Pocket parks win over Athenians

ATHENS－Sitting under a birch tree on a bench made of recycled wood with photovoltaics illuminating the small park after sunset makes everyday life in quarantine a little easier for the residents of a neighborhood in Pagrati, central Athens.

The pocket park, created in an abandoned space that was a garbage plot between blocks of flats for years, is the third one the city of Athens has opened recently, and at least 10 more are lined up in the next few months.

By setting up pocket parks, green spaces of 100-800 square meters in densely populated neighborhoods of the Greek capital, a city with a small proportion of green spaces per citizens, municipal authorities, supported by private donors, aim to bring change through a series of small-scale interventions, said Anna Zilakou, managing director of the nonprofit Athens Partnership.

The organization, which promotes partnerships between the private and public sectors, helps the city to secure funding for a series of projects under a program called Adopt Your City, including the mini-park initiative.

The program was launched at the end of 2019 and the goal is to involve residents of Athens and visitors, as well as companies, in contributing to the city's work and projects "and help us improve the quality of life in the city", Zilakou said.

"This is one of the projects that are part of this program. It started last summer. The idea is to create small parks in highly dense areas throughout the city, where there are not enough green spaces. By creating those spaces, we want to improve the quality of life of the neighborhoods and have an environmental and social impact at the same time.

"The thing is with Athens, as with many big cities around the world, that we don't have large spaces that you can create as parks. They are highly dense, so there are not enough spaces that you change in this way."

Pagrati pocket park, covering about 750 square meters, and with more than 100 plants and trees, is the largest. All materials used are environmentally friendly. There are sustainable draining systems to water the trees as well as water sources for visitors, birds and animals.

"Sustainability is in the core of the design of these places," Zilakou said. "We plan to have more in the next few months, maybe another 10 or so in different neighborhoods (in a year)."

Xinhua