Re: Re: Smithfield, Dublin
You are not being entirely fair Smithfield Resi. The car space you highlight is the old parking area which is to be replaced by a new landscaped area. The empty poles probably relate to those and are likely to be removed once works on this section commence.
Fair point on the car park space (I was having a bit of a dig) but the poles have been recently added – (a quick browse of Google maps confirms) and from what I can tell from the plans it is intended that the area below where the poles are located is where the landscaping will be – so I’m guessing they are staying (and there is no excuse for the concreting in of cobble setts)
I fail entirely to understand why the green is needed here. CPO of the Irish Distiller surface car park (dig them out an underground car park and create a peoples park next to the Luas would be my approach)
The tarmac lump are a result of the removal of light stands and I imagine they too will be repaired with cobbles.
I would hope so too, but DCC don’t have a good record on repair and reinstatement.
The work is undoubtedly shoddy looking at present but it is a work in process.
In process indeed, it just seems some of the work is ‘finished’ – look at the amount of redundancy in the amount of poles installed for the parking space. Roads and Traffic must have shares in the galvanised pole industry.
Signage is a mess all over the city: I see a new post for the interminably delayed wayfinder scheme, perhaps that will negate the need for these other fingerposts. I don’t know what the “bunker” is for….all will be revealed by summer.
The problem as I see it is that the solutions being offered for poor signage are to erect yet more…(is it really that hard to find a parking machine (why not some discreet brass arrows into the kerbing pointing to the nearest machine??)
The notice about parking isn’t really conflicting….at the end of the day its saying that you cant park on the square and that if you do you will be clamped. No doubt some residents don’t see the square as the big civic space that it is meant to be. And sometimes our council don’t either.
I never really got as satisfactory answer from the City architects as to why surface parking was needed at all..there’s a 1000 space car park 75m away from here under Smithfield Market. I also asked why, as 3 phase power was being put in, could these space not be reserved for electric vehicle charging (great spot next to the luas and dublinbikes stand. Whilst it was agreed that this was a great idea, the consulatation process was merely a sap to give an air of consulatation. I fear the play area will be a disaster, and take no account for what urban dwellers actually want and need from this space.
The main part of the southern section of the square has been cleared of trees and cobbles ready for relaying. A notice says that works will be completed by end of summer 2011.
They were meant to have the whole lot completed by end of Dec 2010, so had to go crying back to the EU. I have never seen cobble work proceed so slowly as they dragged out the relaying of the cobbles at the top of the square. If the rest of this work proceeds at that pace, it will be Dec 2011 before this is completed. I’m also concerned that they will take the opportunity to demolish the red brick former market police station (ESB substation) at the bottom of the square.
This square is rapidly losing any cohesive sense of a civic public space…
