[Ed. Note: I encourage all readers of this site to answer this call to action. This is a major issue and we must speak out too. Let’s add all our names to this letter. Send your name to cflv2016@gmail.com with the heading No Entry Fee to add your voice to this appeal. Share it with anyone you know who cares about Venice. Thank you.]
Appeal for a Public Assembly About the Proposed Entrance Fee to Venice
We are worried. We keep hearing in the news about the imminent approval of the so-called “contributo d’accesso” (entry fee). The risk we all run is that this momentous decision for the future of the city will soon be made, perhaps online, by a city administration that has not implemented any process whatsoever to consult the citizens, going no further than a meeting with a few economic categories.
As citizens of Venice and members of the fabric of associations that daily animate a city where living keeps being made more difficult, we want to express our deep concerns about a measure that risks serious consequences for the life of our community. Soon we may be required to have to demonstrate to a contractor or private business that we have permission to circulate in our city by exhibiting a residency certificate. We may have to pass through a gate with a QR code in order to return home in the evening. In short, we may soon find ourselves living in a museum, where entry requires a ticket, and no longer in a city.
We all know how difficult daily life in Venice is, as well how pressing the problem of overtourism is – we have been hostage to it for years. However, we fear that the solution that is being proposed will only aggravate these problems, definitively sanctioning the idea that Venice is no more than a tourist destination in which a few last Venetians still happen to live.
For this reason we want to invite all who share our concerns, all the associations, individuals, parties, representatives in the City Council and Municipality, and citizens to discuss this issue together, so that the place where we live is not definitively transformed into a theme park that requires a reservation.
The date is set in the heart of the city, under the loggia of the Pescheria di Rialto, a location that has hosted the citizens many times in recent years, Wednesday 21 September at 18:00 CST.
It used to be said that “The air of the city makes you free”. We would like it to stay that way.
Andrea Barina | Aline Cendon | Giovanni Leone | Franco Migliorini | Francesco Penzo | Tiziana Plebani | Giacomo-Maria Salerno | Maria Teresa Sega
Campaign For A Living Venice 