MILAN — Bars packed with revelers flooding the streets. Takeaway drinks in the hands of tourists and students. Deafening volumes in residential neighborhoods after midnight.
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When Milan authorities embarked years ago on plans to promote the City as a lively destination by taking advantage of its reputation as the Italian capital of fashion and design, the resulting overcrowding may not have been what they intended.
Now, after complaints and lawsuits, the City approved an ordinance to limit the sale of take-out food and drinks after midnight in “movida” areas, a Spanish term used for outdoor nightlife, until November 11.
Outdoor seating in restaurants and bars also ends at 12:30 a.m. Monday to Friday and an hour later on weekends.
Some businesses are unhappy. A trade association complained that Italians would not be able to take an evening stroll with ice cream in hand. Marco Granelli, a member of Milan City Council, said those fears were exaggerated. The ordinance, he said, was intended to address “behavior that impacts” residential neighborhoods. “It is clear that ice cream, pizza or brioche do not create crowds,” he said.
Marco Barbieri, secretary general of the Milan branch of the Italian retailers association Confcommercio, said his group would fight the ordinance, which he estimated would affect 30 percent of the City’s 10,000 restaurants and bars. The new rules, he said, would punish retailers for their customers’ behavior.
But residents have long complained about Milan nightlife. “It’s a nightmare,” said Gabriella Valassina of the Navigli Committee, one of several citizen groups formed to address growing crowds in historic neighborhoods.
He cited noise pollution and the exodus of locals as some of his complaints.
The city may have been motivated to act forcefully after local and national courts sided with residents who sued city administrations for failing to control the nighttime chaos.
Elena Montafia, of Milano Degrado, a neighborhood association, is one of 34 residents of the Porta Venezia neighborhood who sued the City Government on the grounds that inaction on their complaints had put their health at risk. She said they had been pleading with local administrators for a decade.
Milan’s situation comes after years of efforts by leaders to expand Milan’s image from Italy’s financial and industrial capital to one that is more service-oriented and tourist-friendly.
There was also an increase in the City’s universities—eight now—and in design and fashion programs at the institutes.
The increase in students is evident in how nightlife has evolved, said Alessandro Balducci, who teaches urban planning and policy at the Politecnico di Milano.
Last year, around 8.5 million visitors spent the night in Milan, reports YesMilano, the City’s tourist site. That far surpassed the 5 million who did so in 2016, according to Istat, a national agency.
The Navigli neighborhood – a former working class area – has become a modern neighborhood of restaurants and bars.
“The soul of the neighborhood is very different now,” Valassina said.
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