If, over time, the Spire (needle!) does indeed begin to stitch the city centre together, and dismisses a northside/southside divide is it the intention of the City planners to substitute this with an Eastside/Westside division?
i.e. sprawl and suburbia to the west in the M50 catchment areas and commercial and concentrated development to the east and inner ring of the city?
I would imagine so… The way forward for the eastern city seem to be for higher density building making maximum use of land and with more extensive public transport (DART, LUAS buses). So many areas in the east are ripe for re-development. I am sure in 10 years time we will be debating the largescale redevelopment of Ringsend and East Wall, I can’t see how they can stay as they are – turn of the century low-rise..in some case cottages. The city centre will continue to expand and as the sea is a natural buffer the only way will be upward.
West of the city on the otherhand, there is no shortage of County Councils willing to sanction suburban sprawl to attract wealth and development. I reckon you will start to see townships like Blanchardstown and Lucan/Leixslip and Tallaght becoming cities on themselves. Because of their proximity to Dublin we will end up with one vast conurbation with plenty of land to the west for it to grow….