Living Venice

Jun 6, 2008 about venice

This is an initiative from the innovative, energetic think tank 40xVenezia (40 for Venice), a group of local 30-, 40-, 50-somethings and others who “believe in the enormous potential of Venice and of its international prestige,” and who want to harness its “artistic and cultural heritage, along with sustainable tourism, and revive the challenge of developing a true, metropolitan city.”

Sign the petition.

(see more notes at end of post)

The English version of the 40xvenezia site recounts:

Statistics gathered by Venice town council show that the demands of an omnivorous tourist market have already deprived the city of over a 1000 domestic dwellings, which have been converted into hotels and bed& breakfasts. But the worse is yet to come.

The mortal blow which could transform Venice into little more than one giant hotel is a new law entitled, “The New Regional Discipline for Tourism.” The proposal, under discussion now by the Veneto regional council, contains three new clauses which spell disaster for the city.

The proposed laws state, among other things:

Article 131 invents an entirely new type of lodging, the “Venice dwelling house” that requires solely [i.e., cheesy, imitation] “furniture in a traditional or period style,” which will free any limits on the opening of new “super B&Bs” of 18 rooms or less. The result: the creation of an unlimited number of un-regulatable boarding houses, and the conversion of currently illegal hotels into legal ones. (The bottom line: not anywhere anyone would ever choose to stay in Venice.)

Article 132 instead permits any hotel to open their own annex, in any sort of building in the same sestiere: any apartment, any building, house, condominium can become a hotel annex (no matter what the distance from the original complex).

Article 46, subsection 3, repeats the grave error of considering all B&Bs as residences, whether anyone actually lives there or not. This was the same error made in the regional norm of 2002 that has caused, in the last five years, an astounding increase and transformation of a substantial part of the city from residential to hospitality, without any possibility of intervention by the municipal administration in charge of assuring the transformation of homes only if the commercial lodging is classified as a hotel.

These articles, if approved, will bring the city to a state of collapse, damaging even further the possibility for local residents to live in their own city, should they not choose to participate in these drastic, short-sighted reforms.

If you feel called to do so, please sign the petition and even as a past, frequent, or potential visitor, make your voice heard. Forward it to anyone you think might also be interested. Part of what makes Venice Venice is its own inhabitants struggling to keep the city vital; people who have grown up with it as their home and who wish to sustain it as city for residents…along side, not instead of, one that caters to its visitors.

Carissimi Visitatori,

Venice will always welcome you, and will always provide gracious lodging for your stay…never worry about that.

Consider signing this petition, however, to ensure that there will be space here where the residents that receive you may make there home while helping to keep Venice a vital, multifaceted city you’ll enjoy returning to again and again.

Sign the petition.

 

NOTES on signing:

• The form states that neither your e-mail or cell phone number will be divulged to anyone in any way.
• Required fields are “Nome,” name, “Cognome,” last name, and CAP, or zip/postal code.
• Cell phone number, and checking the “Residente in terraferma” option to indicate you don’t live in Venice are both optional.
• Feel free to add a comment in English.
• You must check the last two boxes to submit your signature. These paragraphs (or some version of them) are pretty standard when signing Italian things online.
  • The first says that you have read the above, that you are not a minor, and that they can use your information provided for internal use and for whatever it takes to effectuate the signing of the petition. They will NOT be passing it around, however.
  • The second says this is your opinion (not that of firmiamo.it) and that you assume all responsibility for it.