Athens
The goods, the bads and…the ugly truth about Greece’s capital
It is a matter of fact that nowadays we don’t talk about countries anymore, but more often than not about cities. That has to do a lot with urbanization and its consequences, as well as with the predictions that 75% of the global population will be moving in city centers worldwide in the next years. That raises the competition among cities which try their best to be as appealing as they can in order to attract the most capable people and the strongest minds. The goal has changed for modern cities that no longer try to be attractive so that temporary tourists will visit them, but they are actually bidding against each other for permanent residents that will help them grow in many ways. That is reflected even in researches and city rankings that even include indexes such as livability, sustainability, environmental criteria, economic growth, technological and scientific development, high quality of living and transportation, high educational level etc. Actually it is a common thing to find cities from the same continent or even country to “fight” against each other for a better ranking, such as Barcelona and Madrid in Spain or Berlin and Munich in Germany.
Although all those things happen worldwide, here in Greece we are a little bit behind in this part. In Athens we have another story to tell, with both good elements that we are proud of and bad characteristics that we are trying to improve or…hide. In this article we will attempt to present you our city, Athens, through the eyes of its residents.
Athens is a southern European city and the capital of Greece. It is a historical city and has many ancient ruins, such as Acropolis and Thisio that decorate the whole urban web. Every year many tourists and visitors come here so that they can see all of those important monuments, as they are some of the most important specimens of this type of art and architecture.
The capital of Greece is the most populated city of the country with more than 3 million residents. One of the most interesting characteristics of Athens is the combination of various elements such as mountains, sea and urban life, that create a unique experience for both visitors and inhabitants. That being said, Athens also has an excellent climate with warm winters and many sunny days all year long, that is ideal for outdoor activities. Athens also combines perfectly the past and the future of cultural creation and productivity, or in other words the ancient monuments with modern and contemporary arts. There are many examples that we can point out, such as the numerous theatrical performances and shows in general that are being produced each and every year, or the latest big cultural project Stavros Niarchos Foundation and Cultural Center, that led in the direction of both cultural and environmental development, as it became the “home” for a huge park and for two huge cultural organizations, the National Opera and the National Library.
Another strong element of the Greek capital is the really good transportation that provides to the Athenian people, that covers the whole city and in addition to that Athens is approachable in many different ways, like airplane, boat or train, even from abroad.
Also Athens is a low to medium cost city that you can do a lot with a reasonable amount of money and has many options when it comes to entertainment, nightlife and gastronomy. We couldn’t forget to mention of course the high educational level of Athens, that hosts many Universities.
On the other hand there are some things in our city that need improvement starting from the fact that the whole country is afflicted by the economic crisis, something that has affected the temper of people living in Greece and even more people that live in Athens, who become more and more depressed by the time. This situation is being burdened by the unreasonable bureaucracy in Greece, as well as the overpopulation that is being noticed in Athens and makes everything more difficult. Another con of the Greek capital is the traffic jam, which makes figurative for anyone to use their car in the city’s center, especially if they are in a hurry.
In addition to the “bad” things that Athens has to show, we can mention the lack of security and proper lighting in some areas, the lack of respect for public spaces and the lack of “green lunges” in the downtown that would transform the whole city and make it more bearable and beautiful for its residents. For that to become a reality we also have to overcome the lack of coordination and agreement that leads to a lack of collaboration and cooperation between stake-holders and decision makers in Greece’s capital.
In my opinion Athens has the potential to be an attractive city for anyone to come and live here. In the next five years we would like to turn Athens in a more livable and sustainable city. We would like for our city to be cleaner, greener, more productive, more self-sufficient, with many beautiful buildings and parks, better infrastructures and public works such as Elliniko and SNFCC that we mentioned before. We think that we can make this happen if we work as a team, change our way of thinking and try to improve or change the things that we aren’t proud of and on the other hand give prominence to the good features of Athens!
This research and article are part of Athens Co-Creation City Branding Project in the context of MA in Cultural Management of Panteion University under the lead of Mrs B.Tsakarestou as a professor.
