I hate to be one of those complaining bloggers – especially about Rome. It’s getting such a bad reputation these days among visitors, with its seemingly ubiquitous graffiti on every street corner, pickpockets, etc. But I am often reminded of the first time I drove into New York City after dark during the early ‘90s, over the Third Avenue Bridge and towards the FDR Drive; I (or rather my car) was immediately swarmed by squeegee men. I stepped on the gas and flew through the light to escape, but was nevertheless shaken. And yet in New York this kind of thing is all part of the fun, part of the New York Experience. After several years in Rome, I still can’t shake the strangeness of getting squeegeed in this timeless city, of homelessness and crime in the cradle of Western civilization. And it seems to be getting worse. At each traffic light there are at least one or two people squeegeeing, selling tissues or just begging. How can they stand the competition? (Especially with the guy at Circonvallazione Gianicolense and Piazza Dunant, who definitely wins the prize for “hottest squeegee man in Rome”, for whatever that’s worth).

Another reason Rome has been reminding me of New York is that its citizenry has recently elected a new mayor, Gianni Alemanno, on his promise to ‘clean up the city’. Like in New York, Alemanno is derided by many people afraid in the process of ‘cleaning’, his administration will violate the rights of disadvantaged people. One starts to get déjà vu here. But unlike during Giuliani Time, there really hasn’t been much change at all since the election. Sure we have seen some Roma camps torched and others evacuated, but the camps just move further underground – literally – under bridges and overpasses where conditions are even worse and their populations further marginalized. The scores of immigrant men who used to congregate  around Ostiense Station each evening for the Red Cross food van have been cleared. Where are they eating now?

Many Romans will simply blame the recent wave of immigration for the city’s problems, but immigration is a phenomenon all across Europe – how come Vienna doesn’t look like this? How come Bologna doesn’t? This time, the very Italian reaction of casting blame does not seem to be working. Besides, Italy isn’t making any moves to control immigration and wouldn’t want to – developing countries are supplying the country with much-needed labor that Italians simply don’t want to do. Until the politicians actually get their act together and stop flinging mud, the situation here will probably not improve, and Rome’s reputation as a “shithole” (as one blogger recently put it) will only grow. 

If we have to look for a silver lining, Rome’s shittiness a good way of keeping tourism from getting out of control. Certainly I’ve heard many visitors express how deeply offended they were upon seeing swastikas spray-painted nearly everywhere. In New York, that would be a serious offense – a hate crime if the person was caught. But what, I suppose can you expect in a place selling 2009 Mussolini day planners at every news stand but failing miserably to control even the most obvious crimes? Surely the ancient Roman’s could do better than today’s corrupt and ineffective government. But despite all the filth, crime and fascism, there is still something about this place that makes people fall in love. Perhaps not unlike New York in its more seedy days, there is a certain Wild West quality about it, a sense of freedom in all the anarchy.