Is Rome Really Italy’s Detroit?

A short walk away from Rome’s idyllic old town, with its world-famous monuments and high-end boutiques, Rome’s working class and middle class neighborhoods paint a very different picture of the city. The Eur district, a white marble extravaganza proudly built by Mussolini during the Fascist era, sits grizzled and desolate. San Lorenzo, once a working class neighborhood emblematic of Rome’s bright future, is now a case study for declining metropolises, rife with violence and crime. Some have even championed that, away from the charms of the Vatican and the Trevi Fountain, Rome is starting to look like another city far past its prime: Detroit.

As Detroit did in March 2013, Rome recently teetered on the verge of fiscal collapse. The rejection of a federal bailout that would have helped the city pay its dues this fiscal cycle garnered international attention, after anti-establishment parties refused the measure, citing unjust use of federal funds to resolve local overspending. It was common knowledge in Italy that Rome was on the verge of default, but the new possibility that the central government would not apply emergency measures deeply shook Rome’s establishment. In peak moments of the crisis, Rome’s mayor Ignazio Marino even threatened to have to bring Rome to a standstill, insisting that diversion of funds would halt essential city services like traffic assistance and public transportation.

"In its own category, Rome’s situation can be seen as equally dire as the one that put Detroit’s fiscal woes up to international scrutiny."

At the peak of the crisis in late February, radio stations, blogs and newspapers across the country began mentioning an unlikely sister city for Rome: Detroit. There was a fear that, like the Motor City, Rome would default on its debts, putting the fate of the city’s public works at the hands of bankruptcy lawyers and city government-investor tug of wars. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi eventually struck a deal that would keep the city running, albeit under the condition that the city government would commit to drastic reforms to rein in spending. Comparisons to Detroit may have been far-fetched, as Italy clearly wouldn’t allow its capital to go bankrupt, but in its own category, Rome’s situation can be seen as equally dire as the one that put Detroit’s...