LETTER FROM ATHENS

"Look! Getting around Athens by foot is like an obstacle course!" raged Ioanna Dimitringiou, pointing out the cars parked astride the sidewalk in the alternative neighborhood of Exarchia, in the center of the Greek capital. With a cart full of groceries, the 50-something had to zigzag her way along a street with incoming traffic. "This city is designed for drivers only, and pedestrians live dangerously!" On social media, there has been a proliferation of posts from city dwellers angry at the lack of sidewalks or their deplorable state, but also at the rudeness of drivers and restaurant owners who spread out their tables and chairs, blocking pedestrian passage.

An Instagram account created by Athenians up in arms about their city's lack of maintenance, @batman_for_athens, posted a video showing how, near Syntagma Square (opposite the Greek Parliament on Voulis Street), "to walk, you literally have to go on the road." Here, cafés have invaded public spaces without permission, leaving little room for citizens to stroll. According to research by Athens Polytechnic, four out of 10 restaurants illegally occupy these public spaces. In 2023, the municipal police carried out over 5,000 inspections and found over 2,000 violations of the law.

Athanassios Frontistis is an economics professor and one of the founders of the Facebook group "Give Back the Sidewalks to Pedestrians," which has over 1,500 members. According to Frontistis, "The problem is that there are laws protecting pedestrians, but they are not enforced." Article 5, paragraph 1 of the Greek Constitution guarantees the "right to the use of public places by pedestrians." Furthermore, Greece has signed the 1988 European Charter of Pedestrians' Rights. "Many people are also unaware that sidewalks must have specific dimensions," said Frontistis. The law stipulates that they must be at least 2.1 meters wide in order to enable wheelchair users and the visually impaired to move around independently.

However, according to a study by Athens Polytechnic, published at the end of January by the center-right newspaper Kathimerini, 37% of the Greek capital's sidewalks measure less than a meter across. And two-thirds do not comply with the dimensions required by legislation.

Three years ago, Frontistis decided to take action to make the city's public spaces accessible to all. "My wife had just slipped on a loose sidewalk slab and ended up with an arm in a cast," explained the 60-something, who described it as a "shameful situation, unworthy of a European capital." Together with his collective of angry citizens, he wrote a letter to the president, the prime minister, the president of the Greek Parliament and the head of the Greek police force. "Municipalities haven't reacted for years, but we can no longer live in a city where people with reduced mobility can't get around, where parents with strollers constantly struggle to walk because of cars that are parked on crosswalks," said Frontistis.

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