εισαγωγικά...

Ο Εθνικός Κήπος είναι ένα ιστορικό πάρκο 154 στρεμμάτων, το μοναδικό που διαθέτει η Ελλάδα. Δημιουργήθηκε τον 19ο αιώνα (1839-1852) και αποτελεί αναπόσπαστο κομμάτι της συλλογής των Ευρωπαϊκών Βασιλικών Κήπων και μοναδικό δείγμα δυτικοευρωπαϊκής κηποτεχνίας του 19ου αιώνα στη Μεσόγειο. Έχει το χαρακτήρα βοτανικού κήπου περιλαμβάνοντας περίπου 500 διαφορετικά είδη καλλωπιστικών δένδρων, θάμνων κλπ πολλά από τα οποία εισήχθησαν για πρώτη φορά και καλλιεργήθηκαν αρχικά στον Κήπο.

Σάββατο 1 Νοεμβρίου 2014

The National Garden at stake–HOTDOC (translation)

The National Garden at stake
It remains in my memory like no other park I have known. It is the quintessence of a park, the thing one feels sometimes in looking at a canvas or dreaming of a place one would like to be in and never findswrote Henry Miller about the National Garden in 1939. Since then, the image of what used to be the best location in Athens has certainly been altered. However, a walk through the narrow earth paths of the garden never lost its value or its ability to travel you back to childhood, when feeding the ducks was part of your regular Sunday stroll with grandma.
by Antigoni Michalopoulou , for HOT DOC Oct 2014

The Garden is seriously neglected – some say on purpose – but the truth is that, while friends of the garden and scientific bodies struggle to save the only green spot in downtown Athens, the Municipality tries hard to privatise it on the excuse that there is not enough money for its preservation. Hot Doc’s research, however, shows the exact opposite.
The Royal Garden was created in the 19th century. It is a botanical garden with about 500 varieties of ornamental trees, spreading over 154,000 sq.m. In 1839, 15,000 ornamental plants were brought over from Genoa and planted there. It is said that Queen Amalia was so involved that she spent three hours each day caring for it personally. In fact, in 1842, she planted the Washingtonia palms that can still be seen today at the main entrance on Amalias Avenue, with her own hands. The Royal Garden was renamed “National Garden” in 1927 at the transition of the regime to a Republic, and opened its gates to the public everyday day from sunrise to sunset.
Until 2004, the National Garden had been under the responsibility of the Prefecture of Attica. At that time, in order to protect its character, the management was transferred to the Municipality of Athens, and run by an autonomous Public Body named “City of Athens-National Garden”, under the responsibility of the Municipality of Athens. At that time, according to the friends and users of the Garden, the condition of the Garden started improving. At the same time, a non-profit organisation “the Society of the
Friends of the National Garden” was created with the purpose of supporting the Public Body carry out its duties, primarily by providing financial support, which it did whenever required.
In March 2011, the Board of the Public Body succeeded in having the National Garden characterized as a Historical Site by decree through the Minister of Culture, effectively getting in the way of those planning exploitation of the Garden.
Coincidentally or not, just one year later, the City Council dissolved the Public Body and its board without any justification, only the remarkably vague description in the Official Gazette: “We authorise the dissolution of the Public Body “City of Athens – National Garden”, since the new organisational chart of the Municipality provides for a sub-division called ”National Garden” within the Directorate of Greenery and Environment, assigned with the task of organising and carrying out operations of that municipal section, with the aim to serving more efficiently the needs of Athenian citizens.”
It must be stressed here that dissolving the Public Body cannot be justified by financial cuts, given that all members of the specific Board worked on a non- remunerative basis.
In place of the independent Public Body, the Municipality set up a non- executive advisory committee.
Henceforward, the Directorate of Greenery and Environment of the Municipality undertook the management of the National Garden, in much the same way as it would any public square or any common urban green space. The worst time for the National Garden had begun. Friends of the Garden have numerous sad incidents to report: unskilled gardeners unable to properly care for trees, who would prune in full springtime taking down whole branches with bird nests; Plants are neglected and it seems that the National Garden is another victim of the financial crisis. The already minimal staff is further reduced, which results in any maintenance work being done erratically, if at all.
BUT, according to official figures, it turns out the Garden was not neglected because of limited cash flow as, despite the crisis, it was allocated funds of up to 2 million Euros. According to a document from the City Council regarding Income and Expenses for fiscal year 2011 (the year of the
dissolution of the Public Body) the Garden’s income amounted to 760,687 E whereas its expenditure (consisting of operating expenses and occasional payment of seasonal staff) to 278,920 E, while the cash balance according to the same document amounted to 481,766 E.
In 2012, the regular subsidy allocated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the National Garden shows 936,600 E just for salaries and 239,400 E for maintenance, security and management cost. The subsidy remains high in 2013 with salaries reaching 612,000 E and maintenance, security and management costs reaching 216,000 E.
IN SUBSTANCE, while according to members of the dissolved Public Body, the staff actually working in the National Garden can be counted on the fingers of one hand – something obvious given its image of neglect – the Municipality has received for a period of merely 2 years, over 1.5 million E just for salary expenses and another 450,000 E for security, management, and maintenance costs.
In its Annual action plan for 2012 (the year it was dissolved), the Public Body had reported serious staff shortage, so much in the sector of garden maintenance, as in that of security, and of equipment maintenance. One therefore rightly wonders how many people are actually included in the payroll of the National Garden.

NEON garden-New Garden
In September 2013, just a year after the dissolution of the Public Body, the City Council approved a proposal by Cultural Organization “NEON” (whose founder is businessman and contemporary art collector Dimitris Daskalopoulos), entitled “Discovering the National Garden”.
According to Law (Official Gazette 19thOct 2004), the right of use of the National Garden “including its fencing and any installations comprised therein” was granted “to the Municipality of Athens for a period of 90 years, (....) the Municipality shall be responsible for preserving and improving the flora, as well as for the administration, management, development, daily care and the general protection of the National Garden, shall fully preserve its forested nature and purpose and shall continue to be governed by the forestall legislation.” The assignment was conditional upon any study for any planned intervention being subject to authorization by the competent
Departements of the Ministry of Culture and all works being subject to approval by the competent agency of the Ministry of Culture and subject to supervision by its representative, on the basis that the National Garden has been classified as an archaeological site.
These are the commitments of the City of Athens under the law, as far as the management of the National Garden is concerned.
However, following the approval of NEON’s proposal by the City Council (20 votes in favor and 14 against), the Mayor and NEON gave a joint Press conference and presented the latter’s planned interventions. The proposal did not occur within the context of a tender by the Municipality, but at NEON’s own initiative, “for the salvation of the National Garden”. The proposal included botanical interventions in eight parts of the National Garden and a recurrent scheme of contemporary art exhibitions for two months every two years. It called for the removal of the historic Washingtonia palms, which the Municipality had the duty to preserve, the removal of self sown trees and a fig tree (significant elements of the landscape at the pond), and the planting of new, alien species in the “Wisteria chamber”. Another major intervention, according to the study, was to “restore” the alleged “visual contact” between the Parthenon and the Garden that had existed in the 1840’ies. That fancy of NEON’ associate French landscape architect Louis Benech, would require cutting down monumental trees and, as agronomists explained to Hot Doc, even demolish some buildings in order to be realized.
In short, both the proposal and the overall project are deemed “unrealistic and over-priced” by members of the Hellenic Association of Landscape Contractors. In particular, they claim that according to reference values of governmental green projects, the project’s total construction cost cannot possibly be estimated at over 60,000 E, while NEON prices its proposal at 1.5 million E. And although the cost may concern only Mr. Daskalopoulos, as agriculturists say, “he is over-pricing his offer.”

The reactions
As expected, this deal caused serious reactions in the scientific community, with the Hellenic Association of Bioscientists ranking high in the list. The latter condemns “interventions such as this one” saying that “the National
Garden is no doubt in urgent need of maintenance and protection works. However, in order to be effective, such works must be designed and implemented by specialists, with strict compliance to the principles of gardening, and not “conjectural interventions” from unspecialized individuals planning to cut down big conifers supposedly to “restore visual contact with the Acropolis and the Parliament”, plant according to the needs of the Biennale which will bring heavy vehicles into the Garden to transport exhibits and carry out installation works.”
Serious concerns about the proposed interventions were also expressed in the statement of the Greek section of ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites). “The interventions would not only distort the historical form and appearance and the botanical composition of the Garden, but will have a direct negative impact on the bioclimatic interaction with the surrounding urban environment.”
The Geotechnical Chamber of Greece, in its letter to Mayor George Kaminis dated January 3, 2014, points out the physical, planning and historical importance of the National Garden and emphasizes the importance of preserving its forestal character and highlighting its current landscape architecture.
Experienced Landscape architects reported to Hot Doc that even the Garden’s public access is at stake, as no one can guarantee that once the exhibits are in place, entrance to children will still be allowed. In other words, children who until now have always been playing freely in the Garden, would have to be restrained and strictly supervised. Moreover, considering that the Garden closes at sunset to enable nature to rest, lighting modern art works is likely to disturb the ecological balance of the animals and the birds living in the Garden.
Serious concern arises also with regard to the type of installations which will be brought in, given that the National Garden has been declared an archaeological site as it contains remnants of the ancient Lyceum of Apollo, the ancient aqueduct of Peisistratus and the aqueduct of Ymittos, the safety of which is bound to be jeopardized by the installations hosting the works of art and the vehicles which are already moving through the Garden’s pathways.
Meanwhile, the Society of the Friends of the National Garden and ten citizens have filed a complaint with the Council of the State against the municipality. The Court’s decision is still pending; however, even in the event of the complaint being dismissed for technical or other reasons, the Municipality would still have to obtain authorizations from the Central Archaeological Council, the Council for Modern Monuments, the Forest Authority and the General Secretariat for Decentralized Regional Administration, before the works for supposedly “saving” the National Garden begin.
If all these authorities give their consent to the National Garden being transformed into an art gallery, then the best “plot of land” in Athens will officially acquire an owner.
We have submitted all queries arising from our research to the Municipality of Athens and are still awaiting their reply.

Below, translation of captions shown in the HOTDOC issue.

Page 3 caption:
According to the report on Income and Expenses for year 2011, the Garden’s income amounts to 760,687 euros and its expenses to 278,920 euros.
Text in red:
p. 40
“Report on Income and Expenses” for the fiscal year 2011 with the following figures:
p. 41
Income
Expenses
Cash Balance as at 31/12/2011

760,687.09 278,920.54 481,766.55
0718.002
Ordinary subsidy from the Min. of Internal Affairs for payroll expenses of National Garden employees (L. 3274/04, art. 25 para. 72)
350,000.00
963,600.00
963,600.00
0718.003
page6image22272
Ordinary subsidy from the Min. of Internal Affairs for maintenance, security and management costs of the National Garden (L. 3274/04, art. 25 para. 9)
285,000.00
239,400.00
239,400.00
0718.002
Ordinary subsidy from Min. of Internal Affairs for payroll expenses of National Garden employees (L. 3274/04, art. 25 para. 72)
1,252,680.00
612,000. 00
612,000. 00
page6image37128
0718.003
page6image38640
Ordinary subsidy from Min. of Internal Affairs for costs of maintenance,
311,220.00
216,000.00
216,000.00

security and management of the National Garden (L. 3274/04, art. 25 para. 9)
page7image4496 page7image6104 page7image6568
Bullets:
p. 39
In March 2011, the Public Body succeeded in having the National Garden characterized as a historical site by the Ministry of Culture, effectively getting in the way of those planning to “interfere with the Garden”. Coincidentally or not, the Public Body was dissolved one year later by the City Council, without any justification.

p. 40
They want to transform the National Garden into an art gallery. p. 41

While the staff of the National Garden can be counted on the fingers of one hand, the Municipality of Athens received 2 million E from State funds in two years, for payroll, security, management and maintenance costs.
p. 42
Members of the Hellenic Association of Landscape Contractors have characterized both the proposal and the overall project as “unrealistic and over-priced”.
p. 43
Landscape architects with considerable experience reported to Hot Doc that even the public character of the National Garden is at stake. 

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