Some residents refuse to leave
Plans for the construction of the Panathenaikos soccer stadium (PAO) do not include any arrangement for the future of some 100 businesses that currently operate on the site. As Athens Chamber of Industry President Pavlos Ravanis told Kathimerini, those businesses employ around 450 people and have been in the area for 20-30 years. «We haven’t received any information from anyone,» complained Yiannis Rozakis, who has a factory in the neighborhood. «We are in favor of the refurbishment but it cannot be done by wiping us off the map. We’ve made inquiries everywhere and they keep sending us from pillar to post. There is no plan to transfer us to Elaionas, nor has anyone mentioned compensation. We will fight, by all legal means.» That view is shared by the Skandalis family, one of the few that are permanent residents in the neighborhood. «When you have lived in a run-down neighborhood for 60 years, you hope that things will improve one day. At long last, the metro comes, there is a revamp and then they throw us out by mandatory expropriation,» protested Athina, Nikolaos and their son Stelios. «We are determined to appeal to the Council of State; it’s our last weapon against the injustice that has been done to us.»
