A night-time strategy for Milan
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
This project aims to develop a night-time strategy in Milan through the organisation of a night-time conference. Such an event would launch the discussion among the key stakeholders and create the basis for the creation of ad hoc working groups to finally create an strategic action plan.
This project represents the attempt to make Milan more attractive, sustainable, efficent and - last but not least - more beautiful at night.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
The project "A night-time strategy for Milan" is based on a long-term sustainability perspective and aims to co-design - in synergy with the Municipality of Milan and the main stakeholders - an action plan/a long term strategy for the night-time. Such a strategy should at the same time:
- address the challenges inherent to nightlife, and;
- exploiting the enormous creative potential which the night can generate.
In other words, the project aims to bring to Milan so-called "night-time policies", an innovative type of urban policy, which adds a new dimension to traditional urban policies by putting the night-time at the centre, with a multidisciplinary and cross-cutting approach on various aspects, such as:
- Promotion of economic and cultural life at night, including night-time tourism;
- Development of a sustainable night transportation system;
- Management of public space, including the noise produced by night-life and the cleanliness of the streets;
- Night-life risk prevention (drugs and alcohol, but also discriminations/harrassment);
- Security and public order.
Although this type of urban policy has been lately implemented by several international cities (for example, Paris, London, New York, etc.), in Italy it has not been considered. This is the gap that this project wants to address.
In concrete, the projects consists of three main “phases”:
- Organisation of a 3 days conference on nightlife to launch a discussion between experts, citizens and other stakeholders;
- Creation of ad hoc working groups on specific issues in order to deepen the discussion, also taking advantage of the collection of qualitative and quantitative data;
- definition of an action plan to be implemented by the Municipality starting from 2022.
In conclusion, this project transates the values of both the old and new EU Bauahaus into the urban dimension, focusing on multidisciplinarity and bringing aesthetics, inclusiveness and sustainability to the city.
Key objectives for sustainability
This project is based on a broad notion of sustainability, which includes both environmental and social aspects, and encompasses the well-being of citizens by reying on a cross-cutting perspective.
In particular, when it comes to the night-time, what we observe is the existence of various “cities within the city”, namely “the city which sleeps”, “the city which parties”, “the city which works” etc. By aiming at developing a night-time strategy, this project aims at making these different "cities” peacefully coexist, therefore making nightlife more integrated and sustainable.
Furthermore, in order to be sustainable such a strategy needs to rely on a cross-cutting approach, with the aim to break the “silos” and adopt instead an holistic approach. Such a night time strategy represents the attempt to develop a comprehensive urban planning vision which considers the problems and opportunities from different perspectives, such as:
- Economic and cultural development, which means in turn quality jobs in the creative industry and related sectors;
- Development of sustainable night time transport (public/sharing solutions which would reduce the use of private cars and reduce C02 emissions);
- Night-life risk prevention to increase people's physical and phsycological well being, in particular by preventing the risks related to the consuption of drugs and alcohol as well as those related to harrassments and discriminations;
- Management of public space to make nightlife coexist with residents right to sleep;
- Protection of night time workers.
In other words, the project is sustainable as it aims to create a positive social and enviromental impact, while making different needs and habits coexist.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Vincent van Gogh once said: “I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day”. He was right: the night is the time of beauty, and it makes everything seem more shining, poetic and romantic: streets, buildings, lights.
However, in order to enjoy such a natural beauty inherent in the night must come along with functional services and a vibrant cultural life.
For this reason, cities must put effort to enhance the quality of the night-time experience for local residents as well as for tourists, and make in this way the city more attractive at night.
A long term strategy of night-time can certainly be helpful to achieve this goal. Such a strategy should obviously focus on all those aspect already mentioned in the section “sustainability”, as these two dimensions are closely interrelated.
To make some concrete examples, the strategy should:
- Promote the cultural development of the night-time in order to give the chance to the citizens to enjoy a vast array of cultural events (art exhibitions, but also concerts, Djs sets etc.).
- Promote the the opening of parks at night or, more generally, the expansion of places which can be used at night.
- Improve the system of transports at night in order to offer people the opportunity to move easily around the city at night, meet friends and attend events. This would really increase the quality of experience for those going out, as they would spare time and money.
- Create tools to address the typical problems generated by night time noise in order to help residents to sleep, while supporting nightlife. This would increase the quality of experience for those having fun and for those resting.
Key objectives for inclusion
Numerous aspects relating inclusion have been already mentioned in the section “sustainability”, in particular the protection of night-time workers, the protection against discrimination (women, minorities).
While there is no need to repeat what has been said in the other sections, let me now expand on other aspects of inclusion which a night-time strategy could tackle.
- First of all this project follows a co-design approach which aims at including the various stakeholder concerned in the development of the night-time strategy. As described in the question below on the next steps, the project aims at creating a big conference to launch a common reflection on the night-time, with a view to creating ad hoc working groups to futher co-design the action plan. This means favoring the co-creation of public policy adopting a bottom-up inclusive approach.
- Furthermore, a night-time strategy could also focus on:
- The inclusion of people with disabilities in the night-time events (including through specific apps that can map the accessibility levels of venues and cultural centres)
- The attempt to increase the affordability of high quality events.
Innovative character
The night 'dimension' has been for a long time ignored by policy makers, who often have not taken advantage of its creative potential. On the contrary, the night has for a long time been associated only with negative aspects, such as darkness, danger, crime and insecurity.
However, in recent years, a number of cities have begun to think systematically about night-time management, adopting different models of governance. In fact, in the last years we have seen the emergence of “Night-time Councils” and night time deputy Mayors (Paris, for example), ad hoc public structures (the “Night Time Commission” in London) and offices (the “Night-time office of New York). Furthermore, some cities (for example, Tbilisi, Rotterdam and Seattle) have hired public managers responsible for nightlife development.
Nonetheless, in Italy such a night-time strategic approach has been largely missing. Against this background, the project aims to fill this gap and bring night time policy to Italy and in particular to Milan, which has distinguished itself to be an innovative city.
Furthermore, this project is innovative and out of the box for different other reasons:
- Developing night-time policy means adding a new temporal dimension to urban policy and design
- it is based on public policy co-design, as the creation of the action plans derives from the discussion between the various stakeholders which can co-create the strategy. In other words, such a bottom-up approach represents also an innovative aspect.
- it is based on multidisciplinarity and on a cross-cutting approach, with the attempt to break the classic “silos” and create synergies between different sectors.
Advancing such a discussion would have spillovers in other sectors as well, bringing a multiplier effect in terms of innovation and creative potential.
