Campaign to return sidewalks to pedestrians
“Give the sidewalks back to pedestrians” is the slogan of a Facebook group set up by three pensioners around three years ago to raise awareness about the issue.
The group, which has about 700 members, posts photos of blocked and trap-infested sidewalks and asks citizens to do the same, with the aim of mobilizing the authorities.
“There are no sidewalks and it is a shame for Greece and dangerous for the blind, strollers, mothers with small children, for the people who move around on the street,” states Thanasis Frontistis, who set up the group with two old friends Giannis Fourlas and Takis Kiosopoulos.
Everyone, Frontistis says, considers the sidewalk an extension of their property.
The group is now preparing a letter to President Katerina Sakellaropoulou, the government, Parliament and the media to demand that obstacles be removed from the sidewalks, that police punish illegal parking with severe fines, that bollards be moved from the middle of the sidewalk to the curb etc.
