Reply To: Smithfield, Dublin

JK, are you terrified of the use of height in building schemes? Eight or nine storeys is the norm for a European city standard.The square is wide enough for such. One sees such commonly abroad. It will not become a canyon. The proposed new tower will act as a ‘marker’ for Smithfield. Anyway what would you propose; more of the same ‘nice’ little corpo style houses,ZZZzzzzzz! all one and two storeys high dotted along.It’s the big time now. No more pokey little ‘builder’ designed buildings. It looks like that the years of neglect and poverty have played havoc on the locals psyche. Such changes are too radical to cope with. The decades of dereliction have all of a sudden gave way to the proliferation of brand new appartment schemes springing up, bringing people back into the city whether they’d be yuppies,guppies, students etc….. but the inner city locals have in some way developed a seige mentality and want to protect their little ‘ghettos’ This is manifested in part on the attacks on tourists and foreigners and the ‘keep out’ syndrome. But what must be understood is that Dublin city is public property belonging to all.It must develop in a ‘city’ like way and to develop it’s international image.If not it will remain a provincial town and remain looking like one too. Locals interests are important of course but in every instance a handful of people should not hinder what is best for the whole of the city’s interest. Everybody is jumping on the band wagon now rejecting building schemes just because of height. The demolition balls will always swing to level such, as in the past.