Milan, what are you afraid of?

Something has changed in Milano: we feel it in the air when we walk alone at night, we feel it when friends or colleagues tell us about the difficulties of finding rent or making ends meet, or maybe when we avoid going to the center to stay away from the crowds of tourists that make every walk a tiring exercise, we feel it especially inside us when we think about the city and can no longer see that El Dorado of Italian excellence that Expo 2016 had tried to build. The turning point was the lockdown: when we started going out again, the streets had changed, the future seemed much less bright, millions felt a new sense of alienation, had new dreams, like escaping the city, and above all, had new fears. This is why nss magazine felt the need to explore the feelings of its community – a community that, around topics of fashion, lifestyle, and youth cultures, includes individuals of all ages, orientations, genders, and social classes. Thus was born the project “Milano, what are you afraid of?” which, through a survey conducted on a sample of nearly 1000 volunteers, aimed to provide an X-ray of the anxieties that drive the broad community of the city’s residents.

The questions were structured to explore different areas, from social pressures and uncertainty about the future to concerns related to security, in order to obtain a plural vision of the main concerns of the citizens. The data collected was analyzed quantitatively, with particular attention to differences between various demographic groups, to highlight any trends or dissonances in the experiences and reflections around the city. The resulting sample, representative of the different groups that make up Milano and imagine its future, includes: 40.1% of individuals between 18 and 24 years old, another 40.5% of people between 25 and 35, 17% of those between 35 and 54 years old – with the remaining small percentage divided roughly in half between those under 18 and those over 55. A vast majority of women (67.3%) and actual city residents (79.7%) responded, compared to 16.5% of people who frequent the city regularly or have left recently, and a final 3.9% of people who do not live in the city but represent the perception of it from the outside.

So, what emerged from this survey? Before continuing to read our paper, in which we have tried to provide as truthful and clear a portrait as possible of the many nuances that the fear of city dwellers can take, it’s good to answer this question. And the response is that Milano is less scary than other cities but scarier than before. For 51.5% of our respondents, the city is essentially similar to other major European and world metropolises, while for 30.8% (a non-negligible percentage) Milano is indeed more dangerous than other cities. Curiously, 11% of our respondents had no opinion on this matter. But when we shift the focus to how much the perception of danger has increased, things change: 52.7% say they have more fear regarding personal security; 23.7% say they have seen both personal danger and social pressure increase, while 4% say it’s only social pressure that has increased. The remaining 14.8% have not noticed significant changes. In the meantime, however, some changes have occurred, and not just in perception: last month the city slipped to 56th place in the Ecosistema Urbano ranking by Legambiente and Il Sole 24 Ore, which measures the environmental performance of Italian cities. This ranking, far from brilliant, placed the city among the least "green" in the country, with a score of only 56.18% of an ideal urban center. In comparison, cities like Reggio Emilia, Trento, and Parma lead with scores above 80%. Milano has recorded disappointing performances in many areas, particularly regarding air quality: it is 95th for nitrogen dioxide, 77th for ozone, and 77th for fine particles. Moreover, the city doesn’t fare well in water management either, with a poor 102nd place for water consumption in Italy.

Also, on the safety front, things are changing: at the end of October, the city council approved a motion to increase the number of surveillance cameras, especially in peripheral and working-class neighborhoods – essentially giving body to the perceptions of reduced safety in the city, where residents report issues related to crime and the lack of territorial control. In addition to installing new cameras, the municipal administration has decided to strengthen territorial control, increasing the number of local police officers: 707 new officers in 2023, almost double the number of retirements, with further increases in personnel planned to meet security needs. This investment in public safety is part of a broader strategy aimed at ensuring a better quality of life for all Milanese, addressing both the issues related to crime and the perception of insecurity. But can increased control prevent incidents and eliminate crime? Or are the problems residents see in the Milano model, in terms of concrete physical agents of urban decay and street crime, the result of an ever-stronger tension between a "vertical" city, entirely focused on economic development, and a "horizontal" city?