Abstract
Retail has modified the urban form and spirit, but it is also true that the city itself has influenced the commercial sector, transforming what used to be just an economic activity into a complex social practice, having different meanings and social and cultural functions. Retail is an important element of attractiveness of city centres, especially nowadays when consumers do not merely ask for products or services, but seek a more emotional shopping experience. A particular texture of small shops and stores has long characterized the economy of Italian city centres, playing a role which was (and still can be) much more complex and diverse than just selling products. To maintain or regenerate urban retail's vitality in these city centres, it is necessary to look at the evolution of the entire sector, interpreting downtown shopping districts as part of an overall system. On the other hand, attention should be focused on those original features that are mainly related to the peculiar identity values of central urban areas and that are increasingly responsible for their competitiveness against suburban retail developments. In some central urban areas the concentration of shops, together with restaurants, bars and cafés, creates an effect of spatial continuity among retail fronts, capable of generating scale economies and able therefore to compete with suburban and out-of-town shopping malls. The process of innovation of urban retail is a result of the growing potential interest of the public actors, namely local administrations and not only private sector dealers.
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Notes
‘Confronté à une crise dans les années 1980 e 1990, les centres-villes de la moitié nord de l’Europe bénéficient aujourd’hui d’un retour du commerce. Les exemples les plus représentatives concernent notamment les anciennes villes industrielles. La demande en nouveaux équipements commerciaux se fait croissante dans les hypercentres. Parallèlement, les projets en franges d’agglomération se multiplient. Nombreaux sont ceux qui concernent notamment des concepts commerciaux présentant une offre comparable aux centres-villes (commerce haut de gamme, restaurants et cinema par exemple)’ (Les Cahiers du Gridauh, 2002, pp. 23–24).
In some successful cases, famous brands (such as Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury's in the United Kingdom) cooperated with local authorities in developing special intervention schemes that supported commerce-related economy in specific parts of the town.
On the contrary, last generation Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) in Anglo-Saxon countries are usually private led initiatives.
LR Emilia Romagna 14/1999.
This occurred in Paris after the adoption of some special protection measures for small retailing activities, included in the city's 2006 development plan. The ‘Plan Local d’Urbanisme’ adopted in 2006, identified as many as 230 km of retailing and catering streets, following a detailed spatial analysis and mapping operation. This network was then submitted to a special protection scheme (called ‘dispositif de protection du commerce’), aiming to preserve its commercial character. What is more, some streets (totalling 20 km) underwent a total protection regime, holding 800 typical food stores and workshops located there to stay within a food crafts’ category. What is unique in such approach is both a strong public direction and a special attention paid to the social role of retail.
Lombardy's D.G.R. of 12 December 2003, no. VII/15602 is an Act that introduces a special fund aimed at preserving and promoting so-called ‘negozi storici’, meaning stores that possess particular cultural and identity values. As a first step, municipalities are asked to detect those shops being at least 50 years old and well conserved in their original internal aspect. Safeguarding and enhancement measures are then financed by the region, together with promotional campaigns (one of which has been carried out in Milan with the support of the Chamber of Commerce).
The same nostalgic view also refers to the stereotyped images of traditional workshops and stalls, while it emphasizes the social function of retailing and it evokes old commercial streets’ smells and atmospheres. Such positions often tend to be ideological (for instance when they refuse franchising and branch stores a priori).
‘Grocery’ is a term that refers to retailing in basic supply items, namely those for personal hygiene and house cleaning.
For instance, since mid-1990s, Planning Policy Guidance n. 6 (now replaced by Planning Policy Statement n. 4) has been encouraging large and medium sized retail formats settling in inner-city areas. The well-known sequential approach defines such orientation, focused on central locations.
More precisely, these schemes are called ‘Programmi di Recupero Urbano’ (PRU) and ‘Programmi Integrati di Intervento’ (PII), which are among the main programmes for urban redevelopment and regeneration in Italy. They are both based upon public-private partnerships (even though the latter appear more private-oriented than the former).
Two main settlement patterns were followed: ‘nuclei’ of commercial activities (often with the presence of a municipal market) distributed in the neighbourhood, as is the case of the Quartiere Feltre and of the Quartiere Comasina; the ‘strada vitale’, a backbone of the housing estate where shops and other facilities were localized, as in the Quartiere QT8 and Gallaratese.
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Martin Broz has collaborated in the editing and reviewing of the article.
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Morandi, C. Retail and public policies supporting the attractiveness of Italian town centres: The case of the Milan central districts. Urban Des Int 16, 227–237 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/udi.2010.27
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/udi.2010.27