Venice Lido
 

Interesting article:



http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/0f13a40a-7...44feabdc0.html

Well, I thought it was interesting!

I thought it was interesting too. Most tourists in Venice these days aren't there for the sun and sand, hence the Lido's decline. It was looking fairly sad in May apart from the amazing Liberty style Ausonia.

Interesting, yes, but shocking. Those developers must be complete nutcases, sorry. 4-5000 Euros per square meter, that's what real estate in the very best areas of Venice center used to cost a few years ago (8 to 10 million Lire, at the time), and everybody was already shocked at those outrageous prices. Now, the same prices are being paid for "the humblest homes on the Lido"? And the developers really want to increase housing prices, even further?? Well, that's the best way to kill Venice as a living town (as opposed to an open-air museum). Not acqua alta, of course. Not the lack of work (there is none such lack, people are even commuting into Venice for work). Not the impracticabilities of living without a car, all that water bottle shlepping. Not at all. Venetians are proud of their city, and of their way of life. If and when they are driven out of their town, it's because they can no longer afford the housing prices. The Lido, ugly as it mostly is, has become kind of a refuge for Venetians who cannot afford to live downtown any longer, but don't want to leave altogether. It's not Venice (there are cars, of course, and all that average-and-below architecture), but it's not the mainland either. It's semi-Venice, so to speak. If they want to revamp the Lido and explicitly aim at increasing housing prices, they will drive people out from there, too. Which would be a major desaster. Or, if the project fails, they would waste money that could be used for the better in and around Venice. Which would be a desaster, as well. Or, third possibility, investors might think it's going to work, prices increase, people leave, and in the long run, the whole sparkling luxury investment story falters, simply because the Lido is not the place for it - it's too ugly. Then this would be the ultimate desaster: money gone, people gone... and the task of rebuilding the Lido remains with the (in Italy) notoriously cash-strapped public sector.
Did I mention what I'm thinking of developers? (No, I didn't. They don't tolerate swear words recently on Fodor's.)

I think it looks like the typical "If an area is run down, then demolish it and improve it" way of dealing with the problem.

In other words, rip the heart out of a place, re-build and hope that different, wealthy, people will buy up the property.

At about a million dollars for a modest dwelling, it all looks very costly. Particularly with the problems that confront the Italian, and other European economies.