Bridges & Boardwalks

From todays Irish Times

Spate of antisocial activities on Liffey boardwalk
Hélène Hofman

A meeting will take place tomorrow to address the problem of antisocial behaviour on Dublin’s Millennium Boardwalk by the Liffey.

The boardwalk, which attracts many tourists to rest, view the river and drink coffee, has become a magnet for people with alcohol and drug problems.

A Garda spokesman said yesterday that an operation to tackle the problem resulted in 46 arrests in the first two months of operation, and the problem has escalated this month and in July.

Between April 2006, when the operation began, and June 2006 gardaí arrested 26 people under the drugs misuse Act and 20 for public order offences. They also carried out 404 searches under the misuse of drugs Act during that period.

A cross-section of agencies, including the Homeless Agency, Focus Ireland, addiction services and community groups, will discuss measures to address the needs of those congregating on the boardwalk and at other Dublin city centre locations at tomorrow’s meeting .

“It’s not yet clear whether the problem relates to housing or drugs, so the meeting will focus on that so the relevant support can be delivered,” said Derval Howley, director of the Homeless Agency. “It does seem to be one of the main places people go during the day.”

A spokesperson for the Merchant’s Quay project, which works with the homeless and people affected by drug abuse, says the combination of good weather and a lack of day centres for homeless people means more may be congregating along the promenade during the peak tourism season.

The boardwalk, which stretches from Grattan Bridge to Butt Bridge, was built as a tourist amenity as part of Dublin’s millennium projects and was completed in 2000. Last May, a month after the Garda operation began, Dublin City Council erected a number of signs along the boardwalk informing people that the consumption of intoxicating liquor in a public place is prohibited. The council says it has received no complaints from the public since.

However, employees of the kiosks on the boardwalk say the antisocial behaviour is continuing to affect business and that most of the clientele now consists of tourists.

“It’s not good for business and it’s not good for the tourists,” says one vendor, who did not want to be identified. He has witnessed several incidents involving alcohol in the past month. “It’s the worst on sunny days when there are lots of customers. The guards are watching but when they come the people just put away their drinks and take it out when they are gone.”

“I don’t really feel safe, to be honest. But I have a security camera if anyone comes,” he said indicating the camera and monitor set up on a top shelf.

“We won’t call the guards unless something really bad happens,” said the vendor.

Darkman if people enjoy using the boardwalk (not the addicts etc of course)
then i dont think think it was a mistake
If they actually enforced the laws and prosecuted (harshly) the people involved, and are seen to be doing it, then troublemakers may think twice.
If people were afraid to cross the gardai it might instill some civic pride!
Here – would-be criminals fear the NYPD, and rightly so

Darkman and Paul H, as indicated by the article posted by Rory W, the issue is not simply about policing. There are clearly much more complex issues to be dealt with than simply trying to stike fear into those who are congregating there through zero tolerence policing. What will this solve? All it will do is move people on to another area of the city without solving anything in a real sense. It is not a case of people simply deciding that they are going to behave in a certain way, but in many cases is it is that they have found themselves in a situation where there is no other alternative.

Brazen drug dealers take over city tourist trail
Drugs and money exchange hands on the Liffey Boardwalk at Eden Quay at lunchtime yesterday

Thursday August 24th 2006
Scourge moves into open in towns across the country

DRUG dealers and addicts have turned one of Ireland’s main tourist thoroughfares into a virtual no-go area. An investigation by the Irish Independent shows dealers openly selling drugs on Dublin’s Liffey Boardwalk in broad daylight. And as our shocking pictures reveal, even the presence of active gardai in the area does not deter them. The blatant behaviour of the dealers in a main tourist area is the most high-profile example yet of how the scourge of drug abuse has moved into the open in towns across the country.
It came as Ireland prepares to host the Ryder Cup – and just hours after Tourism Minister John O’Donoghue launched a multi-million euro campaign to promote Irish tourism. Dublin TDs last night called for a dedicated garda patrol unit to stamp out drug abuse in the area.
Over the course of a two-day investigation, we photographed dealers and addicts exchanging money for drugs in broad daylight during the height of the busy summer tourist period.
Our pictures clearly show:
* Drugs being openly exchanged for money;
* Women hiding drugs in their bras so gardai cannot find them;
* Methadone being consumed in public;
* Children accompanying their parents as drug deals take place;
* Customers approaching dealers and asking for their drug of choice.
Male and female dealers worked up and down the tourist attraction, hiding the drugs down the back of their trousers or in their bras. Others openly waved around small bags of pills in full view of the passing public. On Tuesday, two plain-clothes gardai stopped and searched a number of people who were loitering along the boardwalk. Yesterday, the officers were back – and the dealers were still in action. Our pictures show one dealer being surrounded by a group of around six people as soon as he arrived.
“The guy came up and they all swarmed around him like the Pied Piper,” said one witness.
Labour TD Joe Costello said the boardwalk was once a novelty for people to walk along when they visited Dublin. “It has become a no-go area because of the activities,” he said. “Instead of being an amenity for the citizens it is a focus for people who are involved in drug-pushing to congregate.” He called for a dedicated garda squad to patrol the area and deter such activity.
Independent TD Tony Gregory also added his voice, saying the area was now a complete turn-off for tourists.
A spokesman for Dublin City Council said it had a community officer to patrol the areas and report such activities to the gardai. However, he could not say if there was an officer on the boardwalk at all times. “We are working in conjunction with the gardai to alleviate the problem,” he said.
Workers whose offices are alongside the boardwalk said they were too afraid to sit there to have their lunch. “There’s so many of them hanging around in big gangs,” said one young woman. “I wouldn’t go over there on my own and even in groups we can’t really relax and enjoy the sunshine. We have to constantly keep an eye on our bags.”

Gardai were also seen arresting a number of men. They chased a young man on a bike who tried to run when he spotted them. After being searched he was cuffed and brought away.
A family was forced to flee the area recently after a knife fight broke out between two drug addicts, while there are also concerns that immigrants who cannot find a job are sleeping rough beside the Liffey.
Gardai said 404 people have been arrested in the area between April 3 and the end of June under the Misuse of Drugs Act. Of those, 26 were arrested and processed in the courts. A further 20 were arrested under public order legislatio.
A spokesman said: “We monitor the area on an ongoing basis and any illegal activity which is reported or we come across receives our attention.” He said gardai were working with homeless agencies to help those sleeping rough in the area.
Frank McGee of Dublin Tourism said the activity is not helping Ireland’s reputation abroad. “The problem is, what are the memories that tourists are taking back?” he asked.

A day on the capital’s boardwalk of shame

THE sun was out yesterday morning on one of Dublin’s main tourism thoroughfares.
And it also brought the drug dealers out to play. From early morning drugs were bought and sold as openly as souvenirs along the Liffey Boardwalk, while tourists and children walked by.
Two plain-clothes gardai were on the wooden walkway for most of the day but even they could not deal with the level of dealings along one small section between O’Connell Bridge and Butt Bridge.
Groups congregated for several hours, greeting each other as familiarly as office workers who had donned their tracksuits for their day’s work.
At around 11am a small wad of cash could clearly be seen being handed from a woman to a man, both of whom continued to loiter throughout the day. She could later be seen taking a bag of small white pills from her pocket and showing them to a friend.
Shortly after 11, the gardai swung into action, catching a young man who was sitting on the wall close to Butt Bridge.

Nervous
While the gardai were dealing with their arrest, two men sitting on the bench were approached by a third. Smoking a cigarette and looking nervous, he bought some drugs from the two men before moving off.
After midday a man in a red jumper appeared close to the busy bus stops. A group of seven people, who were there for most of the day, quickly swarmed around him and money was exchanged. The group blocked the entire footpath and elderly passersby were forced onto the road.
The substances were openly exchanged in front of signs warning of €1,000 fines for anyone caught drinking on the boardwalk.
Tourists passed just feet away, some gazing open-mouthed at the sweating dealers, others keeping their heads down and walking resolutely on.
At around 12.20pm a woman approached a younger male, seen doing business with several individuals throughout the day.
Our pictures clearly show cash being exchanged for a substance, which she then placed in her bra for safekeeping.
This method was also used by a young woman – who appeared to be pregnant – who walked down the boardwalk with a minder after lunch.
Her minder, holding a bulldog on a leash, watched over her as she sat on the bench to dole out the wares she had earlier stuffed up her t-shirt.
A little earlier, a woman pushing a buggy gathered in the middle of another drug hustle. Standing close to her and witnessing the entire deal was her young son. Aged around four, and wearing a red Spiderman t-shirt, he watched as his mother and companions carried out in the drug deal. She was later stopped and searched by gardai but nothing was found.
She sat on the boardwalk for hours – and just yards away from a woman who was brought a methadone fix by a friend.
A male arrived at around 2.20pm with a flask and gave her methadone, which she knocked back with a grimace.
The gardai maintained their presence throughout the day, with many of the deals happening as they brought yet another suspect to the local garda station.
By late afternoon, many of the dealers and abusers had moved on, aware that they were now being watched.
The ‘Beirut Boardwalk’ as it has come to be known, was supposed to help rejuvenate the city centre, giving the Liffey a Parisienne atmosphere.
Instead it has attracted alcoholics, drugs dealers and abusers.
The problem has now had a knock-on effect among city residents and led to protests from residents in Drumcondra about a proposed boardwalk along a section of the Tolka River.
The activities on the Liffey Boardwalk have guaranteed that no one wants a boardwalk anywhere near their home.

Edel Kennedy
© Irish Independent
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/ & http://www.unison.ie/

The shock horror ‘revelationary’ nature of this story is amusing – this has been going on since day one of the Eden Quay Boardwalk opening, and to a lesser extent Bachelor’s Walk previously. I’ve seen everything from dealing, to injecting, to drinking (constantly), to urinating (including group-huddling around a woman so she could do her business whilst shielding her from passers-by – bless, the consideration for public morality was touching) – all a day in the life of Eden Quay. And that’s not accounting for persistent nagging for cash from people sitting along Bachelor’s Walk over the past five years.

Since the Garda crackdown along Eden Quay earlier this year, exactly as Phil has said, the usual unfortunates have simply been forced to relocate to the Custom House area on a more permanent basis, rather than their circumstance actually being addressed. The intimidation they cause, and the extraordinary amounts of waste they leave at every scene, has simply been moved further east out of the city centre. Clearly others have moved in to take their place as demonstrated by the Indo, so it’s a complex matter. Garda

@kefu wrote:

There are some very fancy “lamp shades” on top of the public lights along the stretch of the Boardwalk between O’C Bridge and the Ha’penny Bridge.
Not sure what they are for but some of them looked in an Oriental style from my taxi, which was hurtling along Aston Quay yesterday evening.

As far as I am aware the lamp shades have been put up as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival that is going on throughout the city at the moment.

Spot on, JJD. This from Onsite@Archiseek:

https://archiseek.com/onsite/2006/07/dublin_fringe_festival_lantern_installation.html

EDIT: Damn you, PC, with your superior keyboard skills!

Long time lurker.

I read in the mail on sunday last week that the council are finally to move the kiosks from the bridge and admitted that they were a mistake and not working. They plan to move the kiosks elsewhere in the city to ‘return the view’ of the liffey

@GrahamH wrote:

So moving two or four of them? Would this be that gaping hole at the back of the big rendered WSC building on the corner?

It HAS to be all four, surely?

The only site that would fit that description is the patch of tarmac I think you’re referring to, Graham- under the ‘Why Go Bald?’ sign, where Mick Wallace had his containers for a good while.

(I’ve only just twigged the irony of Mick Wallace having his sheds by that sign!:) )