European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 28, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Commercial boat traffic on the grand canal has damaged surrounding structures and clogged up the main thoroughfare through Venice. Protests Haven to buried plans for Venice subway by Alan Cowell the new York times a subway in Venice the grand canal without a Bustle of boats Ugo Bergamo has seen the future and he likes it. Not everybody agrees. Quot i Hope for a living City not a museum City said Bergamo mayor of the italian City Quot a City that is not a victim of tourism but lives with tourism and a City that will be admired not Only for its Art and architecture but for its  his proposals for achieving his goal though including a subway line and a reduction of traffic on the grand canal May take some explaining to the City s Many fans around the world. They complain he said Quot every time you Knock a Nail into a  for decades this most beauteous of italian cities steeped in glory and encircled by a Lagoon has conducted its own vain and introspective debate on a theme that consumes Many places where people with old treasures find modernity both enticing and threatening How to preserve the essence without falling by history s Way. While the talk has continued Venice s resident population has fallen by around a half to 70,000, prompting some to say the City is dying. For every birth there Are three deaths a Quarter of the population is Over 65 years of age. And mostly the debate has gotten nowhere. Quot Twenty five years ago there was a problem with High tides Quot said Giorgio Pov Oledo who runs a restaurant on the grand canal. Quot and there s still a problem with High  he ran through a few other problems and noted that none had been solved either. Quot so now they re going to build a subway Quot he said Quot and 30 years from now people will be saying there s still a problem about that  not if Bergamo has his Way. The mayor has Laid before the 60-member City Council a blueprint for a rapid transit line linking Mestre the commercial heart of his municipality on the Mainland to Venice itself and on to the beaches of the Lido which guards the three entrances to the Lagoon. Environmentalists oppose the idea. So do some venetians. But Bergamo seems determined even when the state railway system told him Point Blank this last week that it would not allow him to use its tracks to get the mass transit line from Mestre to the Island. Dealt this possibly terminal blow to his plan Bergamo declared that he would not renounce the idea and would seek International support for it. In his office overlooking the grand canal the mayor Laid out a plan showing the line running from Mestre to Venice above ground then dipping below the Bottom of the Lagoon around its Northern Shore before heading out to the Lido. Quot it will not touch the Shore or the foundations or the palaces Quot he said. Quot the exits would be on floating  Quot in terms of environmental Impact there la be very Little Quot he said. Despite the state railway s rejection and the subsequent absence of Money from the Rome government the City Council plans to enlist International experts to ensure that the plan does not upset the delicate balance of environment and development that have for centuries kept this place from sinking Quot like a seaweed into whence she Rose Quot As lord Byron one of the City s More celebrated residents put it. Bergamo said the mass transit rail line would be Quot a function of the residents More than the tourists and regarding tourists it s a Way to control the influx because it s like a tap which can be closed or  he said the $1 billion project would shift the City s focus away from the Central Piazza san Marco and the grand canal to areas Quot which Are practically dead today Quot while providing venetians particularly Young venetians who have been leaving in droves in quest of lower rents and jobs outside tourism with rapid and easy Access to jobs on the Mainland. Quot in the last few years Quot the mayor said Quot All the Public and private offices have transferred to the Mainland because of the difficulties of  the rail line would reverse the trend lie said while the closing of the grand canal to All but about one third of its present traffic would help preserve the palaces from wave damage. The rail line is not the Only item on the mayor s Agenda. He said he had already obtained government financing for projects that included a systematic dredging of the estimated 500,000 cubic Yards of mud clogging Venice s myriad canals anti pollution measures in a Lagoon fringed by the billowing smokestacks of petrochemical and other industries and possibly most ambitious of All a series of tidal barriers at the Lagoon s entrances formed by Gates that would lie Flat on the Bottom during Normal tides but could be pumped full of air and raised when High tides threatened the City. But the rail line is the most controversial. Quot this is a historic Choice for the City Quot Bergamo said. Some think that it s also wrong. Quot there s a kind of psychological rejection before anything else Quot said Giuseppe Rosa Salva Secretary of the Venice Branch of italia Nostra a National environmental Protection group evoking the sense that Venice would just not be the same place. Quot we Are Only 70,000 people after All. We Don t need  6 stripes Magazine May 28, 1992