The transformation of Via Toce and other Milanese “tactical squares” triggers a revolt among residents: parking spaces eliminated, night-time noise, degraded furnishings and zero confrontation. Doubts are growing about costs, method and management of the project.
When at the end of August the inhabitants of via Toceat the far end of the Isola district of Milan, they returned from holidays and found the road closedthe mounted racks e 25 parking spaces gonethey thought it was a mistake. Nobody had said anything: not a sign, not an email, not a neighborhood meeting. The street, from a normal passageway, had suddenly become a “tactical square”. “We found everything done,” says Alessandra Poltronieri, spokesperson for a group of residents. «The barriers, the drawings on the asphalt, the benches, the picnic and ping-pong tables, the pots with plants. We had not received any warning. It was a decision made from above, as if we didn’t exist.” It was 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, when the first temporary furnishings appeared. Then, in 2023, that “provisional square” became permanent.
No communication, growing tension
«No official communication“, continues. «We noticed the change when we saw the bulldozers. They canceled 25 parking spaces and closed a road connecting to Via Carlo Farini, and since then the tactical square, in addition to normal daytime use by children, parents and grandparents, has become a nighttime meeting point. With noises, shouts, shouts, broken bottles, every evening dozens of people stay until late at night. I called the local police several times, but no one intervened.”
The new secret pedestrianization
The bitterest surprise came at the end of last summer, when residents discovered that the Municipality of Beppe Sala was planning a second pedestrianization. A technician from Mm Spa informs Poltronieri of the next construction site. «I asked the president of our Municipality 9 for explanations… The councilor replied to me via email…: “Yes, it’s true, the project will be done and we are sure that you will like it”».
But «How can we be sure that we will appreciate it if no one has ever asked us for an opinion?».
The protest explodes
At that point the protest exploded. «For us now the word “redevelopment” has become synonymous with problem. It’s used to justify everything.” Poltronieri finds the project online: the council of Municipality 9 had given a favorable opinion in resolution no. 85 of 23 May 2024. “Everything was kept secret… residents and councilors only found out in October 2025. A low blow.”
Dry flowerbeds, degraded furnishings: the failure of tactical squares
A part of the population objects that this type of square only serves to make an image: abandoned flowerbeds, neglected furnishings, dirt. Via Toce is only the latest chapter in a long series of failed urban experiments.
“Low” costs only on paper
Despite the rhetoric of “low-cost” interventions, a tactical square can be worthwhile 15-60 thousand eurosnot to mention planning, inaugurations, maintenance. The definitive redevelopments arrive at million euros in cumulative resolutions that make it difficult to understand the real spending.
An identical model everywhere
From Piazza Bettini to Corvetto, from Spoleto-Venini to Pacini, from Lavater to Bruzzano: same formula, same problems. Vandalism, camps, noise, decline in customerstraffic protests.
The failure perceived in the neighborhoods
Gathered in Piazza Bettini 2 thousand signatures against closure. At Corvetto, malamovida and decay. In Pacini, worn furnishings and traders in difficulty. In NoLo, nocturnal gatherings of hundreds of young people.
Similar situation in Lavater square.
Technical and social critical issues
Even those who were in favor of the project today admit mistakes. «The reasoning of urban furniture… an identical model was applied everywhere.”
At night, Salamon says, the squares become after hours: «It’s a social phenomenon… but you can’t pretend that it doesn’t happen».
Cameras, security and realism
«The squares cannot be free zones. Control, lighting and video surveillance are needed. No one commits crime under a turned-on camera.”
And he adds: «In Milan we have arrived at the paradox of ping-pong: every square must have at least two, even if no one uses them.”
The synthesis of the urban misunderstanding
The story of via Toce is the perfect example: two gardens closed at night on the sides, an open square 24 hours a day in the middle. «It’s not urban planning, it is improvisation».
The distance between narrative and reality
The Sala council defends the project as a “model of participation and innovation”.
But in the neighborhoods the reality is different: paint in renderings, degradation in reality.
