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What I know for sure is that Venice proper (that is, what is in the middle of the lagoon) has been hemorrhaging residents for a long time now. Residents strated

by klez 9y ago

What I know for sure is that Venice proper (that is, what is in the middle of the lagoon) has been hemorrhaging residents for a long time now. Residents strated moving to Mestre and Marghera for various reasons (for example because they worked there) but also because Venice is becoming a touristic attraction, not a place people want to live in. Prices for houses are completely insane, and the fact that people are going away feeds back to a lot of shops (I mean shops for residents, not for tourists) closing down. At the moment the isles are home to more or less 55.000 people, while the majority of the population lives in Mestre and Marghera. > Why would this ever be a problem? Because, as I said, there are very few residents in there. Would you still call it a city or is it more Mestre's tourist attraction? My parents moved from Venice to Mestre in the 80s, so I was born in Venice but always lived in Mestre. I'm not sure I resent them for this, in hindsight.

thriftwy 9y ago
I know many places that are more like a tourist attraction. Tallinn or Bruges' historic centres for example. I fail yo see what's wrong with it? The lagoon is full of islands that can offer other lifestyles if anybody wants that.
jvagner 9y ago
When I lived in Europe I visited Venice a few times, and what I learned from various readings is that Venice itself, from a buildings perspective, is less than 50% occupied, and the population is overwhelmingly skewed older. So, there's an economic vitality issue to that... The buildings are empty because if you renovate your building you have to bring it up to contemporary building codes, which is very expensive. So people abandoned the buildings and no one wants to pay to make them habitable by current standards. And so you're left with the tourism conundrum -- things are good enough for the tourism economy but everything behind that is failing. That said, I always enjoyed the beauty, strangeness and pedestrian culture of Venice. It's a lovely place to visit and walk and read.
CydeWeys 9y ago
Venice isn't a practical place to live for many in the modern world though. Transportation is horrendously inefficient, land is expensive and no more is available, and people expect nicer/roomier accommodations than in centuries past. It sounds like the people living in Mestre are making the best rational choice for themselves. There are plenty of other old cities that did not survive with their way of life intact into the modern age; it is what it is. It made more sense as a city unto itself in centuries past, but things change with technological and cultural progress. There is nothing inherently good with things continuing the way they always have; indeed things remaining stagnant is often bad, and the people who have been enabled to move out onto the mainland thanks to modern transportation methods are likely living better lives now than those who could not do so centuries ago.

by klez 9y ago

thriftwy 9y ago

I know many places that are more like a tourist attraction. Tallinn or Bruges' historic centres for example. I fail yo see what's wrong with it? The lagoon is full of islands that can offer other lifestyles if anybody wants that.

jvagner 9y ago

When I lived in Europe I visited Venice a few times, and what I learned from various readings is that Venice itself, from a buildings perspective, is less than 50% occupied, and the population is overwhelmingly skewed older. So, there's an economic vitality issue to that... The buildings are empty because if you renovate your building you have to bring it up to contemporary building codes, which is very expensive. So people abandoned the buildings and no one wants to pay to make them habitable by current standards. And so you're left with the tourism conundrum -- things are good enough for the tourism economy but everything behind that is failing. That said, I always enjoyed the beauty, strangeness and pedestrian culture of Venice. It's a lovely place to visit and walk and read.

CydeWeys 9y ago

Venice isn't a practical place to live for many in the modern world though. Transportation is horrendously inefficient, land is expensive and no more is available, and people expect nicer/roomier accommodations than in centuries past. It sounds like the people living in Mestre are making the best rational choice for themselves. There are plenty of other old cities that did not survive with their way of life intact into the modern age; it is what it is. It made more sense as a city unto itself in centuries past, but things change with technological and cultural progress. There is nothing inherently good with things continuing the way they always have; indeed things remaining stagnant is often bad, and the people who have been enabled to move out onto the mainland thanks to modern transportation methods are likely living better lives now than those who could not do so centuries ago.