By: Rodrigo A. Sepúlveda Schulz

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:33:09 +0000

less then 53,000 inhabitants in yesterday’s paper. Indeed, even venetians is saying the city is dying. Nothing to do there. I got however a different impression: firstly, it is a REAL city if you go out of the main Ferrovia / Rialto / Piaza San Marco main streets: cafés, supermarkets, offices, houses, etc. Secondly, there’s tons of opportunity to set up businesses there, unrelated to tourism (ie. hotels / cafés / bars) such as manual crafts (book bindings for example), art, architecture, culture, language schools, etc. 20m tourists is indeed an opportunity to sell anything to them if made in great quality (location, location, location…) and the tourism infrastructure is pretty good (lodging and transport). Venetians maybe reflect too much in the past, and need to dream of a great future with their assets.

By: jebuff

jebuff — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 09:55:10 +0000

One point related to your evocative description of Venice: it usually goes unsaid, but the “decline”, the air of an old city, crumbling nobility, the ghosts in shaded passageways, is absolutely part of the attraction. Parts of Marseilles have the same appeal. There’s a tourist segment of weird, artsy, imaginative folks (count me among them) that is charmed and stimulated by the authentic decadence and romance of all this. I’m not suggesting that this can be artificially created, nor preserved, but as a city finds itself in such a point in the cycle, it could be exploited.
Venice of course has the Damocles sword of sinking into the lagoon, making the image of decline too close to real permanent destruction.
Housing laws and rents will adjust (with an Italian lag) to market demand, but Venice is not going to become “family-friendly” anytime soon. It’s worth considering that Venice may no longer have any possibility of becoming a ‘normal’ city. Demographics, the un-salvageable physical infrastructure, rising waters, etc.; the world is full of city ruins, most got that way for perfectly rational reasons.
If I were the Doge, leading the Signoria, I’d forget pretense and turn the entire city into a by-invitation only international artists ghetto. Limit tourism with a selective visa program, sell tours of watching creativity at work in the artists’ ateliers & film-makers’ studios.

Comments on: If Decline Had a Window Display

By: Rodrigo A. Sepúlveda Schulz

By: jebuff