After the mobilizations of 1968-1969, a new view towards the urban question began to appear in the discourse of the Italian Communist Party (PCI). It was a change of perspective, which signaled a significant evolution in the communist culture during the seventies: the city emerged alongside the factory as the main place for the formation of a political identity, while the idea of building a sense of a civic urban community started to undermine the traditional primacy of class consciousness. This article examines these questions, highlighting some issues and interpretative models that structured the PCI’s discourse on the city in electoral propaganda, political documents and party press during the seventies.