Squaring the circle
Mr Vatopoulos’s exuberance (in the article «This is a different city we’re living in,» Sept. 18) is largely justified, particularly if we manage to police these new squares so that they do not degenerate into parking garages for motorcycles. TV coverage (on Sept. 19) showed the impossibility for the mobility impaired to get on to Monastiraki Sq, blocked off by savage disregard of any humane consideration. Kolonaki does not need such policing because the architects have made access to those in need assuredly impossible. If you walk with a cane, crutches, use a wheelchair, a pram or tricycle, you will find that Kolonaki is off limits to you, since it is covered with cobblestones and over 50 percent covered with steps! Previously you could cross the square in any direction without the risk of spraining ankles and the problem of climbing stairs. Now only the top 50 percent is accessible, but with care as the cobblestones are ubiquitous and even there the steps are numerous. If you come from Koumbari or Kapsali streets, however, you have to skirt around the southern half of the square using the rather mean streets. In an interview, the Kolonaki architects, implying their remuneration was inadequate, were asked whether they designed the square for «doxa» and they replied it was for «loxa.» I agree… One can only wish good health to them and the officials who approved their design, so that they may never experience personally how very user-unfriendly the square they have either designed or approved is. PANAYIOTIS DRAKOS, Athens.
