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URBAN SAFETY AND PUBLIC SPACE: THE CASE OF NAPLES

A.Acierno, A.Mazza

University of Naples Federico II, Faculty of Architecture, Via Toledo 402 – 80136 Napoli antonio.acierno@unina.it

University of Naples Federico II, Faculty of Architecture, Via Toledo 402 – 80136 Napoli

angelino.mazza@unina.it

Abstract

The analysis of city from a perspective of safety is a significant characteristic of urban planning culture in contemporary society. Urban safety is becoming a managerial concept that has rooted itself into how private companies and public local governments operate. Urban landscape is impoverished leading into a defensive shell: the crescent number of gated communities; new forms of privatization of traditional public space such as malls but also airport stations, museums, galleries (quite similar) with shops, police surveillance and cctv systems; large public spaces designed without attention in new developments which rapidly decline are only some examples. Nowadays, a fracture between user and public space is amplifying caused by new feelings of unsafety towards crime, physical degrade, migrant populations and consequently new barriers (mental and physical) are rising in new urban landscape. In the paper we’ll present a methodology applied to analyse contemporary urban landscape giving particular attention to safety and planning design in two experiences from city of Naples.

Key words

Public space, unsafety, gated community, derelict districts, gis analysis,

1. Forms of urban insecurity: incivilities, misdemeanours and crimes against space Angelino Mazza What are the elements fuelling a sense of insecurity in those who live in cities? Let us make it clear that not all kinds of urban fear may be ascribed to criminal phenomena, as assumed by the crime – fear – demand for security scheme. Many studies have shown how, despite the overall decrease of criminality, the

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authorities, according to their competences, are numerous and varied. This entails a considerable effort in economic terms, due to the scarcity of resources affecting local administrations.

Table 1: social categories to whom safety actions are addressed.

Maintaining excellence levels in all the relevant fields, even in the light of the growing reduction of competence transfer from the central government to local communities, is extremely demanding. It may even seem impossible, especially if one considers some choices inevitable over a long period of time. 2. Two experiences of urban safety analysis in Naples Antonio Acierno 2.1. Unsafety in the contemporary city The analysis of city from a perspective of safety is a significant characteristic of urban planning culture in contemporary society. Urban safety is becoming a managerial concept tha t has rooted itself into how private companies and public local governments operate. Moreover, risk has become an official industry and politicians often feed on people’s perception of danger perception for electoral purposes, contributing to a rising of new “builders of fear”. This emerging ideology subtly encourages us to constrain aspirations and avoid challenges and innovation. The urban landscape is impoverished and leads into a defensive shell: the increasing number of gated communities; new forms of privatization of traditional public space such as malls but also airports stations, museums, galleries (quite similar) with shops, police surveillance and cctv systems; large public spaces designed without paying attention to new developments which are rapidly declining, are only some examples. New conflicts between local population and migrants are multiplying, creating a new challenge to tackle for urban planning. So, new problems are being added to old ones in the urban public realm: in the last half century, after the Second World War, the emergent “car-society” created new feelings of unsafety simply crossing streets and squares. The enormous growth in traffic oriented urban design to give priority to motor vehicles over people and pedestrians. The urban

Repression/ Sanctions

Restoration/ Maintenance

Education/ Prevention

CRIMINALS YES YES USUAL OFFENDER YES YES YES OCCASIONAL OFFENDER YES YES YES TERRITORY YES SOCIAL STRUCTURE YES YES

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landscape became unattractive and inhospitable; moreover the perception of motorist, new user of public realm, is very different from the pedestrian and he is not interested in many parts of it. A growing fracture between user and public space emerged in the last decades. Nowadays, this fracture is amplifying caused by fear towards crime, physical degrade, migrant populations and consequently new barriers (mental and physical) are rising in the new urban landscape. Moreover, the new tendency in architecture and urban design is stressing the success of some architects’ styles over the real needs of people, and this contributes to create banal public space around eye-catching buildings, which rapidly enter into a cycle of decline. Inside this background of accelerated social change, the outskirts of the contemporary cities assume a fundamental role because they represent "weak lands”, characterized by physical degradation and social decline, and, above all, they are unable to produce new processes of renewal of themselves. The peripheral districts, predominantly characterized by the presence of low -cost and popular residential estates, are unable to solve “old” problems (lack of services, scarce connections with the centre, single land use, etc.) and “new” problems like the emerging unsafety with an intensity never seen before. 2.2 Unsafety and the Naples’ urban structure The theme of safety in Naples is complicated by the chronic presence of organized crime (camorra) that has always represented one of the principal sources of unsafety, with social and perceptive peculiarities that distinguish it from other Italian cities. Additionally, the actions of the local governments are likely increasing the physical, social and mental barriers among the parts of the city through a segregation process. The particular condition of the Neapolitan neighbourhoods needs a careful evaluation by underlining the deep differences of the local context, in comparison to the dynamics of transformation investing the whole principal western cities where, as Castel says, “though people are living in an age of greater personal and social safety guaranteed by in the history of humanity, the amplification of fear is building ( politically addressed) spaces of separation and segregation”. The development of Neapolitan neighbourhoods, particularly the outskirts, since the post-war period, can be seen as one of the causes of the recent increase of crime in Naples. In the past, the mixed composition of Neapolitan society, almost entirely located in the historical centre, and the promiscuity of the different social classes (according to income, professions, works, styles of life and degree of education), worked as a "balance tool" of violence and urban disorder, in the flexible space of legal, illegal and criminal activities. The

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separation of rich classes from the proletarians, designed in the urban plans in the second post-war period, has installed the first ones on the hills of the Vomero and Posillipo, and subsequently the new public housing estates have exported the second ones in the popular districts of the outskirts or in the ancient inner neighbourhoods.

Figure 1 - Naples districts. 1 S. Ferdinando 6 Stella 11 Pendino 16 Poggioreale 21 Pianura 26 Scampia 2 Chiaia 7 S. Carlo all' A. 12 Porto 17 Zona Industriale 22 Chiaiano 27 S. Pietro a P. 3 S. Giuseppe 8 Vicaria 13 Vomero 18 Bagnoli 23 Piscinola 28 Ponticelli 4 Montecalvario 9 S. Lorenzo 14 Arenella 19 Fuorigrotta 24 Miano 29 Barra 5 Avvocata 10 Mercato 15 Posillipo 20 Soccavo 25 Secondigliano 30 S. Giovanni T.

The outskirts and the inner most degraded districts became the new economic centres of illegal and criminal activities, in all emergent sectors such as drug and illegal imitations (clothing, shoes, musical piracy and video, etc.). The young people in these districts enjoy early criminal structures and are invested by the serious phenomenon of "negative conditioning". The gangs and the lower classes around them, must be intended as "social minorities" separate not only socially but also physically from the rest of the city. Many inhabitants of the Neapolitan district-slums do not wish to take part of entire common life in the city, especially to integrate themselves in wider social circuits, through the traditional paths of education and work, but it is the closer culture of the family and neighbourhood that propose “models of the illegal way of living”.

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Figure 2 - Naples districts development in the second post-war period : in black the town before 1943 and in red until the 90s. 2.3 The environmental approach to the safety: principles of action and methodology The approach to safety shown in this paper is defined “environmental” because it emphasizes the physical aspects and community building, aiming to physical design of spaces and local community involvement as focal elements for the construction of effective safety policies. The principles are the following: a) Local Safety and Prevention of Crime The term "prevention of crime" is often literally interpreted, and this strengthens the belief that crime is only a problem for the police. Instead, the term "local safety" focuses on the concept that crime prevention should be a legitimate matter of the local community, resident citizens and users. b) Equal opportunities for an acceptable quality of life This fundamental idea is a logical extension of the theme on safety, and it holds that, some people are disadvantaged or more harmless than others. For example, in a lot of searches and analysis of victimization it is shown that

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women (together with children particularly) are notably more at risk of the men. Moreover, the residents of the poorest districts are about four times more at risk to become victims of thefts than those living in suburban and richer areas. Therefore a safety policy has to overcome these social gaps and to offer equal opportunities to enjoy an acceptable quality of life. c) Interdisciplinary work It is necessary to overcome the narrow boundary of the specific and professional competences to tackle crime problems and unsafety,. This approach claims that integration and cooperation between a series of professions and agencies that are generally separate services. d) Involvement of the residents and the urban users The citizens that live and work in unsafe areas of contemporary towns represent the essential partners in any strategy of improvement of local safety in urban districts. They know the nature of safety problems related to their own territory better and they are able, to suggest implementation strategies very often, and therefore they should be actors in local safety projects. In this paper we propose a model of urban analysis aiming to tackle safety problems in town districts. The most important indicators have been gathered in three groups: the first one is related to the physical aspects of the place; the second to the social composition and crime report; and, finally, the third one indicates the perception of unsafety in the area. These three macro sections include a lot of informative data (physical elements, crime report, social composition and unsafety perception of residents and users) and, then, through the use of a GIS tool designed for the purpose, they produce thematic maps, where it’s easier to find solutions modifying some spatial characters (illumination, pedestrian areas, the layout of the new street, construction and/or the demolition of buildings, etc.), times of the uses (predisposition of plans of the schedules, etc.), producing new normative, activating policies of sharing the public space such as the cleanness the district, maintenance of the green areas, or education for residents, and so on. Particularly, we have elaborated different indicators making reference to the three fixed groups (urban analysis, analysis of social structure, analysis of unsafety perception), which can be gathered in the following categories: a) analysis of the place: mobility, vitality and uses, morphology and visibility, information and orientation, degrade and maintenance, strategies of target hardening; b) analysis of the social structure: "crime report", social morphologies; c) analysis of the safety perception: analysis from the “bottom”, observation and “participating observation”, interviews, "safety walk."

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Analysis gives the opportunity to proceed to a "diagnosis of the relationships between physical environment and crime/unsafety". Crime or unsafety may be related, for example, to existing land use (vacant buildings do not contribute to the neighbourhood and have been taken over by juvenile gangs; office and commercial uses bring many outsiders through an otherwise "private" neighbourhood, etc.), to specific site or neighbourhood characteristics (fencing, landscaping or inadequate lighting can create many opportunities to hide; parking lots or garages are sited or designed without any opportunities for surveillance from the facilities they serve, making them good locations for theft or assault), to traffic and transit (drug dealers establish themselves at important street intersections , neighbourhood streets create a convenient path for cut-through traffic, etc.), to activity schedules and routines (office buildings in the neighbourhood are occupied only in the morning and afternoon, while in the evenings and weekends they are often vandalized or broken, etc.) After the diagnosis we can proceed is setting suitable strategies and actions to improve the social safety perception and objective rates o f crime in the area. A neighbourhood’s environmental crime prevention plan identifies possible actions in strategies of planning to sustain the liveability, integrated functions especially in public spaces, to guarantee mixité of uses and of building typologies, to avoid isolation and segregation. It also identifies strategies of urban design, for instance, to improve the visibility and the quality of the spaces of the common spaces and of connection, to improve the accessibility with clear entries to t he district, etc.

2.4. Two experiences in Naples: Montecalvario e Ponticelli. The report is presented looking at two aspects: a brief description of

Montecalvario and Ponticelli neighbourhoods and some information about main demographic, economic and social trends in Naples.

The municipality of Naples is divided into 10 administrative districts and 30 large sub-districts. These 30 sub-districts, can be grouped into five areas, which correspond to the historical urban development of the town. The f ive areas are:

1. the centre of the city, where old neighbourhoods within the ancient walls belong (S. Ferdinando, Chiaia, S. Giuseppe, Montecalvario, Avvocata, Stella, Vicaria, S. Lorenzo, Mercato, Pendino, Porto);

2. the neighbourhoods on the hills that developed after the second world war (S. Carlo all'Arena, Vomero, Arenella, Posillipo);

3. the western area, which used to be agricultural or industrial and is now turning into a pole of attraction for the tertiary sector (Bagnoli, Fuorigrotta, Soccavo, Pianura);

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4. the northern area, which is in the most deprived part (Chiaiano, Piscinola, Miano, Secondigliano, Scampia, S.Pietro);

5. the eastern area which used to be industrialised and is also now becoming a deprived area (Ponticelli, Barra, S. Giovanni, Poggioreale, Zona Industriale).

In Naples we do not find the classical centre-periphery model for the distribution of the vulnerable population; what we have instead, even in the very centre of the city, is the close proximity of very poor to very rich sub-districts. In any event, we can clearly recognise affluent sub-districts, like Posillipo, Vomero and Chiaia, and very poor ones, like Montecalvario, Porto, Scampia, Ponticelli, Mercato, Pendino, Stella. In both two experiences, using the indicators defined for the analysis on safety in urban area, we constructed a Gis (geographical information system) to be able to manage the enormous structure of data and for topological comparison of the most meaningful information. The use of Gis for safety analysis has been very common in the last years, although for different purposes: the traditional applications concern above all the use of the police for location of crimes on territory and production of statistics on the picked data. This information is scarcely compared with the other meaningful indicators for the safety of a place as its morphology, the vitality and the distribution of the activities on the inside, neither these data are compared with the results of the investigations on the perception of the ins ecurity. In the proposed model of Gis, we try to prevent such problem, building a system that can pick up and to appraise the interrelations among the three different kinds of investigation (physical place, social structure and perception)

2.4.1 Montecalvario: a social degraded district in the historical centre Montecalvario is a neighbourhood in the historical centre of Naples, and,

therefore, the area is rich of historical buildings of notable merit. Unfortunately, the neighbourhood is known nowadays for the diffused presence of organized crime and for murders.

Today the illegal activities managed by the gangs don't involve only smuggling but above all drug trafficking, money laundering and prostitution. The camorra’s gangs have progressively taken possession of the territory, not only managing the criminal activities, but paying salaries to their affiliates, furnishing loans and food to the poor people of the district. Some gangs have installed a closed circuit of television cameras to check the pedestrians in the areas close to their residence, real bunkers. They have even installed a net of supplementary illumination on the streets to ensure the best visibility possible. .

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Montecalvario represents an important centre for local crime (Camorra) in the heart of the town. Camorra represents both economic po-wer and a social background. On one hand, it has built over the decades an intricate network of semi -legal and illegal activities, making it a profitable local enterprise, but with a reach that stretches around the world. On the other hand, it forges cultural habits and contributes to shape — in a negative way — the social background of Naples' neighbourhoods.

In the 90’s the struggle of the State against the racket has produced some positive results but there is much to do, as well. In the city of Naples today there are 102 criminal gangs engaged a bloody war for the dominion in the drug traffic in recent years. Montecalvario district currently has about 15.000 inhabitants with a diversified social composition: families with a low income and with a modest level of education; families living close to illegal activities and part of them suffering social exclusion or who belong to criminal organizations; families of middle class living inside the district appearing as a silent body; new families of immigrants, slowly integrating in the illegal social structure.

Moreover, a large part of the population, according to the last census, possesses only the elementary school diploma and about a third of it the high school diploma. The rate of unemployment is around 60% and the majority of the families are composed of 4-5 people. About 70% of population declares income close to zero. These data are justified by the presence of a diffused and prevailing illegal economy. The law is seen in fact very often as an obstacle to the only possibility to get an income; this is the reason why we can explain the hostility shown by the citizens to the policemen. Furthermore, in many families one of the parents is in jail or under home arrest and many teenagers have had an experience in jail.

The social reality of the district is therefore very degraded and the young generations are strongly penalized having only examples of illegality and few alternatives to improve their conditions.

The main efforts of the town Council are concentrated on giving the opportunity to the new generations to emancipate by offering different forms of education.

The age structure in Montecalvario is not different from the rest of Naples. Among the eleven largest Italian cities, Naples ranked almost last as regards to the proportion of elderly (over-sixty-fives) in the total population, 15,5% in 2001. The opposite situation was to be found in respect to the proportion of young people in Naples, one of the highest in Italy at 30% compared to Bologna, which had the lowest (8.0%). In Montecalvario the age structure of the population is similar to that of the city.

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The distribution of the family according to size also follows two distinct patterns in Italy. On the one hand we have the cities of the North, like Milan and Bologna, with respectively 2.3 and 2.4 members per family. On the other, there are the southern cities, which all have an average size of above three members per family. Naples has the highest figure (3 % in 2001), also as a result of the fact that 15% in Neapolitan families there are more than five members.

Figure 3 Montecalvario

public space In order to

understand the structure of the labour market in the district, it is worth starting from its weaknesses, which reflect paradigmatically the weaknesses that can be found in the southern regions as a whole. They have high youth unemployment rates and low activity rates. Both these aspects strongly influence the forms taken by social exclusion in the district, although – to complete the picture – we have to add the poor qualifications of young first-time job-seekers. This situation leads to a vicious cycle involving on the one hand lack of work experience and on the other poor qualifications. Both aspects reinforce each other and lengthen the period of time needed to find a job.

From the spatial point of view, unemployment is not distributed equally throughout the city. Some sub-districts, e.g. those in the north-west, like Scampia, Miano e Piscinola where job opportunities have always been rare, are affected more than others. There is a similar situation in the subdistricts hit by deindustrialisation, like San Giovanni where re-qualification projects have not yet been implemented. Other sub-districts where unemployment is concentrated are the central ones of Mercato, Pendino, Stella, Forcella, where the lack of jobs is related to the de-localisation (or disappearance) of manufacturing activities.

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Among young people aged 14-29 the unemployment rate in the district was even higher in contrast with the city.

In Montecalvario, rates of living in council housing are very low, even when compared with rates in the city. More than half of public housing is concentrate d in the outskirts, and particularly in the northern and eastern areas. The number of dwellings built before the second world war in the district is very high compared to the city. These old dwellings are often in very bad condition having received no maintenance. The consequence is that rented buildings are in the worst state of repair and so less expensive. From this it follows that mainly families with low incomes live in them.

In conclusion, the district has recently had a physical renewal inside the Urban Project, funded by UE, essentially concerned a new system of public illumination and recovery of two small plazas as well as the construction of a covered market and a police station. Close to these measures of physical character, the project implem ented some actions aimed at developing education and employment. Unfortunately, the two plazas have been destroyed only after a few years and nothing has been done to improve the particular urban form of the district. In fact, Montecalvario was built in t he XVI century during the Spanish occupation (another name of the district is indeed Quartieri Spagnoli) to give accommodation to Spanish troops. So, the road network is a perfect grid of about 5-6 metres wide.

Figure 4 Montecalvario: example of Gis

analysis During the following centuries, the original troops’ camp turned into concrete buildings of five or six floors.

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In the district there are no parks or little gardens but all the public space is made up of streets. There are, in addition, some churches and cloisters with large private courtyards open to limited groups of people. We applied the environmental methodology to understand the relationship between the particular urban form and the problems related to safety better. 2.4.2 Ponticelli: a gated community for the poor The case of Ponticelli is quite similar to the previous district in social terms while the urban form and architectural typologies are very different. From the social point of view, the neighbourhood is characterized by a strong presence of criminal gangs and many public housing estates, with a large part of the population belonging to lower classes. Some years ago, referring to the study area, numerous newspapers gave it the appellative of “neighbourhood of the clans living on drugs”, following an insurrection of about 300 inhabitants against policemen that had entered in it to arrest some gang bosses. Unfortunately, this is one of the saddest aspects characterizing the life of the district, and it is known by people as a “degraded neighbourhood” or a city-bunker.

Figure 5 – Public housing estates in

Ponticelli

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The district mainly developed since the 50s around the small existing historical centre, with the construction of many popular housing estates, such as the so called Inacasa of the 50s or 167 of the 80s, turning itself into a nightmare where people don't live, but are forced to survive. The reasons of such awful conditions can be found in social decline, in the high rates of scholastic drop outs, unemployment, diffused illegality where the local mafia has easily grown up, but there are specific architectural and functional reasons that contributed to strengthen its character of a “fortress city”. Many studies on the contemporary city acknowledge some “bad” planning models responsible of contributing to the social decline and rising unsafety, creating physical and mental barriers inside the city, reducing free circulation in it. So many districts in metropolitan outskirts are only inhabited by residents, many of whom are forced to live in because they are unable to go elsewhere. The Ponticelli district is not a place where the Neapolitan population likes to go, because of they perceived “fear” crossing its public spaces, a particular landscape with high walls fragmenting residential area and gated ground floors and gardens, consequent strong sense of isolation. When people walk in this neighbourhood, it’s possible to perceive a high sense of disorder derived from the incomplete road network, th e enormous scale of some buildings constructed in the last twenty years, the lack of fundamental facilities. Nowadays, the spirit of Ponticelli, especially in that part grown in the last fifty years, is deeply rooted in a sort of a fortress-environment, where public space is more similar to a network of gates.

Figure 6

Waste public space and vacant

buildings in Ponticelli

We applied the analytical methodology, described above, to get a better understanding the safety problems.

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The analysis of existing conditions, synthetically, shows a scarce vitality due to limited use of spaces, characterized by the exclusive residential destination of ground floors, together with opaque enclosure of adjacent areas reducing the natural control of roads and public spaces. The “fortress city” feature of Ponticelli is not only a consequence of the presence of serious social problems but there’s also a responsibility of urban design that determined the fragmentation of residential spaces in small enclosures, devaluing the relationship among road, public space and buildings. Designing a regeneration project, we propose the challenge in creating and maintaining successful public space, changing this “place of fear” in a vital area, where residences, facilities, squares, playgrounds, etc., can be integrated all together inviting the inhabitants to use public space. It is necessary to design an open built environment, permeable, directly perceivable, with clear visual lines, marked by recognizable places, where i t’s easy to orient themselves, to practice the natural control, where the building design is pleasant, where there is continuity between public and private spaces, and where all of these can produce a “social city.” The safety and an improved urban space are significant factors that contribute to the sustainability of our cities. The safety environmental approach strategies can generate vitality, simple accessibility and mixed use of public spaces, producing a convivial urban environment.

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