“It is not enough to consider a smart city, which is a set of sensors and computers. No, then all cities would be smart…”. In connection with the “fuss” around the “cosmic Trikala”, I always wanted someone to explain to me what exactly a “smart” or “digital” city means and how it acquires this “intelligence”.

So I asked the Mayor of Trikkai, the city that bears this groundbreaking title by Greek standards, Dimitris Papastergiou, to meet to answer my (many) questions, most notably how Trikala did well out of “cheeses” like they “trolled”. to become “smart cheeses,” as he says with a laugh.

As soon as we started talking, I realized that I was in front of a very intelligent, I would say charismatic person, with ideas, speed of thought, an attractive flow of speech, humor and, above all, a passion to offer his city. Although (to me) he introduced himself as a “half-Vlach mayor,” his mother’s Vlach roots make the 49-year-old electrical engineer far from old-fashioned mayors and politicians. He conveys the image of a public person who came from the future. After all, how can a “smart” city not have a smart leader at the helm?

“So how do you define a city as smart?” I asked. “Smart is a city that, as I said, listens, that has smart people who care, and citizens that interact, participate.”

– No, you need patience, you need planning and you need a team. Any colleague of mine who thinks his own love and passion is enough to change a city is wrong. You don’t go far, you go fast, but you don’t go far. In addition to the group, it also requires a society that wants to change itself. Thus, to create a smart city, mature societies that want to get rid of bad habits are also needed.

– Because in Trikala, I think that all the previous municipal authorities, my predecessors, tried not to create toxicosis in society.

I feel sorry for society and I see it even today in local governments whose lexicon, mostly through the Internet, speaks of theft. This toxicity doesn’t help anyone.

Trikala was beautiful even before me. Trikala was smarter than me. There have always been municipal authorities in Trikala who have taken care that society does not develop this bad mentality that “the previous ones were thieves, robbers, and we are the saviors who have come to save you.” For example, in the 2014 elections, when I ran against the then mayor Christos Lapa, I never once said that he was a bad mayor. I just said that I would get better. I never said he wasn’t interested, I just said that my team and I would be more interested. This thing really worked. The day after I won, La Paz didn’t come out to throw rocks at me. This culture is of great importance. I feel sorry for society and I see it even today in local governments whose lexicon, mostly through the Internet, speaks of theft. This toxicity does not help anyone, because instead of uniting, we divide society.

– I took it and kept it. Woe to those who think that the beginning of the world, “zero T”, as they say in physics, is us. Alas, if we do not accept the good that we have found in our city, and do not improve it.

– The idea to use innovation and technology was initiated by Michalis Tamilos, who created the development of the municipality “Electronic Trikala”. That’s where it started. It turned out that there are cities that can think differently. Then what have we done? We put technology to the measure of the people of society. Technology is not an end, it is a means to live better, only a tool. Alas, if we analyze the smart city and we are left with a computer and five cables. No it’s not that. A smart city is thinking.

It cost us almost nothing! If it was something that required money, we obviously wouldn’t have done it. But money is the last. The question is, do you want to do it? Do you have the will as a group to stand up to bad lyrics? Does society want to change? If these factors apply, the money is there, and that’s the least of the obstacles you’ll have to face.

In any case, we must want to make the city smart, sustainable. Want, for example. Implement controlled parking by implementing bike-friendly policies. Otherwise, let’s park cars on sidewalks, in squares, it’s very simple …

Three big but “velvet” transfers in Trikala

– I will tell you three cases when we started with a conflict, but everything went as it should.
The first was an unmanned bus, the most popular. In order to circulate, he wanted to have a certain lane from where we had to unpark the cars. Tell a Greek not to park under his house? Yet the inhabitants of Trikalin reacted little. Because we told them: guys, this project will last six months, and then this path will become a bike path for your children. We heard mutterings like “mayor, these self-driving buses will cut the driver’s jobs.” I replied to the person who emailed me about this: “Brother, don’t email because the postman just lost his job.” Second, refugees: February 2016, refugee flows are skyrocketing. About ten buses from these ships, which departed from Piraeus for Idomeni, were unloaded by drivers in Trikala. We held an extraordinary city council and unanimously decided to hold them. We stop sports activities in the gym and start marching with a refugee, about whom, however, we were completely neither acquainted nor informed. We never had flows and refugees. Despite everything, the society, as if it had been ready for years, helped from the very beginning, supported, there were few known extreme cries. For me it was a medal of our society and our city. We got through a difficult situation together when other cities saw how they struggled.

The third smoked. Before it became a law that it goes without saying that we should not smoke indoors, we made the decision that we should quit smoking indoors. And although some thought there would be a social explosion, we sat down in the shops and chatted. We said: Guys, because of Elf’s Mill, which is our biggest Christmas celebration, we are the first family destination in Greece, we host thousands of families. Families with children are not allowed to come to our city, and we are not allowed to smoke in shops. The shopkeepers believed it, with much grumbling that it was true at first. We applied it without “blood”. Obviously, we also imposed fines, it could not have been otherwise, but when the anti-tobacco law came to Greece, it had already been in force for two years. Now it applies everywhere. They smoke on the streets, but they don’t smoke in the shops. Absolute success.

The bus that… scared people

“I have a good story that I remember and laugh at. We wanted to combine our culture, our musical traditions with technology. We gave six buses the names of six great Trikala musicians: Tsitsanis, Virvos, Kaldara, Samoladas, Mitropanos, Kolokotronis. We thought it would be a good idea for passengers to listen to the songs of the respective authors along the way. The first day on the bus “Mitropanos”: there was fear, because he did not have a driver, and at the same time, the song “Oh Aros came out of paganism” was heard from the bus speakers. There was outrage. The coordinator scares me and says: “Mayor, what are we doing, they panicked with this song.” I tell him “finish, and we will continue”! Because of Tsitsanis, his museum will open soon, in the old prisons of Trikala, which we have turned into a place of culture.”

Meeting

We met in Thessaloniki, where he was at a meeting of KEDE, of which he is chairman. A keen radio operator, he ran two of his own radio stations from his teenage years and joined the electrical and mechanical engineers at the Polytechnic to better understand radio communications!

The discussion took place at the Zythos Dore, opposite the White Tower, in the afternoon. We drank one beer, he’s “normal”, I’m non-alcoholic. Otherwise, he dreamed of a “menu”, as he told me: In Trikala with “chic” tsipouras, cheeses and meatballs. He reserved himself for revenge. I bought it inexpensively, for only 8.5 euros.