Rooftop restaurants in Athens hope that when you’re not eating or talking that you’ll be okay with a view of the Acropolis, if there is one, because otherwise all there is to see is a sea of dirty charmless concrete buildings, graffiti, and abandoned neo-classical buildings.

Athens has rightfully developed a buzz in recent years after long being avoided by tourists en route to the islands or stopping for a quick look at the Parthenon before running for the boat, but there are quirky, funky neighborhoods that are fun to see.

Alas, what you won’t find are trees, grass, and flowers – or water because three rivers were long ago covered over from development, robbing Athens of the Ilisos that’s underground and could have been what the Thames is to London or the sewer Seine is to Paris.

For a country that created beauty and culture and architecture and aesthetics there’s painfully little of that in Athens – there is, however, a forlorn statue of Pericles tucked next to the little City Hall that looks like an afterthought bus station waiting area.

The 38-acre National Garden that’s next to the Parliament offers shade and greenery but will never be confused with the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney, although it is much beloved by cats – but you don’t really want to lie down in what little grass there is there.

The Pedion Tou Areos park near Omonia Square – a den of iniquity, drug dealing, crime, noise, pollution, dirt and a rotary for cars – is bigger and getting better, 68.4 acres and in 2010 was done over in a 9.6 million euro ($10.67 million) renovation.

It had been a hangout for refugees, immigrants, prostitutes, and low-level criminals before being restored and the bad elements mostly driven out. It is a pleasant place to get away from the city but you don’t want to be there at night.

Athens also has many areas that could be vest pocket parks, empty spaces on corners and between buildings that have been left to deteriorate but with a minimum investment could see grass, benches, trees, and flowers to beautify bereft spots.

From time to time attempts are made to create spaces for people to get off sidewalks and streets, a respite from the city, but almost as soon as they are done they’re not maintained and all you can see is black hoses on top of dirt and debris.

A European Environment Agency (EEA) 2022 study noted the value of green space in cities for mental and physical well-being: parks with trees and flowers and grass are really just nature’s art in an outdoor museum and we need that, not graffiti on concrete covered with dirt.

Benefits range from reduced risks of obesity in children, to better cardiovascular health and lower rates of depression in adults. Parks, trees, and other green areas improve air quality, reduce noise, moderate temperatures during hot periods, and boost biodiversity in city landscapes, the study said.

The data from EEA showed average urban tree cover for cities in 38 EEA member and cooperating countries was 30 percent, highest in cities in Finland and Norway and lowest in Cyprus, Iceland, and Malta – Athens having just 15 percent of cover.

Most of the public allegedly green parks in Athens are unkempt and there are few indeed – London has 3,000 – and the opportunity to have the largest one in Europe was lost when plans changed to make the abandoned Hellenikon International Airport on Athens’ coast into a playground for the rich, with marinas for yachts and luxury residences.

There will still be a park of 600 acres in the space of 1,455 acres, a welcome addition that will likely be overrun with tourists and visitors, if you can get there on roads that are already essentially traffic jams with limited public transportation.

And that’s on the outskirts of the city along a coastline taken over by private businesses and luxury resorts pushing aside people who can’t afford them onto what’s left of rocky spots and beaches the rich would avoid at all costs.

What you should see from the rooftops of Athens are rooftops of green, covered with plants that absorb carbon dioxide, reflect heat to make buildings cooler, and would create a sea of green instead of old antennas and water heaters.

Public grants for turning rooftops into oases, or donations from foundations that support the environment, would give Athens a chance to be the greenest city in the world instead of a jungle of concrete and grime and dirt.

It would reduce pollution, provide an unmatched aesthetic with benefits to the environment and health, lower the air temperature, and partially offset the effects of ignored climate change that are turning Greece into a furnace.

Adding solar panels on every roof of every building, with state aid, would reduce the need to use coal to generate electricity that pollutes the air and would make it cleaner and cooler too, but unless someone can make a lot of money that won’t happen.

Noted American urban architect William McDonough said the value of green on rooftops, including gardens, is they  insulate and beautify. “The view from the rooftop suggests that this dream is within our grasp and, indeed, that it has already taken root in the granite gardens of our garden world,” he said, so why not Athens too?