In the early 2000s, environmental activist group NoMOSE made headlines for protesting against the construction of mobile flood barriers—known as MOSE—in Venice, Italy. This citizen-assembly criticized the Italian state for overriding local opinion in favor of maladaptive state planning. To NoMOSE, the project represented an irreversible degradation of the coastal zone. Decades later, the same criticisms still resonate in debates on the future of the Venice Lagoon.