Expanding the idea and boundaries of Milan, even beyond the province

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The judicial storm rocking Milan will pass, and I hope it passes, confirming the correctness of the behavior of administrators and entrepreneurs. I have personally appreciated the work of Milan's recent administrations and the leap in scale that the city's development has seen under the leadership of Giuliano Pisapia and Beppe Sala. It is not without contradictions, as many have observed, but far from the Wild West that some have exploitatively attempted to portray in recent hours . An opportunity would be missed, however, if we failed to attempt, at this stage, to spark adequate reflection on the present and future of the Lombardy capital, to recognize the limitations of the current development model and the territorial and institutional framework on which it is based, and to look beyond it, to shape a vision capable of expressing its potential and the need for greater social balance.

Given the relevance of the housing issue, many have recently emphasized the need for Milan's new territorial governance tool, along with the Housing Plan, to increase the availability of affordable housing, combined with a greater supply of public housing for less well-off families. This is right and appropriate. However, I believe that the debate on growth and equity is flawed by an inadequate vision of the city, starting with its true territorial dimension . This is what Stefano Boeri wrote in Il Foglio. His invitation to think of Milan as a metropolis, beyond its narrow municipal boundaries, represents an important contribution, useful for placing the reflection on the city in a certainly more appropriate perspective.

However, I tend to think that the new perimeter Boeri pushes us to consider, that of the metropolitan city of 3 million inhabitants, is in turn insufficient to interpret the Milan of today, the Milan it has become, and above all the Milan of the future.

Assessing Milan's livability and accessibility based on real estate values in the municipality governed by Mayor Sala (1.3 million inhabitants) is equivalent to doing so for New York City based on real estate values in Manhattan (1.6 million of the city's 8.7 million inhabitants), or the prices of apartments for sale or rent in the Upper East Side or Greenwich Village. No one would dream of doing so, given that the minimum scale for interpreting (and governing) the Big Apple is one that encompasses its entire territory—thus including the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island—and, more reasonably, extends to the 19 million inhabitants of its metropolitan area, which includes parts of New Jersey, Long Island, and Connecticut.

Caution: "Metropolitan Area," not "Metropolitan City." While municipal boundaries reveal their inadequacy, demarcating only the "heart" of the Milanese metropolis—the equivalent of Manhattan—the very administrative-bureaucratic definition of "Metropolitan City"—the former province of Milan, with its 132 municipalities—says, in my opinion, little about the trajectory of the city's development, and not enough about the scale at which it is necessary to operate to effectively govern its dynamics from now on. I maintain that this scale must necessarily coincide with the Milan Metropolitan Area, defining the latter as a "catchment area," which can be circumscribed using a one-hour travel time—by public or private transport—from the center of the Lombardy capital. Therefore, it is in a necessary relationship with cities like Turin and Bologna, which can be reached in 60 minutes by high-speed train; And certainly with Monza, Bergamo, Como, Lecco, Varese, Pavia, Lodi, Brescia, Novara, Piacenza, and their respective urban areas, all less than an hour from Milan and all (more or less) well connected to the Lombardy capital. In these cities, the quality of life and services is generally very high, without incurring rental values comparable to those in the Milan "bubble" (municipality). And living in Bergamo while working in Milan is not only possible, but highly recommended (I did it for 27 years, so I know what I'm talking about), as the thousands of people who have moved there from the Lombardy capital in recent years have already realized. At this scale—which doesn't necessarily require a new administrative level, but rather a broad vision and structured forms of inter-institutional collaboration (including the Region, responsible for social housing, infrastructure, and transportation)—it's possible, in my opinion, to seek a solution to many of the "growth" problems Milan has highlighted in recent years, starting with housing affordability for the middle class. At this scale, it's possible to attempt to manage—and not suffer—gentrification, accompanying it with adequate services and transportation, and aiming to deflate a real estate market that, in the few square kilometers of "Milan city center," has soared, driven by the enormous attractiveness of the capital. I repeat: it is absolutely appropriate for the Milan city government to ensure that all new development includes housing, and to increase the supply of public housing. But the market has dynamics that it would be unrealistic to even think of subverting. You can't expect Milan to play in the Champions League, the coveted league of global metropolises capable of attracting people, ideas, businesses, capital, and visitors from around the world, and simultaneously have affordable housing easy to find in the Navigli area. This doesn't happen in any of the cities Milan competes with: it would be like expecting to find affordable housing in Tribeca or around Central Park.

Only a "reduced and ridiculous" vision (cit. Boeri) still pushes us today to equate Milan with the size of the municipality of Milan. The latter should more correctly be considered and managed as the "central district"—the "Manhattan"—of the Milanese metropolitan city—the one Boeri speaks of. However, knowing that the metropolitan city itself is insufficient, and that the needs of Milan today and tomorrow should be better addressed at the scale of the metropolitan area, we must mobilize far more extensive energies and responsibilities, the collaboration of the other Lombardy capitals, and a central role for the Lombardy Region (given the need for different and better management of public housing and local public transport by rail and road).

In my opinion, this is the perspective that politics – in Milan, Lombardy, and beyond – is called to work towards to renew the alliance between development and inclusiveness, growth and social equity , seizing the opportunity for reflection offered today to relaunch Milan's ambitions and leadership, which the entire country needs.

Giorgio Gori, Democratic Party MEP, former mayor of Bergamo

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