Residents in Greece and tourists alike enjoy their refreshments outdoors, and pavement cafés are great places for enjoying a frappé and watching the world go by. Café owners oblige their customers by placing their tables and chairs across the pavement, usually keeping a free passage for the passing pedestrians - who should not be obliged to put themselves at risk by walking in the road.
But too much of a good thing can be a problem. The new trend is for café chairs to become sofas, potted geraniums become plantboxes with palmtrees, and parasols become pergolas with sliding awnings, folding glass partitions and see-thru plastic walls. These architectural features are surely meant to be "temporary" according to relevant Building Regulations and café licensing laws, as they are not part of the premises.
Marousi has a good share of cafés at the Station Plateia, but the pavement and pedestrian area beside the station is rapidly being taken over by more or less permanent structures which have encroached on the pavement, almost to the edge of the kerb. The recent environmental upgrade, which has given us pedestrianised streets with "tactile routes" for the blind is being eroded by this uncontrolled expansion. I wonder why this is not stopped, or when it will end? Perhaps the pedestrians are expected to join the buses, cars and motorcycles on the street? Certainly there are no Zebra crossings here anymore either, (they were not replaced after the recent road re-surfacing) so the whole Station area in Marousi is becoming a "no-go" area for people who walk, push a baby-buggy or (heaven forbid) use a wheelchair.
What does the Mayor of Marousi have to say about the pavements around the Railway Station?
Or his town planning staff?
Or the café owners?
Or the coffee drinkers?
