Every European city that has taken space back from cars seems to follow the same script: a political leader announces a scheme, all hell breaks loose, the leader receives death threats, and then when the scheme is built everyone loves it and the leader is re-elected with an increased majority.
Milan is trying a different script.
My guest this week is Demetrio Scopelliti, who leads Piazze Aperte (Open Squares) for the City of Milan. Rather than announcing schemes, the city runs open calls asking communities which streets and squares they would like reclaimed. Projects are chosen for local consensus, ambition and feasibility, co-designed with residents, and implemented in weeks using traffic paint, planters, benches and ping pong tables.
Demetrio describes himself as like Robin Hood: taking space from cars to give back to people.
In today’s episode we discuss why tactical urbanism enables a city to be more radical, the fact that he welcomes conflict as an essential part of change and his advice to a city that thinks it might work in Milan but would never work here…
You can subscribe to The Freewheeling Podcast at Apple or Spotify Podcasts.
