Neighborhood Proximity and Civic Hold in Metropolitan Rome: Public-Space Retention Across Urban Morphologies

Abstract

The closeness of a neighborhood may be measured by the quantity of services present within easy reach by foot, even though services close at hand do not create a thriving public domain. In metropolitan Rome, such differences may be observed in the public realm outside the periphery, wherein services may be found close by, including schools, stations, shops, pharmacies, cafes, and green space, while the ordinary use of the site remains minimal. The current study measures this phenomenon using Civic Hold, a four-variable approach to retaining public space. The metric integrates walking orientation, routine use, dwelling probability, and perceived centrality, and has been used to analyze a representative Roman sample of urban fabric including historical compactness, consolidated twentieth-century development, linear planning form, irregular residential planning, and isolated low density. The principal contrast is drawn between Largo Niccolo Cannella in Spinaceto and Piazza Erasmo Piaggio in Villaggio Breda, both sites containing six categories of services within proximity, while district density ratios remain very close. The Civic Hold for Piazza E. Piaggio is found to be 77.50, while that of Largo N. Cannella is 32.75, despite a density differential of just 2.91%. The ratio of their Civic Hold results is 2.37. It is clear that neighborhood proximity is only socialized through connectivity between services through legible paths, appealing edges, regular use, and localized importance.