Saving Dublin
Brandon | June 20, 2007In a recent article of The Dubliner magazine, a variety of Irish “luminaries� were asked what they would do to “save Dublin.� The answer came from politicians, artists, property developers, authors, historians, etc. and the quality of answers ranged from daft/silly/“they can’t be serious� kinds of ideas to a more common sense/“yes, of course!� breed.
Here are some of the ideas that I found interesting (whether or not I agreed!):
Arts Consultant, Ciaran MacGonigal:
“Once a year, have a public flogging of all the planning officials for their bad decisions . . .�
“Directly elect a prefect or mayor for Dublin City for a term of five years.� (See Dec’s post from a few days ago.)
Artist, Pauline Bewick:
“Rapists and paedophiles should be castrated.� (Right. I’m sure the UN Human Rights Council would turn a blind eye to that one.)
“All citizens should have a plot to garden to become vegetarian, lessening the gases from cow and pig farming.�
Novelist, Joe O’Connor:
“Introduce a charge for driving in the city centre.�
“There’s an urgent need for more music venues on the scale of Vicar Street.�
Director of Dundrum Town Centre, Don Nugent:
“If I could do just one thing to save Dublin, I would ban the importation, sale or use of chewing gum.� (Now we’re dreaming big!)
Comedian, Eric Lalor:
“All vehicles should be banned from the city centre to be replaced with donkeys. If it’s good enough for Jesus and Mary, it’s good enough for us.�
“What better way to travel to and from the city than by Roller Coaster? It would be great fun and our public transport would be the envy of fun loving people all over the world.� (Woo hooo! Tear off the roofs of the LUAS trams and away we go!)
The litter problem and traffic congestion were probably the most commonly addressed issues in the article, along with the lack of Gardai presence on the streets. I found it interesting that nobody mentioned the cost of living in Dublin which is now the world’s 16th most expensive city to live in, according to this report.
How about you? How would you “save Dublin?�
Interesting article. I’m with Joe O’Connor:
“There’s an urgent need for more music venues on the scale of Vicar Street.�
Apparently Whelans is getting a makeover – I hope it doesn’t change too much. Great venue.
As I mentioned before, I have a big thing about yellow box infringement. I think every traffic light should have a camera and motorists should be fined for red light breaking and all other traffice offences, including mobile phone usage. It works in Australia – why not here?
The whole “Introduce a charge for driving in the city centre.� thing kind of grinds on my nerves a bit, for two reasons:
1. I live in the city centre, why should my friends have to pay to visit me? It’s hard enough to get them to visit as it is
2. If you want to introduce a charge for driving in the city centre then provide people with a viable alternative, currently there are none, buses are a joke and the trams are busting at the seams.
DEFINITELY the transport! I’m a teenager, and it sucks not being able to go anywhere because I can’t find anyone to drive. Is there any way we could link the Luas and the DART? I don’t mean join onto each other, I just mean have stops near each other. Or buses that bring you to Luas/DART stops! Sorry, I just find the whole thing irritating. If my friends and I want to meet up somewhere, we have to spend ages planning the transport. It would make Dublin soo much better!
I know what you mean, Dan. It just doesn’t make sense to bring in congestion charges when public transport is so inadequate. When we first moved here (and after limiting our house search to areas within walking distance to a tram line – not as easy as it may sound), I was surprised that the tram lines don’t even connect.
tho it might sound strange, I’d implore the fellas over at Google to ship their street level camera crew over, and get Dublin properly mapped and viewable with the street level option on Google Earth. Easy for folks to see problem areas, the good, the bad and the ugly for themselves that way.
There should definitely be better transport in Dublin. I think there should be DART stations near Luas stations, so it wouldbe easier to get around. Or, there should be more buses going around Dublin, so more people could get to DARTs/Luas.
Thanks, MissSouthside. I think a lot of people feel the same frustration that you do. It sounds to me that they’re planning to run the LUAS (Green line) out to Bray from the current end-of-the-line Sandyford stop. You’d think they would use that opportunity to connect the LUAS with the DART. We’ll see!
[...] quote from Pauline Bewick , one of O’Sharkey’s defenders , and well know artist. “ Rapists and paedophiles should be castrated “. Posted by sillyoldtwit Filed in Cathal O’Searcaigh, Culture, Current Events, Ireland, [...]