Cities are exemplary of constant worldly change. This paper offers a critical analysis of the relationship between urban governance and culture. It first treats urban governance as a social relationship, tying together two important concepts: governance and culture. It then addresses the dialectic between urban governance and culture through the lens of the art of care, requiring seeing the detail of a city as reflections of the particular character of a person. The paper goes on to dissect the relationship between soul and the change in cities, particularly focusing on the globalizing forces of gentrification. Qualitative interviews were conducted with local Venetians regarding their attitudes and feelings about Venice being transformed into a global tourist city, driving out local residents and fundamentally altering its social environment. It concludes that cities are often viewed as maintaining itself thought adaptation, exhibiting not only theatrical change but also dramatic ways of learning modernity and the phenomenon of self-governance.