Is there a problem with Athens?
No conference of a foreign magazine and no international art event can warn us about the following very simple thing: that our life in Athens has become better in the last 3 or the last 5 years. And when we return to a reality that resembles a knowledge before the pandemic, the basic parameters of everyday life in the capital seem stuck in a common denominator very low.
Traffic burden is in itself a difficult variable. The Prime Minister showed that he recognizes the new reality, announcing that from now on Irodou Attikou Street will remain open for cars. It is clear that many drivers get their car to decide on the subway. So, until I erase the health crisis and do not believe again in public transport, more measures will be needed, such as the one issued by Kyriakos Mitsotakis. For example, the two traffic lanes on Vasilissis Olgas Avenue could be reopened, giving a breath of fresh air to the almost permanently congested Arditto Avenue.
But the most discouraging is the “big picture”. Despite the aggressive cleaning policy of the municipality, it seems that this is not at all enough to make a difference with what we knew from the years of crisis. Stadiou Street continues to be a monument of settlement and urban dystopia, at the University of the world it walks just as far as Attica, the Academy is as if it does not exist on the Map. I learn that the Biennale will take place in Justice Square, opposite Rex, another artistic attempt to recover a funeral zone in the city center, as happened two years ago in buildings at the Stadium… Meanwhile, the deserted Benaki Library, which belongs in the Greek Parliament, it has been girded with scaffolding for at least 15 years (!). Not to mention “Attikon” and “Apollo”… And the prolonged installation of the view spreads around like a disease. I want to say: what to do with the “10 new news in the Stadium” when there is no human circulation?
The result is that Athenians and tourists gather in a few blocks from Syntagma to Monastiraki and Plaka, in a super-touristed area that is supposed to emit “life”; it depends on what reasons you are addressing and which cities to be tempted. The center of Athens continues to be a painful story. And those of us who love it should not pretend that we do not see it.