Τρίτη 27 Νοεμβρίου 2007

Interview

Pola just send thils link. Here is a very good interview published on Politis. We are working on a translation in english, soon will be ready.

http://www.politis-news.com/cgibin/hweb?-A=756763&-V=archivearticles

Πέμπτη 22 Νοεμβρίου 2007

Beauty and the beast...

And this is our first picture from Maria Kosti.

Title: "I was trying to get out of home to start the day..."

Photo Contest

Today we are going to start a new section in the blog: "Photo Contest"

The subject will be: “Reports about the situation of the City Within the Walls”. You can send as may pictures as you want, any format and size, to the e-mail of the blog (awakewithinthewalls@gmail.com), including a title for every photo. The jury will be the members of the group in the first meeting after the end of the deadline, choosing there a winner. The prize for the winner will be a T-shirt with the logo of the group.

The first contest will last until the end of this year, so works will be accepted until 31 of December 2007. We will also try to exhibit the works whenever we have a chance. This is not an official contest, and the only objective is to show the situation in the old city through pictures, that, sometimes, are better than thousand words!

Τρίτη 20 Νοεμβρίου 2007

Thriller

I'm a real fan of Blair Witch Project, and this is real close!

Try to walk Nicosia on Saturday night, if you dare!

Δευτέρα 19 Νοεμβρίου 2007

SAVE THE CITY, DON’T JUST PAINT IT!!

Well… different opinions for the presentation in Famagusta Gate. Let’s try to summarize it in some points:

* The reason of the meeting was the presentation to the neighbors of Takt-el-Kale of the restoration of one part of the area, including Pendadaxtilou Street, Ermou Street, Ammochosto Street and Leoforos Athinas. The intervention is focuses on facades, pavements, and urban furniture.
* The objective is the rehabilitation of Takt-el-Kale area, in stages, that will involve in the future Agios Antonios and Agios Ioannis areas. This first intervention will be divided in three phases, beginning spring next year and for a period of more than one year.
* The presentation was carried on from Nicosia’s Mayor, Eleni Mavrou and the Architects Petropoulou and Papadopoulou. The audience, basically neighbors of Takt-el-Kale, were approximately around 100 people.

After the presentation of the project, it was the time for questions, and these are some of the conclusions:

+ Most of the interventions by the people began with a: “I would like to thank the Major for this project….” And continued with “… but the real problem is…”
+ The project offers a “face cleaning” of the area. The people spoke about their actual problems, which their project had almost nothing to do with.
+ The main problems are quite obvious: garbage, light, traffic, parking, clubs, noises, the mill, etc. None of these are solved in the project, not even mentioned.
+ Although the project can help the area, bigger efforts are needed for more obvious and urgent problems.

The last hour was a little bit of a mess; people trying to give their points and the Mayor trying to defend hers. In the end, the project presented wasn’t the main subject of discussion, and the people wanted to make the problems clear to the Mayor, so that the municipality can take serious actions to solve them. If this is done correctly, they said, then, in the future, projects like the one presented will be welcomed and applaud. The money should be spent somewhere else at the moment.
Our hope is that these meetings can help to the communication between the government and the inhabitants of the city. We don’t believe they are two different things, but two parts of a bigger one called Nicosia, and they have to walk together hand to hand.

Παρασκευή 9 Νοεμβρίου 2007

INVITATION


Invitation from the Major!
I’m feeling both hope and fear…
A quick translation would be:

The major of Nicosia Eleni Mavrou …. invites you to the Municipal Presentation of the Work:

“Rehabilitation of a part of the area of Takt-el-Kale in the Inside the Walled City of Nicosia”

…. Famaugusta Gate, Monday 12 November 2007, at 6.00 p.m.

The Work will be probably financed by the European Union…. and the Democracy of Cyprus.


Q: Which are the two odd words?
A: “part” and “ probably”

We still don’t see a general planning for the city needs, there is no consulting with the neighbors, ….
Anyway, let’s not pre-judge and wait for the presentation.

I keep the faith….