#89 A troubled year, an uncertain future

• The year that will end in a few months has been one of the most troubled and difficult for Venice since a long time.
The controversy on large cruise ships and the water traffic in the city, after the fatal accident last year in the Grand Canal, combined with the difficulty of the budget of the city administration (with service cuts that have reverberated especially on weaker citizens) had already inflamed at a very high level the mood of public debate.
In the background, the ever-burning discussion on the sustainability of the growing volume of tourism, with its heavy impact on the city's fragile balance.

As if all that were not already enough, then came the storm of the bribery scandal related to the construction of the M.O.S.E. dam system, with the resignation of the mayor and the arrest of influential national politicians.
Perhaps as a consequence of this fall of reputation, the behavior of some tourists seemed to get worse over an acceptable limit.
For all of these, and many others, reasons the city seems to have arrived at a turning point, where important and painful decisions cannot be delayed any longer.
A time when venetians will have to demonstrate that they are still up to their illustrious ancestors.

Will they be?