Crowded bars with happy revelers spilling onto the crowded streets. Takeaway drinks sold by drunk tourists and students. Breathtaking volumes in residential neighborhoods that were once quiet well after midnight.
When Milan authorities launched plans years ago to promote the city as a bustling destination by capitalizing on its reputation as Italy’s hip fashion and design capital, the noise and rowdy overcrowding that came with it The results may not have been quite what they had in mind.
Now, after years of complaints and a series of lawsuits, the city passed an ordinance strictly limiting the sale of takeout food and drinks after midnight — and slightly later on weekends — in “movida” areas. ”, a Spanish term that Italians use. adopted to describe outdoor nightlife. It will come into force next week and will be in effect until November 11.
Outdoor seating at restaurants and bars will also cease at 12:30 a.m. on weekdays and an hour later on weekends. People wishing to party longer will therefore have to do so indoors.
Companies that have taken advantage of Milan’s success to present themselves as a dynamic city are complaining.
A trade association complained that the order was so strict that Italians could no longer walk around late at night with ice cream in hand.
Marco Granelli, Milan city councilor responsible for public safety, said those fears were exaggerated. Eating ice cream on the fly wouldn’t be a problem, he said.
The ordinance, he explained, was intended to combat “behavior that impacts residential neighborhoods” and remove alcoholic beverages, seen as the main reason nighttime shows linger on some streets and places. “It is clear that ice cream, pizza or buns do not create overpopulation,” he said.
Marco Barbieri, secretary general of the Milan branch of Italian retailers association Confcommercio, said his group would oppose the order, which he said would affect about 30 percent of the city’s 10,000 restaurants and bars. The new rules, he said, would penalize retailers for bad customer behavior.
But locals have been complaining about Milan’s nightlife for a while.
“It’s a nightmare,” said Gabriella Valassina of the Navigli Committee, one of several citizens’ groups formed to address the growing numbers of people — and decibel levels — in Milan’s historic neighborhoods.
She drew up a list of complaints: noise pollution (peaks of 87 decibels, well above the 55 authorized, according to municipal boundaries); streets so filled with developers that it is difficult to walk or even reach your front door; an exodus of tired locals that changes the character of picturesque neighborhoods.
With the new rules, the city allocated 170,000 euros, or a little more than $180,000, to help bar owners hire private security to stop tellers from lobbying on the streets outside of their establishments. And he is working with police unions to change contracts to allow more officers to work night shifts to enforce the new rules.
The city may have been motivated to act more forcefully after the decisions made by local And national courts In Italy, they sided with residents who sued city governments for failing to reign in nighttime chaos.
Elena Montafia, spokesperson for Milano Degrado, a neighborhood association, is one of 34 residents of the Porta Venezia neighborhood who are suing the municipality and seeking damages on the grounds that inaction on their complaints put their health in danger.
“Living in Milan has become really difficult,” she said, adding that it was only after a decade of pleading with unresponsive local administrators that she and other residents decided to take the legal route.
Still, she and others doubted the new ordinance would change much and that enforcement would be problematic.
“When there are so many people around, there is no law that will force them to return home; it’s impossible,” especially since the crowds normally outnumber the police, said Fabrizio Ferretti, the manager of Funky, a bar in Navigli, one of the affected neighborhoods. He admitted that he was persona non grata with the owners of the apartments above his bar.
The predicament Milan finds itself in today comes after years of efforts by leaders to broaden the city’s image from Italy’s financial and industrial capital to one more service-oriented and tourism-friendly.
A succession of municipal governments also encouraged development in the city’s less central neighborhoods, said Alessandro Balducci, who teaches planning and urban policy at Politecnico di Milano.
One of the inspirations was the Fuorisalone, the vast network of events linked to Milan Design Week, the largest annual design event in the world, which “gave new life to neighborhoods that were in the shadows”, did he declare. “Even for the Milanese, it was a rediscovery of their city.”
There has also been an increase in the number of universities in the city – eight now – as well as design and fashion programs run by private institutes. Milanese universities are also offering more and more courses in English to broaden their international appeal.
Today, students have replaced many workers who once worked in now-shuttered factories — automobiles, chemicals and heavy machinery — that made Milan an industrial powerhouse, Mr. Balducci said.
THE University of Milan-Bicoccafor example, opened about 25 years ago on the site of an abandoned Pirelli factory.
What’s happening among students is clearly evident when it comes to the changing nightlife scene, he said.
In addition, he added, after the coronavirus pandemic, bars and restaurants replaced stores in many neighborhoods, accelerating the change in the face of these areas.
Last year, about 8.5 million visitors came to Milan, not including those who didn’t stay overnight, according to YesMilano, the city’s tourism website. This is much more than the 3.2 million visitors who slept in Milan in 2004 and the five million who did so in 2016, according to Istat, the national statistics agency.
The Navigli district – a former working-class neighborhood built around two of Milan’s most picturesque canals – has undergone one of the city’s most profound transformations, from a charming, rundown neighborhood crossed by picturesque bridges to a neighborhood trendy full of restaurants and bars.
Stores that supplied residents have closed, in part because rising rents and general chaos have forced many people, including artists and artisans, to leave, residents say.
“The soul of the neighborhood is very different now,” said Ms. Valassina, of the Navigli committee. “City governments favored the idea of gentrification, believing it to be a positive goal. Instead, they changed the DNA of the neighborhood.
Recently, crowds of tourists, students and locals strolled along a canal, passing signs offering beer, wine or cocktails to go. The bars quickly filled up and the crowds moved to the adjacent street, forcing passersby to weave through the crowds.
Some young developers have expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the new law.
“Young people are going to do what they do anyway; they will find different ways around it,” said Albassa Wane, 24, from Dakar, Senegal, an intern at a fashion brand and living in Milan for five years.
