The association met Francesca Zaccariotto, mayoral candidate for Venice city council

A meeting between the Associazione Piazza San Marco and the mayoral candidate for the next administrative elections in Venice Francesca Zaccariotto (photographed with President Nardi) took place in an upstairs room at the historic Caffè Quadri in St Mark’s Square. The twenty-odd people present paid close attention to the points highlighted by the president of the association, Alberto Nardi, concerning fairly well known questions that have often been followed up by specific articles on this website: control of tourism and the problems related to ‘mass tourism’, the legality and invasion of unlicensed hawkers in the St Mark’s area, the problems of the high tides and the fact that most of the St Mark’s area will end up under water even with the Mose in operation, use of the square mainly for big events like Carnival and cooperation between the Venice city council and the association. The candidate Zaccariotto responded in a very detailed and articulate way, speaking of the need to introduce a ‘city pass’ and tourist packages to limit ‘eat and run’ tourism, to turn Venice into a city with a special statute so it can finance itself and not rely on the central state, to counter the decline in all ways, also reviewing local police regulations to ensure zero tolerance for illegality, to strictly fight illegal trade to obtain the same good results as have been achieved in Padua and to streamline staff in the city council by allowing at least 10% of them early retirement. Zaccariotto asserted her personal professionalism as administrator (ten years as mayor of San Donà di Piave and five as president of the provincial administration) compared to the other candidates. There were various questions from the public, mainly on the subject of the city pass and the fight against illegal traders. The association will shortly also meet the other mayoral candidates.