Cleaning up Athens

I have written before about a new urban movement of Athens residents called "Atenistas". These are people who -disappointed with the city's gradual but steady decline over the years (with the noted exception of the 2004 Olympics)- are trying to take things into their own hands and set an example for the rest. They identify problem spots (an abandoned lot full of garbage, a dirty park, a flower-bed that has been left to dry, a beach with garbage) and take concrete, hands-on, D-I-Y action to try to turn things around.

I had the chance of taking part in such an event today, cleaning building walls and columns, covering 4-5 city blocks of Patission St., one of the main thoroughfares of Athens, for about 4 hours. A large number of Greeks show no respect for public space -although they'd go ballistic if you touched their own private property-  and walls are full of advertising stickers, political or advertising posters, "for rent" and "to sale" labels, "tags", graffiti, etc. Cars and motorbikes are often parked on sidewalks. The fact that city authorities have failed to deal effectively with this has only exacerbated the problem in recent years. 

So, fully aware that this was just a minuscule action compared to the massive amounts of dirt that surround us, we scrubbed,  sprayed, pulled off stickers and washed and scrubbed again, until a good number of walls and columns was reasonably cleaned; not anything spectacular but enough to realize that something had... happened.

We had all kinds of reactions, typical of the different attitudes you may find around. Some people were simply curious and inquisitive as to who we were and "who had organized this". Some with a positive, even impressed tone; others  with a sarcastic, dismissive one. Some were plain indifferent. We even came across a couple who were shocked that we had the nerve to scrub a slogan with the "A"(narchy) sign; I guess these two were coming from the next Harry Potter film: Harry Potter and the Magical "A"...  We even came across an old, public, analogue clock -outside the central post office at Aiolou St.- that probably very few people had noticed till then, and tried to clean that one too.

All in all, this was an interesting way to spend an early Sunday afternoon and do something for the city at the same time.

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New mayors. Feeling good!

A brief update on the municipal elections I mentioned last week. All 4 major Greek towns changed hands in the run-off elections that took place this past Sunday. Athens, Thessaloniki and Patra in particular, were won by outsiders who did not belong to the political establishment and were not professional politicians. So, there is hope after all, for Greek towns, and finally Greeks have a reason to be... cautiously optimistic!

In the spirit of feeling good and doing good, here is a fascinating project featured in Kickstarter, related to travel: Just play the video and you should be immediately overtaken by the joy of African music. And do consider making a donation (or actually advance purchase) to help these 3 cinematographers accomplish their dream project! They only have 2 days left to gather the necessary funding!

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Athens City Hall Square, Tonight

This just in, from a happening that took place at the square in front of the Athens City Hall (aka Kotzia Square), tonight.

The candle-lighting event was organized by "Atenistas"; a group of Athenians aiming to bring life back to those city neighborhoods, streets and corners that have been left behind to decline. Unlike this one, most of the events they've organized are not symbolic but action-oriented. It's a kind of law-abiding, hands-on activism. Cleaning up an abandoned lot full of trash, painting public flower pots that looked filthy, putting up informative signage (in Greek and English) for historic buildings that have been abandoned, marking the obstacles that pedestrians face in a central Athens street, etc. But tonight was different, still with a feel-good feeling, full of hope.

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