Why Milano is not for me (or Why I am not for Milano)
In much of Milano, the self-proclaimed Fashion Capital of the World, image is everything. If you can afford the Prada bag (or whatever Corso Como 10 is selling), then you're in the club. If you're not in the club, well... you're not in the club.
That's an over-generalization, but in my experience, there are no thrift stores (used clothing? Who would buy used clothing?), few public spaces, few cheap cafes with sitting space, money is class and class is important, etc. The weather is cold and dark in the winter and there are tons of closed-minded people.
The lumbering, crumbling bureaucracy was annoying to deal with in the beginning. Both Anca's and my boss's have complained about it even more than we have. The owner of a business having to show up in person at 7:30am to get a spot in line at the government office to start the application process for a food and beverage license? If you show up after 9, you might not get in by the time they close. Anyway, eventually I decided to just stop dealing with it. I guess that's an advantage of a lumbering bureaucracy... it doesn't really notice the little people, and if there is an irregularity, well, insisting that some other government official told me to do it that way seems to have worked so far.
Note that my complaints are about a culture and systems that I don't understand, so the "fault" for this mis-match lies as much or more with me than with Milano itself; While I could afford to look fashionable if I changed my priorities, anyone who knows me knows that I'm pretty much always near the lower end of "acceptable"-looking. And indeed, the city seems to make many people happy. To that end, even I have found some sub-cultures I really like, and I imagine there are some more.
1. The Critical Mass cyclists are a fantastic bunch - supportive, helpful, and outgoing; bicycle-focused, not image-focused. I wish they met more often than Thursday evenings or that I had more excuses to go to the Ciclofficine.
2. The Cicloficine (other link)- cycle offices - are also full of friendly, accepting, helpful people. With a 5 euros per year membership, you can go there to fix your bike, or build your own bike out of the pieces they have sitting around. The one that I have gone to, Cicloficina Stecca , has enough pieces at the moment to build maybe 100 bikes, most of which found on the streets or, as in the case on one of my visits, tossed over the wall sometime before closing-time and the next re-opening of the cicloficina, such that the gate was difficult to force open. I guess people know it's where old bikes go! I'd like to start something like this in San Diego, if it doesn't already exist. I wonder how/if they make rent...
That's an over-generalization, but in my experience, there are no thrift stores (used clothing? Who would buy used clothing?), few public spaces, few cheap cafes with sitting space, money is class and class is important, etc. The weather is cold and dark in the winter and there are tons of closed-minded people.
The lumbering, crumbling bureaucracy was annoying to deal with in the beginning. Both Anca's and my boss's have complained about it even more than we have. The owner of a business having to show up in person at 7:30am to get a spot in line at the government office to start the application process for a food and beverage license? If you show up after 9, you might not get in by the time they close. Anyway, eventually I decided to just stop dealing with it. I guess that's an advantage of a lumbering bureaucracy... it doesn't really notice the little people, and if there is an irregularity, well, insisting that some other government official told me to do it that way seems to have worked so far.
Note that my complaints are about a culture and systems that I don't understand, so the "fault" for this mis-match lies as much or more with me than with Milano itself; While I could afford to look fashionable if I changed my priorities, anyone who knows me knows that I'm pretty much always near the lower end of "acceptable"-looking. And indeed, the city seems to make many people happy. To that end, even I have found some sub-cultures I really like, and I imagine there are some more.
1. The Critical Mass cyclists are a fantastic bunch - supportive, helpful, and outgoing; bicycle-focused, not image-focused. I wish they met more often than Thursday evenings or that I had more excuses to go to the Ciclofficine.
2. The Cicloficine (other link)- cycle offices - are also full of friendly, accepting, helpful people. With a 5 euros per year membership, you can go there to fix your bike, or build your own bike out of the pieces they have sitting around. The one that I have gone to, Cicloficina Stecca , has enough pieces at the moment to build maybe 100 bikes, most of which found on the streets or, as in the case on one of my visits, tossed over the wall sometime before closing-time and the next re-opening of the cicloficina, such that the gate was difficult to force open. I guess people know it's where old bikes go! I'd like to start something like this in San Diego, if it doesn't already exist. I wonder how/if they make rent...
3. Leon Cavallo provides an interesting counter-point, as a 20-something year old Communist squat that has been served as many eviction notices. They promote local artists, feature really nice, artistic graffiti all over the walls, and there were barbecues there in the summer and shows year round (which I haven't attended). They also have wine-tasting nights and organic ("bio") farmers conventions and food nights. A strange space, but welcoming and refreshing after the streets of downtown.
4. Cantiere is another open space, this one a bit cleaner, nicer, more homey. They hosted an awesome 3-day event called "AHAcktitude" combining political, technological, and artistic activism. I loved another of the mash-up words that came out of this thing: "subvertising." Most days in the summer, seemingly only on Sundays at the moment, they serve dinner in a cool format: relatively cheap, three courses, no choices. You get what they're making, which, when we went, was really good. The people are friendly, though if you're bothered by pot smoke, you might want to avoid the outdoor courtyard.
Even with these sub-cultures that I rather like, I still feel like I'm "dealing with" the city on a daily basis to get to the spaces I like. I'd rather feel like I'm supported or at least encouraged by my city, rather than fighting it every step of the way.
Oh, and on that note, there are basically no bike lanes, let alone bike paths, in the city. When I finally found one that went for more than 100 meters... it ended in a brick wall within another 100. The green lines are cycle paths, the pink lines are streets with bike lanes.
The image above comes from a grassroots user-submitted-content based website, http://www.piste-ciclabili.com/regione-lombardia. Amusing (and typical, in my limited experience) is that the grassroots site *way* outperforms the government site in both content and usability - an embedded Google Map, rather than a jpg image. See the Lombardia page here if you're curious.
Even with these sub-cultures that I rather like, I still feel like I'm "dealing with" the city on a daily basis to get to the spaces I like. I'd rather feel like I'm supported or at least encouraged by my city, rather than fighting it every step of the way.
Oh, and on that note, there are basically no bike lanes, let alone bike paths, in the city. When I finally found one that went for more than 100 meters... it ended in a brick wall within another 100. The green lines are cycle paths, the pink lines are streets with bike lanes.
The image above comes from a grassroots user-submitted-content based website, http://www.piste-ciclabili.com/regione-lombardia. Amusing (and typical, in my limited experience) is that the grassroots site *way* outperforms the government site in both content and usability - an embedded Google Map, rather than a jpg image. See the Lombardia page here if you're curious.
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