Athens mayor unveils plans for reviving city center
Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis says the City of Athens will offer young couples incentives to live in the city center and will attempt to relocate some university students? residences to the area in a bid to breath new life into this rundown part of the capital.
Speaking to a parliamentary committee, Kaminis said that better use has to be made of the empty buildings in central Athens, which has been plagued by crime, poverty and declining commercial activity in the past few years.
He suggested offering financial incentives for young people to move to the area, possibly in the form of subsidized rent, and for new housing facilities for students to be created at nine downtown hotels that have recently shut down.
Kaminis also suggested he would approach companies that manufacture light bulbs to sponsor squares in central Athens in a bid to ensure that they are well lit and to cut down on the municipality?s expenses.
Kaminis, who took over as mayor last November, said the City of Athens would be publishing all its decisions online in the interests of greater transparency.
