Municipality of Athens: Do you want your neighborhood to become more accessible?
Tell us how!
H. Doukas: “With citizens’ participation, we CHANGE the city”
The Municipality of Athens is giving citizens pen and paper to design the “15-Minute Open Neighborhood.” The program of Consultations and Participatory Workshops begins on Thursday, July 10, at 18:30, at the Kypseli Municipal Market.
The Mayor of Athens, Haris Doukas, stated: “The ‘15-Minute Open Neighborhood’ is coming to Athens, giving new momentum to the urban fabric of our city. It is a model that has been successfully implemented in other cities abroad, such as Paris, Barcelona, Melbourne and Shanghai. We are creating accessible and functional neighborhoods. We want every resident to have everything they need close by — education, health, green spaces and culture. All within 15 minutes from their home, without the use of a private car. With citizens’ participation, we CHANGE the city.”
The Deputy Mayor for Urban Regeneration and Resilience, Maro Evangelidou, emphasized: “The program will include seven design and mapping workshops across all 7 Municipal Districts, as well as open information and dialogue activities with residents. The ‘15-Minute Open Neighborhood’ represents a new urban approach. Using digital tools, ‘centers,’ ‘connections’ and corridors will be identified in each Municipal District, and immediate, highly effective interventions will be proposed, such as pedestrian crossings, sidewalk widenings and traffic regulations. In this way, we will create a prioritized basis for future public space upgrade projects.”
What is the “15-Minute Open Neighborhood”
It is a neighborhood that encourages walking and mobility through gentle, environmentally friendly means of transport, where points of social and everyday life — such as parks, schools, public transport, cultural and leisure spaces, Municipal Clinics, Citizen Service Centers (KEP), etc. — are connected through 15-minute walking or cycling routes. In this way, we create pedestrian-friendly routes for pedestrians, persons with disabilities and people with reduced mobility, enabling them to reach key points of interest while avoiding the use of private cars, which exacerbate traffic congestion and degrade quality of life.
Learn how to participate
Join us onThursday, July 10, at 18:30, at the Kypseli Municipal Market, to share your views and jointly design the city we want.
Those who are unable to attend in person will be able to participate online via an online questionnaire until September 15, on the platform: https://platform.participatorylab.org/enroll/category/geitonies15
Upon completion of the Consultation and Workshops, the results will be grouped and classified, and the necessary material will be produced to select intervention zones and corridors, so that specific actions can move forward and the “15-Minute Open Neighborhood” can become a reality.
The communication sponsor is Athens 9.84, the city’s radio station.
