Kostas Bakoyannis

The Athens municipality on Wednesday opened the capital's first halfway house for homeless people who are addicted to drugs or other substances.

More than 80 roads in neighborhoods around Athens will have been resurfaced by the end of April, according to a statement Wednesday by the municipality, which is making the most of the drop in vehicle traffic as it allows crews to work day and night.

People will most certainly love the revamped Omonia Square at the heart of Athens. Any comparison with what had been in its place over the past 15 years would, after all, be devastating. Sure, we must pay heed to the objections raised by architects, which are legitimate from an institutional point of view: An architecture tender should proceed a project of this magnitude.

A municipal cleaning crew washes down and disinfects a street in the downtown Athens neighborhood of Kolonaki, on Thursday. The municipal authority regularly hoses down bus stops, sidewalks and other public areas across the city with disinfectant to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The municipality of Athens has urged the capital's residents to show a greater sense of responsibility as regards the protection of public health and helping the authority in its work by assisting the efforts of sanitation workers. 

Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis said  Monday that he will be donating 50 percent of his salary over the next two months to help the state deal with the growing cost of fighting the coronavirus pandemic.

"It is the least I can offer," Bakoyannis said in a post on social media, while calling for solidarity in fighting the crisis.
 

City Hall has received a boost in the capital's efforts to fight the spread of the coronavirus, taking delivery on Thursday of 35 new street cleaning machines and 10 new water trucks to boost its sanitation fleet, Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis announced.

Could Omonia reclaim its status as the heart of Athens? But the heart of which Athens? Of the real Athens? Of the imaginary Athens? Or of the desirable Athens? Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis, who has been credited with the effort to revamp Omonia Square (in partnership with the private sector), had every reason to be satisfied with Thursday's rehearsal, as it were.

The reconstructed Omonia Square in central Athens will be delivered to the public by the end of next week, Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis said on social media on Thursday.

"Very happy that Omonia square has entered the final stretch and will be delivered to the Athenians," he said

Athens mayor Kostas Bakoyannis presented his vision for the Greek capital during a discussion at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, in Harvard, this week.

Bakoyannis said his plan for "Reinventing Athens" was created after speaking with local residents in his pre-election campaign.