Another growing problem for Venice today
is the loss of population from the city core. Of
some 340,000 residents, fewer than 100,000 still
live in the historic center. Faced with poor social
amenities and old, decaying, often damp buildings
with rent inflated by the costs of renovation,
demands of the tourist industry, and wealthy foreign
residents, Venetians have elected in ever-
increasing numbers to move into modern
apartments in the mainland boroughs of Mestre and
Marghera or on the Lido. This exodus has
produced a daily commuting problem and left the
city of Venice with a smaller resident population than many of its formerly subject towns. It threatens to turn Venice into merely a museum city—a glorious spectacle whose architectural and artistic heritage is preserved, as it should be, but whose daily life is almost a parody of the vital unity of commerce, piety, politics, and ritual.