d_d_dallas

Cork is the second city – and none of the above has ever happened – why should it happen now? The government basically takes Cork for granted and ignores it wholesale. Example the redev of the School of Music. I aggree with everything said above about Cork being in need of TLC. Some backwater with a cute hooer TD is more likely to get a decentralised government department.
There’s great potential for the place – it has great history, the food, the interesting location of being on an island etc… all underused.
Cork as a whole has kept up with Dublin in terms of the “Boom” – but this came at the expense of the city centre – there are more and better shops and offices in the suburbs. There’s a constant battle between Local Authorithies for commecial rates etc. This is only going to get worse with the Owen O’Callaghan’s massive Mahon Point Dev.
There’s a palpable sentiment in the city these days that enough is enough, and even the City Council recognises where it went wrong. I think there is/will be movement to redress issues in the coming few years.

Basically one of the big points behind the whole city plan was that the bus station was going to be moved behind City Hall (site of the post sorting office) and the train station was going to be turned “around” to face the city rather than hide as it does at present. So that is why both stations were left untouched and not polished up ala Heuston and Connolly. But of course both stations are at the mercy of a *well run efficient semi state*, CIE – so for many many years noise was made and nothing apparently happened. Then CIE announced that they were not going to bother moving the bus station to the new site, and so far have taken FIVE years just to pick a developer they are willing to talk to about the POSSIBILITY of developing the train station. Someone in the Docklands Dev office obviously had a seizure as the new bus station was supposed to kick start that whole plan – this also neatly ties up with Cork in 2005 as Euro City of Culture – and this is currently being used as the excuse to finally push some plans through in Cork (example three major new hotels are mooted in the city centre).

Anyway – it’s all a cover up just to have something that looks semi decent in time for 2005 – the station buliding itself will remain untouched (structurally) and some fancy looking canopies are being put out in the loading area – nothing more.

Wasn’t there a clothes shop there at some point – with the price of a T-shirt averaging what a suit costs in another shop!

I hate to say it… but if there was a super pub down that end – there would be a draw of people and there’d probably be a knock on effect to other businesses.

Yeah – the photos are excellent

Great to hear traffic dropped by 70% – but does that mean a like for like increase in public transport usage into the centre or does it mean people “rat run” around the outskirts, or just not go in at all?
Probably not an issue if the area is a small one. But 8 sq miles of central London…

Yeah – Glasgow did suffer more than the rest of the UK when it came to those high rise council jobbies. New stuff there is very impressive though.

I don’t think it’s a defence to say that high rise is cool – once it’s in the docklands – which let’s face it is not really a part of town as most people experience it. That is not to say we need a 50 story block in O’Connell St – but I think we need to face fact that Dublin has to become alot more dense before it reaches Athlone (sic)