Interview with Trigono Shop Owner, Dimitris Hadjidimitrakis

For two years now, Trigono has undergone a lot of changes, and recently tested smart technologies. We talked with Dimitris Hadjidimitrakis, one of the oldest merchants on Vissis Street, about how he sees his everyday life during the interventions of the City of Athens.

Marios Danilopoulos: Has your daily contact with the Trigono team helped you?

Dimitris Hadjidimitrakis: Undoubtedly! When a project is run by the Municipality, there are often many stakeholders and therefore communication can be more distant and difficult. Whereas now, we feel that there is someone listening.

MD: What has been the most important change in your area?

DH: The cleaning of tags and graffiti from walls has been was a great relief! The Athens Trigono program has taken care of this pervasive problem, cleaning and shielding of Trigono surfaces with anti-tagging material. The same goes for illegally parked cars—especially on our own narrow street, the problem was unbearable—the situation was chaotic with cars parked uncontrollably; now the street is clear for pedestrians.

MD: What is your view on the new smart garbage collection initiative?

DH: Unfortunately, the smart garbage collection has not yet reached our street due to ongoing capital work. But, from what I hear from colleagues in other parts of Trigono, garbage collection has now become very easy. We look forward to getting it in our area.

The Athens Trigono project is implemented with the exclusive donation of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), with the exception of the capital works, which are financed by EU funds, according to the Partnership Agreement (PA) 2014-2020 (Regional Operational Programme “Attica”, Integrated Territorial Investment - ΙΤΙ).