Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyannis announced Tuesday that more than a thousand buildings in the centre of Athens have been included in a massive facelift program organized by government and municipal authorities to give Athens a facelift before the Summer Games.
The Mayor told a press conference that approval has been granted for work to paint the facades of 1,079 buildings, but by mid May this figure could reach 1,500.
Bakoyannis described the majority of the capital’s buildings as “drab, neglected, lacking identify, with their external appearance wounded by the passage of time”.
She said, “there are buildings that have lost their architectural identity, indifferent, dirty buildings. We are all responsible for this state of affairs”.
Meanwhile, the national union of civil aviation employees warned in a letter to the ministers of economy, transport and culture Tuesday that Greece’s airports are not equipped to handle the volume of incoming air traffic during the Summer Games.
According to the union there are also serious staff shortages.
