college green/ o’connell street plaza and pedestrians

@rumpelstiltskin wrote:

Because it’s literally packed with historical buildings of national, even international, importance that you barely notice because of its tiny broken up pavements and ridiculous amounts of traffic – as well as a lot of the shopfronts and facades being uncared for. The whole street smells of neglect.

I actually think thats all part of the charm and character of the street which makes it unique. But it certainly could benefit from some improvements as long as the character is not destroyed as they (DCC) did with the entrance to Dublin Castle, they should be ashamed of that mess.
Dame street always reminded me of typical Manhattan streets with the intresting collection of shop fronts and heavy traffic, it would be a shame to steralise these natural features from the street.

The litany of disasters that are the bus gate ‘improvement’ works at College Green continue as ever.

The latest ravishing addition of an industrial-girth galvanised steel pole right next to John Henry Foley’s exquiste representation of Henry Grattan flanked by those iconic seahorse lamp standards. My, how municipal pride in the public realm has simply collapsed in just a century.

And don’t ya just love the flourishes of tarmac. It’s these little touches that make all the difference eh? :rolleyes:

And of course the pole lends an additional column to proceedings at the Bank of Ireland. Pearse must be rolling in his grave.

And as for these yokes.

I thought I’d leave all the other (many, many) scenic delights for a decent camera.

That’s a good idea. Anybody interested in some guerrilla gardening in College Green?

There’s a few of those poles around. Probably for very helpful signage.

The whole bus gate project is a disgrace. A real example of Roads Engineers in full flight and not an urban designer in site. You would have to wonder why we pay for a City Architect (and department)

There’s some some unfortunate roof plant boxes and other clutter on the crescent buildings in Puerto del Sol.
They should really try to restore roof sillhouettes in that job, given Sol’s prominence.

The College Green job is horrific. The Herald reported on it on Monday:
http://www.herald.ie/national-news/city-news/calls-to-halt-digging-up-of-antique-granite-pavements-1807781.html

“A spokesperson for Dublin City Council said that they would not cease works and they are not reviewing the situation at the moment.”

Good old City Council. Heads in the sand.

‘Sure why not just review the whole situation after we’ve finished making a total disgrace of the area, eh?’

Drivers warned over College Green
In the long term this might actually decrease pedestrian traffic because before people would hope off early and walk?

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0720/breaking47.htm

@fergalr wrote:

Well the air is unbreathable enough now with the current level of bus exhausts. I await the re-routing of more buses through CG.

The Department of Health don’t seem to bothered either do the EPA…
I remember there was a black slick slurry lurking around around until they resurfaced the area.

@Devin wrote:

What about this? The city council’s Roads Maintenance Division have just laid those studded pavement tiles here in the middle of Temple Bar to help the visually impaired cross the road …. even though this is a PEDESTRIAN AREA where there is NO TRAFFIC.
.. really …

While I agree those studded slabs are ridiculous, that street is actually in use by vehicles at certain times of the day, so I’d say that was their reasoning.

@Devin wrote:

What about this? The city council’s Roads Maintenance Division have just laid those studded pavement tiles here in the middle of Temple Bar to help the visually impaired cross the road …

Seems like they’re leading the visually impaired into a pole! 😮