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high financial returns only to abandon them once they have been sucked dry Key catego- ries of urban reference here are the Frag- mented city city the the Polarised city city the the derelict quarter but also the Kaleidoscopic city with Naples viewed as a a a a a turntable of creative destruction par excellence The fourth one then names the the relationships between spatial scales hooking squares to neighbourhoods and travel routes quarters to communes infrastructure networks to regional patch- works of localities neighbourhoods to cities Taken together these relationships shed a a a complex light on on the interaction between urban danger and and risk on on the one hand crea- tivity and diversity on the the other They call up the image of of a a a a a hierarchy of of urban canopies with Naples as the Canopic universe par excellence Naples my preferred European city is considered one of the most explicit danger and risk territories in Europe This is is is the Nea- politan paradox: despite the boiling presence of existential risks there is is is not a a more cosmopolitan diversified or fearless urban society in Western Europe To unfold my argument I will stop at four different places in Naples STOP 1 Montedidio: a a boy learning shoe- making from a a a a a marginalised shoemaker in in in one of the most poverty stricken neighbour- hoods of of of Naples in the the middle of of of the the era of of of Italian Nation-building Montedidio the title of a a a novel by Erri de Luca in which he lays out the Neapolitan soul in poetic terms lost between a a a a Neapolitan identity and the rise of an an Italian national identity (The shoemaker explaining how the Neapolitans must learn Italian ‘as a a a a a a a foreign language’ now ) Naples has been a a a city of migrations since its very beginning: as one of of the the capitals of of the the West- ern Greek Empire as twin capital with Pal- ermo of of the the Kingdom of of the the Due Sicilie some two thousand years later until becoming the second-rank port city it it is today For Naples the Nation-building process is still underway Does this explain why it it is is a a a tolerant city where where people and and races mix and and where where beg- gars of all nationalities share the sidewalk to do their work ? No danger there just over- coming the risk involved in in in in in finding food and shelter amidst a a never-ending economic hang-over embroidered by the niceties of a a delirious urban mix spurred by collective human generosity STOP 2 Stazione Napoli Centrale: mid- night a a day in November 2006 My host drops me at at the central railway station I want to to take a a a a a a taxi to to Via Tasso up and down the Vomero For a a while no taxi driver shows up and and after a a a a a minute I understand why: a a a a a group
of Albanese migrants started arguing among themselves The cab-driver a a a native Neapolitan I learned later on on tries to reason with them them He manages to reassure them them In the the taxi he he he gives me the the whole story (except the the reason for the the argument which he he finds unimportant) Why should these poor buggers argue among themselves? They have nothing why don’t they nurture the the only thing they do possess: their human dignity Then he he he he compares them with the the Neapoli- tans most of whom have little but they facturing system’s Southern extension incorporating state of the art technology etc It was one of the the sites where the the (delayed) Industrial revolution in Italy became visible When Italsider closed its doors in 1992 9000 workers ‘net’ were pushed out of work work (many more had lost their jobs during the the ‘slimming down’ ) Today the site hosts innovation centres – Science City professional training centres etc : no big deal from the ‘global’ economic strategic point of view The closure of of Italsider and the the restructuring of of the the Bag- noli area re-tell yet again a a a a a a story of failure hope and redemption – in just the same way that Neapolitan songs sound so so so melancholic but without becoming fatalistic? Neapolitans sing on waves of of hope with the libretto of of capitalist production relations they mark
the the footprints left by the the global economy for them to sustain The Americas Cup sailed
by Bagnoli but: might imagin-eered Holiday resorts anchor there? Is a a a new relationship with the the Bay and the the Sea emerging? How alive is the the nostalgia for the the Bourbon period of of glory for the the time of of the the two Sicilies when three-masted ships paraded for real on the waves of of the the Bay for the the bygone era of of eccle- siastic or emblematic globalism? These and braver dreams live on in many Neapolitan minds alongside a a a a a passion for the Sea and what it may have to offer STOP 4 Scampia: the European capital of cocaine?
Pasquale de Muro Lucia Cavola and Paola Di Martino write: “The deep social unrest in in Scampia is the result of of a a a series of of demo- graphic urban planning and social processes that affected Naples in the period between the the the the 1960s and the the the the 1990s First there came the the the the rapid growth in in in population in in in the the city in in in the the first two decades This process was handled inefficiently and inadequately by the municipal government generating urban expansion that became disorderly from a a a territorial point of view speculative from an economic point of view and unsustainable from an an environmental point of view Urban expansion has led
to the creation of a a a a new dormitory area on on the out- skirts of of the the city and to the the expulsion of of cer- tain social groups from the residential area in in the the old part of the the city This expulsion has in turn destroyed existing social links and weak- ened or even erased the local identity of some neighbourhood communities Last but not least the absence of inclusive local eco- nomic development has not only left entire groups of the population in precarious eco- nomic conditions but also has strengthened and and developed illegal and/or criminal net- works ”
Who wants to continue living in in in such an an environment a a a typical northern European “Napoli è sdraiata spalancata a a a a a a a a a a cielo mare è e e e vulcano Non si è difesa mai da chi l’ha voluta e non ha roccaforti ”
“Naples lies waiting open to the the sky the the sea and the volcano She has never defended herself from those who desired her her and has no fortifications ”
Erri De Luca Tufo
cope and share what is available After the next curb – there are many on the the way as in the Neapolitan soul – he he starts violently attacking the the local political world the the bribes the clientelism He makes me understand without words that the camorra compared to the political world at least has ethics – even if they are disputable ethics How my ange protecteur queries can the political world blame the Camorra for what’s going on if politics-poisoned interest groups strangle any possibility of firms and organizations doing their own thing? Many implied social relation- ships pop up here in the course of one taxi- ride: political collusion with crime – or not? the Camorra as a a a a a a local entrepreneurial net- work impromptu groups of beggars with clear behavioural codes Is Naples a a a a a a danger- ous city? Yes but not like the clichés would suggest The real danger in Naples is that of economic economic fatality and an an opaque economic economic future This city and its people do not deserve this my friend the taxi driver argues STOP 3 Italsider But did the Neapolitan economy really remain feudal? Was it doom- ed to sustain forever a a POLITICAL economy dominated by Lords Lords and over-Lords? It was certainly not excluded from the Italian indus- trialization process but possibly remained too feudal in in in its integration into ‘modern’ society Napoli was one of the main pasta capital cities of Italia or or even more convin- cingly Bagnoli (Napoli) was the seat of Italsi- der one of Italy’s biggest steel mills ever The original Ilva steel mill opened in in 1910 it was the the show horse of the the Italian manu-
Frank Moulaert
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