ATHENS – On a roll after swiftly removing to renovate the grimy Omonia Square near City Hall, Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis unveiled plans to redo 19 playgrounds across the capital as part of his plan to improve the quality of life in the city.

The playgrounds – which are in Ambelokipi, Kypseli, Goudi, Votanikos and other densely populated neighborhoods – are to be overhauled with the aim of meeting modern safety standards and to be fully accessible to children with mobility problems, said Kathimerini.

Once the 19 playgrounds have been revamped, authorities will shift their attention to other sites across the capital. “The important thing is not to have lots of playgrounds on paper alone,” Bakoyannis said.

“The point is for them to be modern, safe and functional. For the City of Athens, these are the projects that matter, those that improve people’s daily life,” he said, making good on pledges to try to improve the image of the city that is overrun with graffiti, filth and crime.

Other plans are to try to overhaul the anarchist-dominated neighborhood of Exarchia where police are cracking down under the New Democracy government which said the previous ruling Radical Left SYRIZA let violence and lawlessness spin out of control in that area.