Twelve standouts in 2024

1. New Building Code

The insatiable lust for more height

It is a perfect example of a Greek paradox: a law purporting to be “green” was dismissed 13 years later by the country’s top constitutional court for putting our cities at risk. Born at the beginning of the Greek economic crisis, the New Building Code (NOK, in Greek) was one of the few pieces of legislation introduced by the socialist government of George Papandreou that were not bailout-related and sought to spur the construction of more energy-efficient buildings (by giving developers the incentive of additional height or area) and bolster the industry. The crisis bit heavily into the latter and when the construction sector started picking up again in 2018-2019 after the government at the time combined the two incentives in this otherwise “green” law, resulting in concrete, cookie-cutter monstrosities, mostly painted in different shades of grey, taking over plots formerly occupied by cute one- or two-family homes with small gardens and, perhaps, a cluster of pines. From Glyfada and Kifissia to Halandri and Nea Smyrni, Athens’ suburbs were swept by a wave of new construction that put an even bigger chokehold on the already saturated city. The reactions came swift and strong, even from the most unlikely quarters, as mayors elected on the governing party’s ticket led the march against the law and took recourse to the Council of State, which ruled, just a few weeks ago, that the additional height and area bonus is unconstitutional. 

2. Wokemania

From blue Dionysus, to blue Antonis

The 2024 Olympic Games were supposed to offer a break – from war, rising prices, widespread toxicity, the effects of climate change and other global ills. The fact that they were being hosted by Paris was the icing on the cake. Games in Paris in the summer: What more could one ask for? Then we sat in front of our TV screens in our air-conditioned living rooms to watch the extravaganza begin. In less than half an hour, our phones were on fire with post notifications: The opening ceremony, a slightly childish, artificially “sacrilegious” and rather unfunny statement about inclusivity unleashed a suppressed social divide. The provocative re-enactment of a pagan feast for the 12 gods of Olympus featuring a drag queen and a “blue” Dionysus reminiscent of Papa Smurf, and misinterpreted as a blasphemous parody of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper,” was the perfect excuse to flip the discussion on fundamental rights and the much-discussed “woke culture” (culture of awareness). Donald Trump’s electoral victory just three months later was interpreted as yet another confirmation of the “anti-woke” trend that is “finally” making its voice heard. Every electoral mishap in the Western world – from France and Germany to the United States and Greece – is now attributed to this rift between “woke” and “anti-woke.” Greece’s former conservative prime minister Antonis Samaras barely resisted the temptations to claim his own share of the new limelight of demagoguery, talking, among other things, about the “orphans of ‘rightsism’ who suddenly ‘saw the light.’” In a discussion with French writer Pascal Bruckner just a few days earlier, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had asserted that “Greece, fortunately, does not have a ‘woke agenda’ as the US does,” linking “woke culture” to the “tyranny of minorities.” Somewhere, the real ancient god Dionysus must be thoroughly enjoying the spectacle. 

3. ‘Danger!’

The 112 buzz of natural disasters

Thousands of residents of northeastern Athens’ Mount Penteli suburbs were roused on the morning of August 12 by successive messages from the 112 civil protection emergency number ordering them to evacuate. Not since 1981 had a wildfire spread into such heavily residential areas as Halandri and Vrilissia. The impact was devastating. One of the country’s most challenging fire seasons in several years had been going relatively smoothly until the moment when an electricity pole in Varnavas short-circuited and sent a spark into the brush. That narrative collapsed within a few short hours. The environmental devastation was enormous, but the government decided, once more, to turn attention to the lives that were saved by the precautionary evacuations ordered through the 112 number – with the sad exception of a 60-year-old Moldovan woman who perished in the flower wholesale warehouse where she worked. The 112 emergency line that was launched just a few weeks into Mitsotakis’ first electoral victory in July 2019 was often at risk of being crushed in the millstones of political rivalries. It became synonymous with the streamlined governance model touted by the new prime minister – for better or worse. While technology was placed in the service of saving lives, it also blurred accountability for the hundreds of thousands of acres of land burned annually, which risk becoming a hallmark of the Mitsotakis administration. The response from the Maximos Mansion could very well have been written in Spanish: “Look at what happened in Valencia, and then let’s talk.”

4. Thessaloniki Metro

‘μ’ is for misery

It was the most-anticipated public infrastructure project in the first half of the 21st century for Greece, one so overdue it was talked about as a joke rather than a technical achievement. After 18 years of waiting, the first line of the Thessaloniki Metro was finally ready to open on the last day of November. Nevertheless, the cycle of ridicule and perpetual self-effacement had not come to a close yet, as the unveiling of the metro’s logo, a lower-case Greek “μ” sparked a flurry of negative commentary on social media, lasting as such “controversies” tend to do, less than a day. Two weeks later, with the celebratory inauguration of the city’s first modern fixed-rail transit system overshadowing complaints and sarcasm, the matter was considered closed. This is not to say that the insatiable social media machine lacked fodder: leaking roofs, faulty elevators (just like in Athens), handwritten notices reminiscent of a forgotten tax office’s reception desk, trains stalled between stations. For anyone who doesn’t live in the city, it’s impossible to tell where the truth begins and where the trolling and anti-government puerility end. The maligned logo, however, may have revealed a much deeper truth about the Greek bureaucracy than the plastic buckets and handwritten notices did: After two last-minute tenders failed and the country’s most prominent agencies being left out of the running, that task of designing the logo was eventually assigned directly to a virtually unknown graphic design firm; a telling snapshot of the state’s priorities. All things considered, the almost childlike lowercase “μ,” meant to evoke Byzantine calligraphy in a nod to the city’s Byzantine history, was better than could be expected.

5. Shorts at the office

Embracing the ‘tourist’ style of dress

Lots of records were broken in 2024, including the hottest summer since records began. And it wasn’t just that it was really damn hot; it was that the heat lasted for weeks on end, even at night, with one heatwave succeeding another and the daytime high only occasionally dipping below 36-37 degrees Celsius. In their desperate effort to adapt to this new normality, the people of Athens did what they had never imagined they would do: They started wearing Bermuda shorts and sandals to the office. And it’s not a matter of style. It’s about a reality that we had consigned to much later in the future flexing its muscles and accelerating changes right before our eyes. Even the traditional summer refuge of urban Greek dwellers – the apartment balcony – became an inhospitable and deserted place. Who, after all, could possibly enjoy the “relief” of 32C (90F) at night?

6. Slots in dining

Restaurants and the eat-and-run policy

“Yes, we have a table, from 9 to 11. Would you like to make a reservation?” The polite voice on the other end of the line is clear: You may be lucky enough to have found a table at the hot new restaurant all your friends are talking about on a Friday night, but it’s not yours for as long as you like. The year 2024 was not 2005; it wasn’t even like 2019. In a country trying to get back on its feet from the double blow of the Covid pandemic and the biggest economic crisis in its modern history, eating out and going out are a luxury. Restaurants are no longer places to meet up with friends and relax. They are a destination, an experience, a status symbol, a precursor to a slot on a TV cooking show. In this topsy-turvy environment, time slots (reservations with specific arrival and departure times, allowing restaurants to seat as many customers as possible during peak hours) are the cherry on the sundae of a peculiar state of affairs, where we have runaway inflation on one side, and gastronomic indulgence and social posturing on the other. Meanwhile, officials at the Bank of Greece are poring over their annals, trying to determine whether 2024 bears troubling similarities to other, not-so-distant eras of vanity and consumption-driven bliss.

7. Kallimarmaro

The new hot concert venue

Concern about the roof on Athens’ Olympic Stadium was rife as 2023 came to a close. Would it be structurally sound enough to withstand the noise and reverberations of two sold-out Coldplay concerts in July 2024? It turned out that the technical issues which prompted the stadium’s sudden closure in September 2023 were not as serious as initially suggested. The hiatus, however, provided an opportunity for another stadium, the much older and grandiose Panathenaic Stadium, or Kallimarmaro, in downtown Athens to become the go-to venue for major artists and events. From the appearance of world-famous opera tenors Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras to the tribute to Lefteris Papadopoulos, Anna Vissi’s anniversary concert and the event in memory of the victims of the February 2023 Tempe rail disaster, to big sports events like the Pavlos Giannakopoulos tournament organized by the Panathinaikos basketball club, the Kallimarmaro appears to be back in our lives for good. It’s a development that hasn’t made everyone happy, however. Hosting crowds of 50,000 to 60,000 people is not a simple matter for a downtown Athens district. Many residents in this area are upset by the noise and the disturbance of street closures. They stand to be even more displeased, since the leadership of the Greek Olympic Committee, which manages the stadium, is determined to continue renting it out, and even more so after the Herod Atticus Theater closes for restoration in 2026.

8. Brain rot

The ills of an online life

Last year, it was “rizz,” a term favored by Generation Z used to describe individuals with the charm and charisma to effortlessly capture attention and ultimately become attractive to others. This year, the word of the year chosen by the prestigious Oxford English Dictionary is “brain rot,” which carries none of the positive connotations of its predecessor. Paradoxically, the two favorite words of 2023 and 2024 share a common thread: attention. Etymologically, “brain rot” refers to something genuinely repulsive and frightening, used to describe the deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state due to overconsumption of online content. Use of the term shot up 230% in 2024, clearly reflecting global concerns about the impact of consuming excessive amounts of digital junk, especially on social media. In 2024, well before “brain rot” was named word of the year, Australia became the first country in the world to legislate a ban on social media use for minors under the age of 16. The Greek government appears ready to take measures too, with a National Strategy for the Protection of Minors from Internet Addiction set to be announced on December 30. Let’s hope that such a grim word will ultimately bring something positive, through awareness.

9. Electric scooters

Micromobility in the urban jungle

Did anyone miss them? Apart from everything else, 2024 saw the comeback of electric scooter rentals. What is responsible for this growing trend? The thriving tourism sector? The growing popularity of so-called urban micromobility, meaning getting around in a way that has a smaller environmental footprint? The answer is both. Electric scooters surged in popularity during the Covid pandemic as a serious alternative to public transportation, especially for younger people who use them to cover relatively short distances. However, the same dangers loom for scooters as they did for bicycles during the financial crisis, as use increases but serious measures to ensure that this use is safe and legal are lacking. In a city where the entire width of the roadway has been handed over, without resistance, to cars, traveling by scooter carries a significant degree of risk. Without a detailed regulatory framework, the Highway Code states that scooters have to stick to a speed limit of 25 kilometers per hour, can only be driven on bicycle lanes and their riders must wear a helmet. Are any of these rules enforced? No, they are not. And the result is the same chaos we had with bicycles at one point: scooters speeding recklessly on roads, weaving between vehicles or pedestrians, and youngsters (and tourists) treating them more as toys than as a means of transport. Without designated parking spaces, incentives or control, yet another opportunity for sustainable mobility risks sinking into the quagmire of widespread indifference. Rental companies for shared electric scooters have re-entered the scene, but in such an unregulated and chaotic environment, this new wave of expansion seems destined to fail once again. 

10. Panic buttons

Danger behind closed doors

The family institution, the vulnerable underbelly of Greek society, was sorely tested in 2024 by juvenile violence, as it was by femicide. The reverberations of successive crises continue to fuel the breakdown of families and delinquent or even extremely violent behavior, which all too often results in death. While the numbers point to successive record highs, no one can say for certain whether the phenomenon is genuinely unprecedented and a “sign of the times,” as the perennial journalistic cliche would have it, or whether victims are simply speaking up and seeking help. “I pressed the panic button, but the police never responded, so I took the kids and left. The police called me 31 minutes later to inform me that I had pressed the panic button. ‘I know I pressed it,’ I said, and they told me to go down to the police station.” This recent testimonial by a young woman from the island of Lesvos talking about her ordeal on television may do an injustice to the most significant digital tool introduced by the state to protect women from their abusers, but it is also very indicative of the state of affairs. The expansion of the protective umbrella offered by the Hellenic Police app and the Counseling Centers of the General Secretariat for Equality and Human Rights to adult victims of domestic violence (since last June) and, gradually, to minors exposed to incidents of school bullying, adds another layer of protection for potential victims of extreme mental states and prospective perpetrators. According to data from the Ministry of Social Cohesion and Family, between the start of the year and the end of September, 12,000 women sought information about the panic button, 4,000 installed it, and 513 had to activate it. The taboo of fear is breaking.

11. Ozempic

Self-medicating for the look

Who knew exactly what semaglutide is and what it does before 2024? And who really cared? Officially, it regulates insulin secretion from the pancreas, improving diabetes management. Less officially, it curbs the appetite and increases the feeling of fullness, causing people to eat less and crave fatty foods less. Sounds amazing, doesn’t it? Ladies and gentlemen, behold the phenomenon drug that’s perpetually in short supply. Originally designed to treat type 2 diabetes, it became wildly popular within just a few years for its effectiveness in weight loss. Yes, 2024 was the year of Ozempic. There’s another reason too: While, theoretically, you can’t buy Ozempic without a prescription (incidentally, 78,751 patients were prescribed Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs in 2021, a number that skyrocketed to 161,080 this year), in practice it’s often unnecessary. This has created a very gray area between genuine medical treatment and a pharmaceutical “lifestyle” aid, with the National Organization for Healthcare Provision (EOPYY) being tasked with the responsibility, at least theoretically, of monitoring doctors and prescriptions. Until that actually happens, people will keep getting their supply from their friendly pharmacist. 

12. Key safes

Downtown Athens’ ‘hotelization’

If there was one subject that dominated 2024 from start to finish, it was Airbnbs. Legislation introduced a year ago imposed a value-added tax of 13% on short-term rental properties, a measure aimed at people and companies managing three or more properties, while the same category of owners was also required to register as business operators. Then 2024 ended with the introduction of an additional tax incentive aimed at encouraging owners to put their properties back into the long-term rental market. What had happened? The first set of measures had failed. Five months after their implementation, the characteristic wall-mounted key safes that litter the entrances of hundreds of apartment buildings in central Athens continued to multiply. The number of short-term rentals hit 12,576 this past May, representing a year-on-year increase of 21.3% compared to 2023, when the corresponding figure was 10,367 properties. In this context, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced new measures in September during his address at the Thessaloniki International Fair to curb the Airbnb tsunami: an increased levy and, most notably, the designation of three central municipal districts in Athens as “saturated,” meaning a freeze on issuing new licenses. These measures will go into force on January 1, 2025, and will stay put for at least a year and, depending on the results, may be expanded to other parts of the city. So, if we hear about another legislative initiative against short-term rentals we’ll know that another set of measures has failed – or it will have simply been unable to counter the ruthless onslaught of tourism and the drive for effortless profits.