The tragedy of the commons

My family moved from the downtown Athens district of Kolonos to the southern suburb of Nea Smyrni in 1974 so we could be closer to our school, Leonteios. It was like moving to the countryside! Everything appeared bigger - and it was: the sidewalks, streets and especially those big houses with the pretty gardens. Demand for housing could not be contained, however, while the proliferation of cars made the area much easier to reach. Having moved into a newly built apartment block, we too were part of the problem. But like all the apartment buildings at the time, this one was just four stories high and had a patch of greenery at the front. These small gardens were important because together with the trees lining the broad sidewalks, they turned each street into an oasis. Nea Smyrni was indeed a garden town.

That didn't last very long either. Limits on the height of buildings...