The long agony of Venice

The city on the lagoon is emptying A slow and inexorable agony. The city loses another thousand residents. An average of three people leave a day.

Venice is emptying of inhabitants.T he numbers do not reflect anymore, they make people worry. Venice is experiencing a bad situation. Many Venetians leave the city and many Venetians "sell" their houses to tourists. The B & Bs bloom every day, the black market multiplies. Many hotels buy nearby houses and turn them into one "dependance".

© Roberto Catullo

Evictions have increased. Seniors on the road after decades rent. Hundreds of public housing closed, or transformed into 'social housing', but have too high prices for people with low to medium income. Furthermore, shops that close and are transformed into bazaars. They open only bars and restaurants, and double the nightlife. The large ships  rape the lagoon. It is the agony of an important city, of Venice.

 Even this year Venice loses at least another thousand inhabitants. The statistics speak of 1,002 "lost" in 2017, 3 inhabitants a day.

The fumes of the industries of Marghera that pollute the city every day, and an image of the daily "traffic" in the San Marco basin where the "big ships" will transit.  © Roberto Catullo 

The mayor of the city, Luigi Brugnaro, says that the inhabitants of Venice are diminishing because there are more deaths than new births. But it is not true according to the charts and data processed by the venetian researcher Margherita Belgioioso, lecturer in International Relations and Security at Brunel University in London.

See the background? The image comments on its own. © Roberto Catullo

"If we analyze the difference between births and deaths in Venice islands from 2006 to 2017", she explains, "we see that its curve is fairly constant, with a decrease in residents between 500 and 600 per year, with limited oscillations, albeit always more negative. But if the demographic balance is constant, the migratory one presents instead greater fluctuations and has a not indifferent weight on the exodus. Almost 400 of the approximately 1,000 residents lost from Venice in 2017, are due precisely to the negative migration balance. The migration balance is particularly important because it is also, the "spy" of the city's poor governance. Today, the Venetians who live in the historic center of the city are 53.275.

The mayor of the city, Luigi Brugnaro, says that the inhabitants of Venice are diminishing because there are more deaths than new births. But it is not true.  
© Roberto Catullo

 

Roberto Catullo, Venetian is a great "chronicler" who immortalizes his city with his photos.

Catullo prefers the Venice of dawn and sunset. He tells the story of the "Serenissima", the beautiful city on the lagoon.