Ponte Lambro, Milan

Contemporary City Social Changes and Policies

PONTE LAMBRO, MI

Social and Spatial Isolation and Segregation

1-Introduction This report presents an analysis of the social and physical characteristics of the public housing estate of Ponte Lambro and its surroundings, in comparison to the city of Milan, in order to identify the concentration of homogeneous groups. Considering various influences such as its history, localization, and the composition of specific demography in the area.

1.1 Methodology: Various tools and methods were used to assess the area such as the following: • Statistical analysis of population composition: through the use of demographic data from years 2001-2011 • Geographic analysis: using land use maps to differentiate public and private areas, services present in the area and localization within the metropolitan area.

• GIS (Geographic Information System) Mapping- in order to map, assess and quantify the values of a social indicator within the selected area.

• Direct observation: Through site visit, it enabled the authors to visualize the ground level state of the environment.

2- Description of the area 2.1- Localization: Ponte Lambro, is a neighborhood of 4,000 people in the southeast of Milan. On the border of the city, belonging to Zone 4.

The area borders to the east with Linate, a fraction of Peschiera Borromeo and to the south with the Municipality of San Donato Milanese figure (1)

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The district looks like an enclave, primarily because it is physically separated from the rest of the city by the Tangential Est, a visual and sound barrier.

The isolation is also accentuated by the perimeter of the district, which is closed to the east by the river Lambro and to the south-west by the presence of large green areas not built with agricultural settlements. For a further understanding of its features, the study area is broken down into two sub-areas, according to the type of public dwellings: –ERP area: those tracts inside the ‘public housing estate’ where the yellow part of figure (2).

–Surrounding area: the tracts outside the ‘public housing estate’, white part of figure (2).

figure (1) Illustration of public areas in Milan (Ponte lambro)

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2.2 Physical Boundaries and main features:

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figure (2) Public Housing estate

2.3 History Development: figure (3) _1900-1920 Agricultural Area Until the beginning of the ‘ 900 the area of the current district was configured as an exclusively agricultural sector, characterized by the presence of large farmhouses and a particular richness of surface water. The urban settlement begins to develop when some families of lavenders from the central districts of the city are established along the embankment of the river Lambro and set up their activities.

1900 - 1920

1930 - 1940

1950 - 1960

1970 - 1980

via Elio Vittorini1920 1990 - 2000

figure (3) Time line of the history developmet (1900-1990)

_1930-1940 Development along via Degli Umiliati: It was a heterogeneous population, of proletarian extraction and structured around some large families: the most historical nucleus of the lavenders had now joined a worker nucleus.

Until the WWII the building expansion concerns the northern part of the district that gravitates around the Paullese road and the area along the river. The via degli Umiliati constitutes the main axis of the area on which the commercial and artisan activities were overlooked.

via Degli Umiliati 1940

_ 1970-1980 Beginning of Degradation: It was the 1970s to constitute the real turning point in the history of the district: between 1973-74, the city of Milan entrusted to the IACPM a massive intervention of economic and popular construction in the via Ucelli di Nemi and via Serrati streets. _1990-2000 Improve the condition of the area: The administrative attention was realized in 2000 with the establishment of the periphery sector and the activation, in one of the white houses, of the Pre-laboratorio, which was to follow the never realized laboratory of Renzo Piano. Finally, in 2004 the municipality participated in the announcement by the region for the program Contratti di Quaritere II.

via Elio Vittorini 1990

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3- Physical Morphology 3.1 Barriers The borders map is characterized by boundaries of different nature that cut the territory vertically or horizontally, creating physical limits or visual boundaries along the district and inside. These borders as well as being physical barriers that prevent the passage, sometimes appear as perceptual barriers that isolate the area in relation to the context and make it difficult to access figure (4).

Human borders via Elio Vittorini

Natural border River Lambro

figure (4) Borders

The borders appear of two main typologies: natural borders, such as the river Lambro and artificial borders, such as Highway 51 or “Case Bianche� inside the neighborhood.

3.2 Public Spaces The public spaces map figure (5) shows the location of the main public areas and services located in the neighborhood.

The draw shows, those are especially located along the central axis of the area, vertically developed. For public is intended both buildings (like Monzino Hospital or bars) or open areas (like green parks) in which people meets, interacts and spend time in the neighborhood.

figure (5) Public Spaces

Public green

Main Square

The district is also surrounded on the east side by an abandoned green, on the banks of the river Lambro. A space that is currently critical but full of future potentials.

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3.3 Green Areas: The definition of nature figure (6) stems from the fact that Ponte Lambro is characterized by the presence of large green areas including, in particular: -An agricultural area, part of the Parco Agricolo Sud that together with the Cascina Zerbone appears in the eyes of the citizens as a great resource for the primary sector - Two public parks located respectively on the north of the district and internally, near of the “White Houses�.

Semi-Public Green

Public Green

figure (6) Natural Elements

3.4 Road Hierarchy: The internal road map shows the transport routes and the accessibility to the area figure (7). The Ponte Lambro neighborhood has a good accessibility at the macro-scale level as it is located near the Highway 51. Internally in the neighborhood, as it is denoted by the design, the area has a series of connections in a north-south direction that allow you to cross the district vertically.

figure (7) Internal road

Local road

Cars crowded

This regard, one of the greatest problems with concerning the accessibility of the area is found in the lack of horizontal connections. From the point of view transportation instead, although by private means the shift from the outside to the district and vice versa is easy, more complex is to move by public transport because not so much of the scarcity of buses but rather of the low frequency of the latter.

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3.5 Buildings Statement: The buildings map is characterized by the presence of several types of building located in the neighborhood, according to the period of their construction. The part that developed before is the one in the north of the area: here the houses follow the typology of city blocks and are characterized by semi-public spaces. Later, the area along via degli Umiliati was developed. The houses appear mainly as detached, on 3-4 floors, all characterized by different colors, maintenance and entrances. The area appears disorganized and the quality of the is not very high. Along via Ucelli di Nemi, the houses known by the name of “Case Bianche”, which were built in the 70s, follow the typology of ribbon figure (8). figure (8) Buildings Statement

Images show the Public Buildings Statement

• Cluster 1: Buildings in this area is seen to be in poor maintenance and low architectural and building quality. The buildings’ facade has visible rust markings and stripped off paint.

• Cluster 2 , 3 and 4: Buildings in this areas in contrary seems to in good quality condition with nicely painted facade and well-maintained vegetation, Evidently, the difference between the level of building condition can be due to the recent developments in the area specifically Contratto di Quartieri II and Laboratorio Quartieri that aims to re-qualify and redevelop the area.

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4- Social Morphology 4.1 Age Differentiation: The comparison between citywide and Ponte Lambro, shows that, the difference in the working age group is not noticeable, however for old and young groups it is possible to see a clear difference between Milan and neighborhood. The increasing rate of young people in the area compare to the city is normal, because of the tendency of areas on the borders of city to have growing families. Elderly group however the difference is clear, with citywide having approximately 25% of people over 65 years old and neighborhood with only 18%.

This difference is even more noticeable when surroundings and the public housing are being compared, where 22% and 15% respectively figure (10).

As result, Ponte Lambro can be considered as an aging neighborhood and most of them are living in public housing.

The integration between old and young does not happen, because the majority of the young group are concentrated in the east part of the area and old people live in the middle.

figure (10) L.Q of elderly (city scale) Milan’s Rate Elderly 25% Public Housing P.L 22% 2431: 37.5%

Surrounding P.L 15% 2423: 7.5%

4.2 Education Levels: By analyzing “upper degree education” in Milan compare to Ponte Lambro, a noticeable difference can be observed, 28% and 10% respectively (people over 24 years old). The majority of the people in Ponte Lambro (public and non-public housing) has a low level of education, most of the residents have only high school or elementary school. The location quotient shows that the whole neighborhood is segregated from the city. The difference between education level in neighborhood is the higher number of illiterate in public housings however, in low degree education both public and non-public housing have almost similar situation figure (9). figure (9) University Degree (city scale) Milano’s Rate UNI Degree 27.3% Public Housing P.L 6.7% 2435: 4.3%

Surrounding P.L 10.5% 2417: 17.5%

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4.3 Immigrants Concentration: Compared to citywide, the neighborhood has a high level of immigration, as the rate is around 14% and 32% respectively. The map figure (11) shows that, most of the immigrants don’t live in the public housing, they do where the quality of the buildings are lower.

Furthermore it can be realized that, in public housings, there are less than 20% of immigrants in each block. Although this percentage can be considered as a high amount compared to the citywide, looking at non-public housing blocks (which are over-represented with more than 50% of immigrants), it is not a remarkable percentage. One of the interesting issues in analyzing the area is the connection between the age group and immigration rate, where there is a higher concentration of young people there is also a higher concentration of immigrants.

figure (11) Immigration Rate (city scale)

4.4 Employment: Regarding the date of employment in Ponte Lambro compare to Milan, the employment rate in the neighborhood is lower than average with a percentage of 62.8% while in the citywide it is 71.2%. Looking at the isolation index for employment the difference between citywide and the neighborhood is mischievous with 0.44 and 0.41 respectively, however this difference is greater when compare between public and non-public housing 52% and 68.5% for working age people figure (12).

By analyzing all the data regards to employment a significant difference in activity rate can be seen in public housing, where only 60% of the population in working age can be employed.

That means in the public housing fewer people with the ability to work, and the graph shows that those who can work usually are employ, 11.5% of the unemployment rate in the public housing.

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figure (12) Employment map (city scale) Milan’s Rate Employment 71.2%

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Public Housing P.L 52.7% 2435: 46.2%

Surrounding P.L 71.7% 2426: 84.6%

5. Internal Differentiation of the Population: 5.1 Homogeneous body concentration: A crucial reason for segregation in Ponte Lambro is the high concentration of the immigrants. Although this indicator has less influence than the other two employment and education as we going to see in the following, yet it can consider as an important reason of the neighborhood segregation. By looking at the map figure (13), a significant concentration of Africans has observed especially in the public housing areas, while in the surrounding housing almost no African Immigrant can be observed. That could be a starting of a ghetto hazard in the area though it’s a low number still, they represent a homogeneous body concentrated in a section of the city.

5.2 Inhabitant differentiation of population:

figure (13) African immigrants (city scale)

Overlapping maps of immigrants, education, and employment with other indicators, pointed two major matters figure (14): First, there are two different areas with contrasting socio-economic characteristics: the settlement area and the rest of the study area.

Second, the so called “the study area” can be considered as part of the ERP area since all the analyzed data confirms similarities in the tracts belonging to both areas.

Finally, the localization of areas with ghettoization potential inside the settlement, an important indicator for the area to become figure (14) Major social contest segregated.

Area with a risk of Ghettoization The Study area Public housing area

5.2 Spatial Separation of Ponte Lambro: By overlapping physical morphologies’ maps, and after evaluating them, we can conclude that Ponte Lambro is strongly fragmented on both internal and external aspects figure (15). We identified a physical and visual difference between the study area and the rest of the city, as Ponte Lambro is boarded by various elements dividing it from the rest of the city. The most disadvantaged element is concentrating inside the neighborhood represented by the verticality character of its streets, as the lack of the horizontal connections separated the neighborhood in both the social and the physical aspects. All that make of the one a small independent town surrounded by growing cities, furthermore the deteriorating quality of the natural elements (Lambro river, agricultural area) give the neighborhood low-level ability of living, banning it of rising to follow the city flow in term of growing or developing.

figure (15) Sketches

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6. Conclusion and Interpretation Overall, and based on the studies done before it is relevant to emphasize that the neighborhood is divided from the city, we had defined the neighborhood’s character and identity as a small independent area that is located on the city border with a bad reputation.

The real question would be: Is there a risk of a ghetto generation at the district?

Both answers could be possible and may be difficult to distinguish. At the first hand, we can say the risk of a growing ghetto could emerge at the ERP area since it has a homogeneous body concentration sharing same background and education level and almost in the same age, this area is determined by accessibility and low rents, also by tradition, it has a closed knit community supported by isolation in the physical determinations could bind the ERP inhabitant into isolated nuclei in the future, that would end up with a ghetto.

On the other hand, and by looking at the actual numbers, it shows that the minorities from the location of specific places represent a low number of the overall population and this phase they make no danger in term of rising ghetto if the right policies has taken.

6.1 Suggested policies to prevent ghettofication of Ponte Lambro Aside from the importance given by the municipal government and the region by identifying Ponte Lambro as an area for intervention for several plans and programs, certain policies that focuses on public housing issues are suggested to create a cohesive community with a better quality of life: • Housing policies: policies to provide tenure diversification in order increase the overall level of social well being by breaking up and avoiding social deprivation • Social mix: policies to define and allocate diverse socio-economic profiles within the area in order to disperse the risk of certain population concentration resulting into the overall development of the residents in the area.

• Social Welfare policies: policies intended to improve and enhance the social capital at a local level. This includes job creation incentives, wage standards and creation of Areabased programs that focuses on using the positive aspects of a specific social groups identified to be at risk or problematic. This will promote the social inclusion dynamics and elevate the populations’ capabilities through trainings and employment programs.

While many barriers isolation may be high due to human and natural interaction. Therefore, the policymakers could improve the connection with the city, towards a stronger interaction between the district and the city, through the recovery of the ground floors and the support of self-management and re-conceder the natural element as an important part of it. The ground floor will attract different socio-economic profiles into the neighborhood, furthermore and urgent decision should be taken for the laboratories to reactive them and use them as a crucial part of the neighbor development in the future.

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References • Bricocoli, M., & Cucca, R. (2016). Social mix and housing policy: Local effects of a misleading rhetoric. The case of Milan. Urban Studies , 53 (1), 77-91.

Retrieved January 28, 2019, from: https://doi.org.

• Comune di Milano. (2018, December 1). Ponte Lambro riparte, arriva il bando per la concessione d’uso. Retrieved from: (http://www.comune.milano.it/wps/portal/ist/ it/news/primopiano/tutte_notizie/lavori_pubblici/ponte_lambro_concessione_uso).

• Comune di Milano, Polictecnico di Milano- Dipartimento di Architettura e Pianificazione.

Muovere Ponte Lambro. Retrieved January 28, 2019, from: (http://mediagallery. comune.milano.it/Progetti_riqualificazione/Riqualificazione_Quartieri/ponte_lambro).

• Magnani, M. (n.d.). Ponte Lambro - Laboratorio di Quartiere - Milano Est - itinerari - Ordine degli architetti, P.P.C della provincia di Milano. Retrieved January 28, 2019, from: (http://www.ordinearchitetti.mi.it/it/mappe/ itinerari/edificio/2223-ponte-lambro-laboratorio-di-quartiere/55-milano-est) • Schiavi, G. (2017, October 29). Milano, Piano e la rinascita del quartiere-ghetto: «Da qui un esempio per tutto il Paese». Retrieved January 28, 2019, from (https:// milano.corriere.it/milano-piano-rinascita-quartiere-ghetto-da-qui-esempio-tutto-paese) • Senesi, A. (2018, June 30). Milano, Ponte Lambro: Riparte il «rammendo» di Renzo Piano. Retrieved January 28, 2019, from: (https://milano.corriere.it/notizie/cronaca/18_ giugno_30/milano-ponte-lambro-ripartel)

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How is the report done?

This study has been done based on the specific features like ethnicity, age, unemployment of the local population, etc.; Starting with defining the main profiles of the local population and an on-site visit to gather information (like localization of the area, presence of the public spaces, services and their use and the conditions of the built environment, etc.,) Together with some qualitative analysis.

After that calculation and mapping the values related to the local population

Supervision by: Prof. Costanzo Ranci Rizk Johnny Francisco Zesyl Shayan Mouzhan Alencar Borst Beatriz

(shares (%), LQ, isolation index) based on the specific topic like age, ethnicity, unemployment, etc., (Using Excel and QGIS) has been done.

In the next step, for interpreting data, a comparison has been made between the data of focus area, neighborhood and city scale and at the end the relations between different values has been defined along with evaluating the first hypothesis which has been made through the site visit and interviews could be found in section 4).