Athens as an island
It is hard to plan alternative routes in a city where the existing urban planning and red tape are equally haphazard
COMMENTARY |
The Grand Walk is an important epilogue to a plan that has transcended decades and governments. The vision of a large pedestrian network in downtown Athens was first expressed by Melina Mercouri and Antonis Tritsis in the late 1980s and early 90s, but effectively carried out to a great degree by Kostas Laliotis during his eight-year tenure at the Ministry of Public Works (1993-2001), though other ministers and mayors played a part before and after. As minister of culture, Dora Bakoyannis made an important contribution in the early 90s.
The pedestrianization of a busy section of Ermou Street at Syntagma Square in 1994 was a bold initiative that sparked much more vehement reactions to those we are seeing today to the pedestrianization of Panepistimiou, while making Dionysiou Areopagitou and Apostolou Pavlou car-free in the early 2000s before Athens acquired the metro was almost revolutionary. Now, Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis has taken the baton from a succession of creative people who identified with this vision and is carrying it on with an enthusiasm unseen for some time in the public sphere.
To be clear, the idea of a pedestrian zone linking the city’s main archaeological attractions is more than 100 years old and was first conceived by Mayor Spyros Mercouris, the grandfather of the late culture minister Melina, while it is also evident in the ambitions expressed by the German urban planners and architects who came in the 19th century at the behest of the palace to transform Athens from a village into a capital.
Naturally, it has never been entirely ideal and romantic.
Athens in broader terms is a patchwork of municipalities with key roads leading to the city center, so restricting traffic in the downtown area causes snarls and delays – especially during rush hour – in a much larger vicinity. It is also hard to plan alternative routes in a city where the existing urban planning and red tape are equally haphazard, meaning that residents just have to lump it.
That said, it is imperative for Athens’ economic growth that it follows the example of other capitals that have unified their historic districts and key sites. What is effectively happening right now with the Grand Walk is a shift in the definition of the city center. The state is pushing even more Athenians into choosing self-exile in the suburbs so they can avoid circulating in the center of a city that must (coronavirus willing) evolve into a vibrant “tourist island.”