As Development Alters Greek Islands’ Nature and Culture, Locals Push Back – the New York Times

The City of Fira, - Santorini, Greece - at Dusk © 2023 D Shrestha Ross

As a proliferation of pools threatens some water supplies and housing costs skyrocket, people of the Cycladic islands say the Aegean islands’ character is being lost to real-estate homogenization…“It’s very easy to talk about sustainable development, but all they actually do is approve new investments,” said Ioannis Spilanis, a former general secretary for island policy at Greece’s shipping ministry and now head of the Aegean Sustainable Tourism Observatory…

‘No Space for Us’: Greeks Fight Beach Takeover by Pricey Sun Chairs – the New York Times

Restaurants take over the coast in Santorini, Greece © 2023 Deepika Shrestha Ross

It is peak tourist season in Greece, and on the pristine Monastiri beach on the northern tip of Paros island, a phalanx of lounge chairs with red umbrellas covers the sand. At 70 euros for a pair of front-row seats near the crystalline waters, less than half were taken on a recent day, as Greeks and tourists alike who did not want to pay instead sheltered from the sun under nearby trees….