The residents of Athens may want the 2004 Summer Games, but not in their own backyards.
The Olympian Press Agency (OPA) reports that residents across the city have banded together to try and stop the huge construction projects spanning the already congested capital, and a recent nationwide poll found that organizing the 2004 Games ranked 18th on a list of priorities for Greeks.
According to the survey, Greeks have bigger worries than the Olympic Games, and one of their priorities is to stop encroaching concrete and protect the environment for future generations.
Aristidis Thomopoulos, a city councillor in a southern seaside suburb adjacent to a number of planned sports complexes, said “this has to do with us and the next generations, and does not have to do with the 15 days of the Olympic Games. The suburb Alimos is the site of a sailing centre, complexes at Athens’ old Hellenikon international airport – including facilities for basketball and field hockey – and venues for judo and tae kwon do.
Thomopulos and other activists in the southern suburbs have formed the “Coordinating Committee for the Salvation of the Saronic Coastal Zone”. They join other resident in the city’s northern, eastern and western suburbs that have also filed appeals with the country’s highest administrative court, the Council of State, to stop the construction of sports venues and road projects.
There are now six cases before the council to stop sports venues, highway expansions and other infrastructure projects.
Government officials have blamed the court cases for many of the delays, which last year led the IOC to warn that the Games were in danger.
