Reply To: Dublin’s sprawl threatens to choke the nation

never trust a consultant for the banks, or special interest groups. i suspect the figures here are misleading, while Dublin City ( the central area) has lost population in the last 21 years, it probably has seen some reverses of that in the last 5 – 10. Most of the decline, then, happening in the previous eras of neglect.

We don’t have to be an American type city. We can chose not to be, and clearly most general opinion has moved against sprawl. It is not as if the poeple buying houses in the suburbs have an affinity to travelling 2 hours each day. They would prefer less sprawl and cheaper houses closer to the centre, or even appartments.

And Dublin is not an American type city anyway. We socialise, and shop ( often), in the centre. They do not.

The city is not “irreversibly car dependent”, it has gotten so bad that there is apolitical and general will to change things now.