Pedestrians banished from sidewalks

Pedestrians apparently have no place to go in Athens. Instead of enjoying the right for carefree strolls or hurried walks, and pushing a stroller or a wheelchair, they encounter all kinds of obstacles, from shop tables, chairs, trees and cars, while balancing on broken, slippery, upturned slabs.

Tellingly, according to a survey by the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), 39% of Athens' sidewalks are less than one meter in length, while they are poorly constructed and destroyed by constant digging or illegal parking.

Moreover traffic police controls are not paying off.

Of the 1.5 million confirmed tickets issued by the municipal police in the three-year period 2020-2023, 1.2 million remained unpaid.

At the same time, four out of 10 food outlets were found to be illegally occupying public space with table seating. 

It is also worth noting...