DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE
In the 1920s Mestre was absorbed into the Comune di Venezia , losing separate status as a town . But despite the loss of administrative autonomy , Mestre found itself becoming a focus for migrants . During the 1920s and 1930s a big port and industrial complex was developed on the shores of the lagoon at Porto Marghera , aiming to boost the local economy . Mestre , right next door , grew as workers arrived from all over Italy needing somewhere to live . The 1960s and 1970s saw a rapid growth as local Venetians opted to move over the water . Mestre was still administered from Venice , which is perhaps why there seems to have been little planning control over the ugly housing and industrial developments springing up all around town . The population grew to over 200,000 . Nowadays the town has worked at creating more of an identity for itself , but to visitors it is still a brutal residential twin to neighbouring Porto Marghera , the industrial port complex which so horrifies the new arrival in Venice .
Today the population of this mainland conurbation is nearly three times that of island Venice . Basically , Mestre offered - and still offers - the kind of life many Italians want . Here they can live in modern houses or apartments , with space for their children to play . They can drive cars or go cycling . In their thousands they escaped from poky dark flats at threat from high water and rising damp and chose the brave new world of modern Mestre . There were jobs too , working at the busy industrial docks . Nowadays in the daytime the flow is reversed : many of Venice ’ s workers - even her gondoliers - commute in each day from Mestre . If you are at Piazzale Roma in the early morning you ’ ll see them ; lots of full-blooded Venetians pouring off buses into the city of their ancestors , heading along those inconvenient canals to work in hotels , souvenir shops and restaurants : to service the every-expanding tourist industry which has nearly taken over Venice .
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