ith the return of the Olympics, Athens has been experiencing its most exciting period for half a century. The Games have been a catalyst for major improvements in the infrastructure of the Greek capital, and their legacy will be a city transformed.
Athens has been cleaned up and given a facelift. Whole districts have been renovated, public squares have been landscaped and streets pedestrianised. Museums have been upgraded and key archaeological sites linked with a new traffic-free walkway.
Visitors arrive at the spacious new Eleftherios Venizelos airport and witness the huge improvements that have been made in public transport, including a sleek new Metro, new highways criss-crossing the city, hundreds of new electric trolley buses and a state-of-the-art tram network.
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Deputy Mayor Theodore Skylakakis (INTERVIEW) describes Athens as “an ancient city finding a new way into the future.” He says the key to success is to ensure that the past and the present of the city co-exist in harmony. “We want Athens to be as content with its present as it is proud of its past.”
The Games are regarded not as an end but as a beginning, a springboard to the future economic development and continuing modernisation of the city. “Athens was here even before the first Olympics, and although the Olympics are a very important moment for the city, the history of the city will go on,” insists Mr Skylakakis.
The Deputy Mayor emphasises that the new infrastructure is just part of the economic equation when it comes to attracting investment and maximising the potential the Games have created. “Investment will depend not just on the way we handle the Olympics but also on our ability to implement changes after the Games are over.”
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