Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
thropological nature are taken into consideration. fieldwork was carried out in
particular by means of “strolls through the district” with local residents, in-depth
interviews with certain selected witnesses, participation in public meetings and
online discussions, and observation of activities within the neighborhood.
The bufalotta-porta di Roma affair:
The “engine” of Centrality and of the shopping Center
The affair of the new bufalotta district and the porta di Roma centrality has a
symbolic value because it was the first operation of this type in Rome, and, fur-
thermore, it signaled the development of similar subsequent projects. it opened
the way to a certain type of urban development and a certain modus operandi
in public administration, with the consent of Rome's property developers and
building firms.6 its sixteen million visitors per year are now turning porta di
Roma, one of the most visited shopping centers in italy,7 into a very important
phenomenon that also prompts reflection on changes in social behavior.
it was in the early 1990s that the project got off the ground. The urban master
plan of 1962-1965, then in force, envisaged—with some perspicacity—the cre-
ation in the bufalotta district of a Rome autoporto, or exchange and inspection
area, for heavy goods vehicles arriving from the north on the a1 milan-Rome
motorway. two million cubic meters of space, basically sheds, were planned for
this area. The autoporto never materialized, and at the beginning of the 1990s, the
toti brothers, in a consortium with other construction companies (especially the
Caltagirone family), acquired the area and requested a change of proposed use
from industrial sector to residential area and services, with the same cubic ca-
pacity. a quick calculation makes it easy to realize the exponential growth in the
value of the area and, given the projected value of the housing to be constructed,
the consequent income that the proprietors and construction firms would receive
(at least ten times what it would have been from the use originally intended).
The request was not only welcomed by Rome city government but was also
supported by them in approaching the lazio regional authority, which had to ap-
prove the amendment to the urban master plan. The center-left regional author-
ity opposed the plan and the city council then approached the central govern-
ment, obtaining a change in the national law so that the area could be dedicated
to residential development and services, mainly offices. once this change had
been made, the city council used the tool of a “program agreement”—a form of
public-private partnership that constituted an abuse of planning and program-
ming mechanisms—to adopt the amendment to the urban master plan. This step
heralded the start of a long period in which the program agreement became the
main tool for governing urban development, making the planning and program-
ming instruments in place completely ineffective. subsequently, the plan for the
bufalotta district, drawn up by the private sector and agreed with the municipal
government, was taken up by the city council and inserted into the new urban
Search WWH ::




Custom Search