Roman Revival?

Rome, the Eternal City, is in temporal trouble. It has a housing shortage of 100,000 units and a construction industry idled by a severe recession. As if determined to make matters worse, the city government has launched a massive campaign to demolish or take over new homes on the outskirts of town. Reason: the projects were erected illegally.

Under Roman law, all buildings must receive municipal permits before construction begins. The idea is not only to ensure that the structures are sound but also to require builders to follow Rome's 1965 master plan, which specifies where and how the city should grow. Instead of the planners' vision of broad boulevards in town and garden communities on the outskirts, the illegal building has spawned a chaotic jumble of drab office and apartment towers on narrow, treeless streets. By one estimate, 300,000 people--the equivalent of the population of Wichita,Kans.--now live or work in buildings erected without construction permits.

Most of the mess is on the urban fringes, where land was cheap and speculators bought marginal farm land for a few lire per square yard, then subdivided and sold for profits of 500%. Many of the builders who bought the land dutifully filed for construction permits. But after months, even years, of waiting in vain for the creaky bureaucracy to move, most went ahead without permits and broke ground, confident that bustarelle --little envelopes stuffed with lira notes --would forestall any action by the city. Even when more conscientious officials discovered the wrongdoing, nothing happened. Over the past four years, Rome's Mayor Clelio Darida signed 8,000 orders for the demolition of illegal buildings. But when the time came to deprive residents of their homes (or, alternatively, to sue the builders for fines equal to the total value of their projects), the city lost its will. The illegal building continued.

Orderly Growth. In February, the limit to Rome's patience was apparently reached. Goaded by Italia Nostra, a national conservation organization, a court ordered utility companies not to supply new building sites with water, electricity or gas unless the contractor produced a legal construction permit. In March, the city obtained a court order and sent demolition crews to raze a complex of five nearly completed apartment and office towers. Another judge then ordered that the demolition be halted. Wrecking crews sent to destroy two other sprawling projects fought pitched battles with angry residents before retreating in confusion. At week's end the wreckers' jackhammers were stilled, builders and residents were standing their ground, and no one was certain when--or if--Rome could begin moving toward orderly growth.

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