Locals and tourists alike complain that navigating the Greek capital’s sidewalks by foot can be fraught with peril
arly this year I took a fall. In broad daylight, on a street in downtown Athens, I tripped, clipping my right foot on a marble step jutting on to the pavement in front of the entrance to a furniture store. The step’s railing, grabbed in a desperate attempt to break the fall, then did what I never expected: collapsing in my hands, it threw me with even greater force across the pavement. A broken shoulder was diagnosed. Seven months later physiotherapy continues.
Among the many who have taken to social media to vent their spleen over pavements strewn with potholes, broken paving stones or no paving stones at all, are pensioners demanding that authorities “give sidewalks back to pedestrians”. An estimated 7 million tourists will visit mainland Europe’s southernmost metropolis this year – proof, if any were needed, that the ancient city, once a stopover to Aegean island pearls, hassurged in appeal as a destination in its own right.Increasingly the state of Greek pavements – and official dereliction in dealing with them – has become a talking point with holidaymakers
The dire state of Athenian pavements accounts for why “the most vulnerable of pedestrians have almost disappeared from public areas,” says the pedestrian rights group, Pezi, noting that people with disabilities, parents with prams or elderly people are rarely to be seen on the city’s streets.
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