the next future transformations, connected with the Expo 2015 event, which will give a new mobility to the Darsena area. From the beginning of the Eighties, the European Union directives have sought to bring the various member states towards policies that take them to a greater reduction in the use of the cars. The city of Milan as well, satisfying these Community guideline, tried to implement them through various policies which constrain the private use of the car, gave back a higher quality of urban life. In fact, one of the biggest problems that characterize the urban area of Milan is the traffic congestion. The not recent phenomenon was just lately concretely evaluated, and the Public Administration has arranged different policies about the traffic control (Galimberti A., 2008), trying to reduce congestion in the area1. In order to solve the problem by reducing pollution from vehicular traffic and improving the ability to shift providing effective public transport, since 2012 enters into force Area C. Source, from Road Pricing, politiche di controllo del traffico e inquinamento, ,Maggioli, Santarcangelo di Romagna. 1

Link to night life. The new line night bus was an important point also for the nightlife to make the neighbourhood more reachble and actrative. Link to public space. This project will be implemented new areas that will return to Darsena a new face, making it more attractive and creating more public spaces.

Another important step for improving the Darsena activity without congesting the main streets, coincides with the introduction in 2012 by the Milan municipality, in parternership with ATM, of night bus lines that follow the journey of the undergrounds2. This initiative has found a lot of support from the people (especially the young target) cause of the difficulty in finding parking. This initiative has allowed the viability did not change or congest without diminishing the attractiveness of the area. However, a key point of the change in the area viability is the redevelopment of Darsena, one of the projects that Expo 2015 will bequeath to Milan and Lombardy. With this action, Darsena will be returned to the city and will return to be a historical symbol of Milan.

The project involves the redesign of the old port and the redefinition of the adjacent spaces. The intervention consists in the renewal of the sides Darsena, with new walking areas and new harbors for sailing tourism and especially the redevelopment of Piazza XXIV Maggio, which will be almost completely pedestrianized and arranged to green3.

2 3

Source, from http://www.urbanfilemilano.blogspot.it Source, from http://www.expo2015.org

p. New project for Darsena (www.expo2015.org). q.Mobility in Darsena until 2013.

This point (redevelopment of Piazza XXIV Maggio) means a significant transformation not only of the structure of Darsena, but also of the mobility of the whole area, leading to numerous problems, but also for residents and shopkeepers, because of the entire area was closed during the work, with related difficulties crossing for the first and decrease work for seconds. The viability of Darsena and especially in Piazza XXIV Maggio, until 2013, before the start of the works to upgrade, did not provide pedestrian areas and was entirely accessible by private and public transport, in fact, besides being able to cross it with private cars, to merge in the streets of greater flow as via Col di Lana / viale Gorizia and avenue Dannunzio / Via Galeazzo, was crossed by tram routes that connected Darsena with the center and the suburbs to the south of Milan (Abbiategrasso). With the approval of the Darsena project, the Milan municipality has decided to divide the work in two phases, with different changes in mobility, to reduce the inconvenience to residents4.

The new mobility, therefore, follow step by step the stages of progress of the work, changing depending on the different areas of the site. In March 2013 began the first phase of the project of Darsena, which coincides with the total closure of Piazza XXIV Maggio, where it is no longer possible to cross it neither by private transportation nor by public transportation (temporary suspension of tram tracks), mobility considerably changes with the access closure to the square from the streets of greater flow (via Col di Lana/viale Gorizia and avenue Dannunzio/via Galeazzo), in corso San Gottardo instead transit is diverted in via Col di Lana, leaving a link to Abbiategrasso, and the transit streets close to Alzaia Naviglio Pavese are permitted only to residents.

Source, from http://www.milano.corriere.it

24 r. First phase of mobility project.

Link to night life. It is important to note that the nightlife in Darsena attracts not only the residents but also people from outside Milan.

Abbiategrasso, and the transit streets close to Alzaia Naviglio Pavese are permitted only to residents. What emerged, through interviews with the citizens of the area, about this first phase, is the uneasy feeling that the residents and those who have business in that area have received during this period, in fact, for the first, difficulties have arisen in moving from their home to the rest of the city5, while for traders because of the closure of the sites has brought a significant drop in sales and a decrease in the delivery6. It is also important to the opinion of those who go to Darsena from out of town, for which these changes have created obvious difficulties in meeting places, especially in the evening to attend the Milan nightlife causing them to desist and often push them to change destination7.

During this period, to make up for the many inconveniences caused by the construction site, the Milan municipality and the citizens have agreed to installation of a new signaling and illumination of ways, this for a safer area, unfortunately, this agreement has never been performed by the municipality increasing dissatisfaction of the residents. This area became from accessible to a construction site, the numerous problems of the roads changing are partially improved during the second phase of the project began in October 2014. The shipyard in Piazza XXIV Interview of Maria G., 70 years old, resident and interview of Marco S. 26 years old, resident. Interview of Nabil, 40 years old, bicycle repairer owner and interview Mohamed 38 years old,greengrocer owner. 7 Interview of Ludovico, 27 years old, visitor and interview of Marta 24 years old, visitor. 5 6

25 s. Inconvenience caused by construction site in the first phase (www.milano.corriere.it). t. View of all area of construction site in the first phase (www.milano.corriere.it). u. View of construction site and mobility in the first phase (www.milano.corriere.it).

Maggio was scaled, reopening in this way the flow of vehicles from Viale Gorizia via Col di Lana. But the public transportation has not improved and tram routes (to the city center) have not been reactivated. New footpaths to cross the yard have been created without facilitate travel.

Also during this phase, the people interviewed have not realized an improvement of the discomforts previously stated, because of the second construction phase has hindered access to the square, always maintaining a of almost total closed condition, another factor of discomfort perceived by citizens in particular has been the elimination of bus lines n.59 and n.325 which further damaged their movements8.

The third phase coincides with the end of the work, which the town of Milan should be completed in April of 2015, this will return a new face to Darsena, which consists in new public spaces and a renewed mobility that will restore back to the old accessibility. 8

Source, from Emanuela Elena Duina (consiglio zona 5) discussion.

v. Second phase of mobility project. w. View of construction site and mobility in the second phase (www.milano.corriere.it).

In the project the viability changes from the initial situation mainly because the Piazza XXIV Maggio will be pedestrianized and therefore will not be able to cross private transportation. Instead, tram lines will be restored9. The expectation of interviewed people, about the end of the project, are very high: the residents hope to get benefits that includes greater ease of travel and a higher quality of urban public transport10, as traders are hoping that the new project is restoring central area, increasing the attractiveness so that their activities can return to have profits as before the beginning of the works11.

In conclusion it is clear that the change in mobility of Darsena due to Road Pricing policies and the implementation of the Darsena project has changed both the public and private viability, the population was affected by the interventions (especially Darsena project) which increased the difficulty in moving and receiving public transport. The initiatives and the means of intervention by the municipality was inadequate and unsuitable for the population, instead of simplifying the mobility during the works only served to worsen the quality of life.

Source, from http://www.expo2015.org Interview of Maria G., 70 years old, resident and Marco S., 26 years old, resident. 11 Interview of M. Berteramo, 41 years old, restaurant owner, Maurizio, 28 years old, restaurant owner, Nabil, 40 years old, bicycle repairer owner and Mohamed, 38 years old, greengrocer owner. 9

27 x. The new mobility in the final project.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the research was made by analysing the different regulation at different level, from the national to the local, to make clear which rules affected the changes in the neighbourhood. Following our methods to find much information as possible, we found a lot of difficulties especially to enter in touch with some experts on regulations of this area. In this sense the contribution of this paper will not be a deeply reconstruction of the research, but a first basis that has to be implemented. Analysing every aspect of the area, as housing, pub¬lic space, night life and mobility we made some consideration on the chang¬es of the neighbourhood. Every rules or laws have impacted the neighbourhood, in an administrative realm but we understand that most of them have participated to an improvement of the area about public spaces and housing. It is also a question of improving or maintaining the urban landscape. In the same time of an ongoing gentrification process that means a change of inhabitants and users and de facto a change of uses and habits. Firstly, it is related to the case of the Darsena harbour, which was and is still one of the main important parts of the city. The Darsena harbour, after its in¬dustrial function, was almost abandoned creating in this way a kind of fragmentation between Ripa di porta Ticinese and Navigli, and increasing in the feeling of the inhabitant the perception to have a “black hole” inside their neighbourhood. In contrast to Darsena as a “black hole”, the ongoing and new project of Darse¬na, which was quite expensive, seems to not taking into consideration the current inhabitants and the current situation of the area. Actually this project seems to target a touristic goal or a new kind of inhabitants related to the concept of branding the city to more attractive class. If many regulations are related to the willingness of the public authorities to enhance the area, it is a question of taking into consideration ongoing dissension between actors as inhabitants, shop tenders and night time users and so on. It seems that there is a juncture of the different public institution from the national to the local level. However the municipal level is also the most relevant one dealing with complains and conflicts ongoing. In this sense many municipal rules try to solves or maintain a quiet situation. It is a question there of maintaining the balance between, in the main cases, the inhabitants power and complains and the economic power through the diversity of business situation. All together these elements should keep this area attractive. Also these last years the point is to highlights this area as one of the “fashion Milan”, worldwide known. In this sense there is an obvious

gap between Darsena, the black hole, neglected by the municipality and the Darsena Project that the aims seems to be put Darsena on the spot as one of the leading area of Milan. Actually many regulations, especially about nightlife, are done in order to control a pre-existing situation that was maybe not experienced or expected. In the case of Darsena project, it seems that the municipality could have all the tools to prevent an increasing process of gentrification but did not really take this point into consideration. The goal here is to stress the non inclusion of the current users in the conception time of the Darsena project. Also if we could argue that policies are for sure important and take part in the life of an area, the habits of the users and their behaviours impact it in the same level. But in such a project like Darsena 2015, it is a question of asking if a such fast and such main urban project could not deeply change the area and we could also asking the ethical prism of such work because it is not looking the context or the needs. This research helps us also to ask ourselves about our approaches of the political realm, from the many scholar interventions and also our own conception. As student from different landscape and with different background it is also interesting to confront the manifolds ideas and conceptions. In this sense the lack of time, of sources on some particular questions and the many debates we had about the way to run our researches proved to be difficulties we had to manage.

REFERENCE

BIBLIOGRAPHY. - Road Pricing, politiche di controllo del traffico e inquinamento, Galimberti A, Maggioli, Santarcangelo di Romagna 2008. - Milano la grande transformazione urbana, Corinna Morelli 2005, Univer sale Architettura 163. PAPER. - Gentrification of the City by Tom Slater. - Seeing Gentrification Behind the Window of Sicilian Bakery: Reflexive Eth nography and documentary practice in Brooklyn by Lidia K.C. Manzo. - Geographies of the urban night, Urban Studies, I. van Liempt, I. van Aalst, T. Schwanen. - Urban Studies journal From the University of Glasgow, UK. - Naked City: the Death and Life of Urban Authentic Urban Places, Introduc tion: The city that lost its soul, Oxford Press University, Sharon Zukin 2009 - Gentrification waves in the inner-city of Milan, a multi-agent/cellular model based on Smith’s rent gap theory, L. Diappi and P. Bolchi, 2006, Department of Architecture and Planning, Politecnico di Milano Technical University - Night Time Economy, from Urban Studies journal. WEBSITE. - http://www.urbanfilemilano.blogspot.it - http://www.expo2015.org - http://www.milano.corriere.it - http://www.wikipedia.org - http:// www.treccani.it - http:// www.sunia.it - http:// www.flickr.com - http:// www.l’unità.it - http:// www.skyscrapercity.com - http:// www.ilgiornale.it - http:// www.ilgiorno.it

INTERVIEW. - 20th November 2014, M. Berteramo, 41 years old, restaurant owner. - 30th November 2014, Maria G., 70 years old, resident. - 30th November 2014, Marco S., 26 years old, resident - 16th December 2014, Ludovico, 27 years old, student, visitor. - 16th December 2014, Marta, 24, years old, student, visitor. - 10th January 2015, Maurizio, 28 years old, restaurant owner. - 10th January 2015, Nabil, 40 years old, bicycle repairer owner. - 10th January 2015, Mohamed, 38 years old, greengrocer owner. Thanks to Prof. Novak and Emanuela Elena Duina.