Regolazione, proprietà, investimenti: la dimensione pubblica nei grandi progetti di trasformazione urbana nel caso genovese

Large urban transformation operations are an interesting observatory for understanding the role played by public and private actors in the urban economy. In the case of Genoa, characterized by a certain static nature of the real estate market, it can be observed that the large urban project has become, in recent years, the real driving force of the more general transformation of the city, which is reorganizing itself around the strategic coastline, on the border between the port area and the city. The progressive westward shift of the urban center of gravity and the spatial concentration of major urban redevelopment and regeneration interventions is supported by the need to make the city competitive with respect to national and international markets. In these new conditions, the public entity plays a decisive role, especially in the (very frequent) cases in which it is already the landowner. If large-scale urban transformation interventions therefore constitute the main engine of urban development and, in fact, the public administration is at the center of operations, it is necessary to evaluate the results of this approach at a general level of urban policy, considering the risks associated with polarization of activities and values and returns in terms of endowment and redevelopment of public spaces and services for the city.