urbanisto
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Is it seasonal shit…I never realised! 😀 I actually say the guy cleaning the Boardwalk yesterday. What a crap job! Boomboom!
The head of the public lighting department I guess. Be on the website. The heritage officer might also be a good person to get onside.
poor Seamus….he was a visionary.
Had a DCC-rented crew out opposite our house this weekend to repair a pavement that had been dug up by ESB. Smack bang in the middle of this pavement is one of those ‘never been painted-never will be painted’ lampposts of Dublin leaning at a 45o angle. Any chance of the lads straightening it….just for the hell of it. No way…look quirky left like that I guess. Adds to the charm of the place.
Still could you imagine anyything worse than living in one of those prim and proper sterile cities where
1 roads get resurfaced regularly
2 pavements are kept in good repair and of uniform quality
3 signage is informative, practical and does not dominate the streetscape
4 galvinised steel has never been heard of
5 paint has!
6 some degree of aesthetic is applied to the style and location of ‘street furniture’
7 ‘tree’ is not a dirty word
8 people are trusted to be able to use a pavement without the need for (the ugly) bollards and railingsWhats the likelihood of the street being completed for St Patricks Day? Or Bertie’s Military Extravaganza at Easter? There is still a lot of work to do. However the first section (Plaza to Abbey St) seemed to have been competed in noi time once they had a bit of pressure applied (for the May Day Concert that never materialised). Perhaps they can get some speed up in Feb.
Meanwhile the GPO is still under wraps!
Dont forget that its still a building site down at GCD hence all that grime and dirt. Mind you seems wverywhere is like that these days.
Im sure that wont be a huge issue…its not a particularly large piece anyhow. I think the scheme looks great and to think the Abbey could have had all this by 2008 if they’d have accepted the DDDAs offer and not got lost in the political machinations. I think we’ll be lucky to see the new Abbey before 2012….in fact a 2016 project would be more realistic. But back to GCD. There are plenty of ground floor retail and restuarant units built into the new builds on the dock. All it takes is a few brave entrepeneurs I guess.
The Orbital Route signage was wholey a DCC project. The DofT just vetoed the first design as they have final say on all roadsigns errected. A note sent to Owen Keegan when the original scheme ran into problems got the response that DCC Traffic would be working with Roads Maintanence to remove all the unnecessary poles. But as we can se that never happened. This is also part of a general problem with poor roadsignage in the city. There is too much of it in my book. Every bus lane requires a plethora of signs to announce it…why not just paint them red! There are signed up for City Centre, M50 and N11 on every route but no logical outline of how to get there. Even this signage system deosnt really help you navigate your way clearly around the city. I bet noone pays any attention to J20 (Blue) or J15 (Purple). Its a pity the CC werent as quick to plant some trees as they are to put up an unused galvinised pole!
Whats a ‘New York’ style development. Will it be ‘a stunning new development’ full of ‘luxury’ retail units and offering a ‘unique retail experience’ to the shoppers of Dublin. Honestly hyperbole knows no bounds these days.
My smart remarks aside the plan sounds very interesting. I noticed Arnotts already have a bargain shop in GPO arcade. The redevelopment of the Abbey street area in particular would be ver welcome. The construction of Luas was a bit if a missed opportunity to redefine the street and make it into a more pleaseing thoroughfare. Likewise for Liffey Street.
It will be very interesting to see what plans Arnotts come up with for this major site. This whole area is indeed being radically altered. Anyone see the film on RTE2 last night about Moore Street in 1974. What a grim place! All those vacant lots pre-Ilac centre. It really highlights how low things went and how much they have improved.
Anyone been through ‘Quartier Bloom’ recently. Lost more new units opened up and the area looks so much better for it. Its truning into a lively little spot. A bit of planting to soften all that cold granite and grey aluminium wouldn’t go amiss though.
This builkding is finally cmplete and open for business. From a quick glance ….it looks the business in side. Overt attentative staff make it difficult to have a good mosey around. The paving out the front gives way to the bombsite of Mary Street…no effort made to integrate it into to the Henry Street scheme. The dvelopers have put in permission to ereect a wall and railings around the whole church which will unfortunately remove it from its surrounding and ruin the potential (if anyone was proactive enough) to create a new public space at this point. Hopefully the CC think so. The way is then open to rremove traffic permanently from this small stretch (currently the case I think) unify the paving scheme and convert the dull retail units opposite into much needed restaurants or cafes. The perfect little spot!
Aah the aul perenial lump of tarmac and crappy grouting. Still things are getting better. Juts lokk at OConnell St with its fine new paving. It will be spanking in a couple more months. And isnt there a new maintaintenance regime inn place to help it stay like that. Well look a little closer…. the section from Abbey St to the Bridge. On the east the chaps are busily beavering away to complete the paving works while on the west side the paving has been in place since early this year. However the observant among you might notice the lovely patch at the junction with Abbey St ripped up for utility works of some sort and carefully replaced with… tarmac! And the roadway. The tarmac here was relaid a little better but they forgot one thing. The line of small cobbles that seperate the paving from the roadway all along the street. Sure they were only a gimick anyway.
No FFers turned up. The only FG person was a Dublin City Councillor who admitted his views in the party are not mainstream. Quite depressing really. The contributions from Eamonn Gilmore (Lab) and Catherine Murphy (Ind Kildare North) were particularly good although would Eamonn walk the walk if he was Environmnet Minister after the general election.
On the other side there were a number of presentations from academics. John Sweeney’s gave a startling overview of just how things will change over the next 50 years. Dr Mary Kelly of the EPA gave, in my view, an appalling prersentation. Just a collection of anodyne facts that her secretary probably compiled, a lack of knowledge on key points such as how much emissions we produced in 2004 (still dont know Dec 2005), what factors are causing them to fluctuate etc. Very poor and makes you wonder at her competency…but then she was a Martin Cullen appointee.
At one point the debate was highjacked by lobbyists from the cement/bricks/construction industry telling us how environmentally friendly they actually were. As if they havent had enough opportunity to put their case forward at Ballybrit each August. All in all not much of a Civic Forum (though well attended) more the usual suspects caring and sharing.
In fairness they dont leave it there for a week either….its removed very regularly, at least in the city centre area. Its just we tend to generate alot more!
