Daragh
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You’re right Graham, the maintenance of the street is quite good, but as you’ve said yourself, one cannot help but think that all the nice work is gradually being chipped and eroded away.
The new bins look as awful as ever. What’s more, the Council didn’t even bother replacing all the silver bins (it’s as if they want to remind us how much nicer they were) with the new manky ones, so we have a completely uncoordinated approach to the street furniture. Also, most of the bins, as is the case on Henry Street, have been placed randomly all over the street. No thought has been given to making sure there’s an even number of bins or that they’re parallel etc. to one another.
Those new electrical boxes look ridiculous, trees have been permanently removed to make way for the cleaning of the ‘self-cleaning’ Spire, and I’m not even going to comment on the ‘traffic pegs’ erected on the street to serve as a cycle lane. SOOO CLASSY!
It’s only a matter of time (at this rate two or three years) before the street looks as tatty, dirty and rundown as most of the others in Dublin. Such a shame.As an aside: is there anyone left who knows the difference between their, there and they’re any more?
Nope. I don’t think so!
Was just curious whether O’Connell Street had been repaved and fixed etc. after the destruction caused by the cleaning of the ‘self-cleaning’ Spire lol. I believe there was damage done to trees and pavement etc.
I have to admit the effect of the uprooted trees doesn’t look quite as bad as I’d feared but it’s still a disgrace and shows what lack of planning everyone in the DCC had when this monument was erected.
What’s more worrying, however, is the damage the installation of the crane appears to have done to the paving on the central median. What are the bets it takes the Council at least six months to fill in those blobs of tarmac? Pehaps they’ll never bother filling them in at all? That would be more like the Council all right. And now that the trees have been removed, that hideously ugly phone booth must be taken away ASAP. At a time when there’s a mobile penetration rate of 110% in the country, one or two phone booths on a street like this is surely enough as it is.
Even if the street is quickly restored to its original condition prior to cleaning, with trees being replanted and paving repaved etc., the fact that cleaning is supposed to take place again in another 18 months or so will render the work almost futile.
Holy God, I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again… is the Council capable of doing ANYTHING right? I was never a huge fan of the Spire but I was never against it either. But with all the talk of trees having to be permanently felled, bad design (the seams on the spire are so obvious to the naked eye), broken lights (let’s face it, even when the lights ARE working, the entire lighting scheme is still a joke), and cleaning needing to take place every 18 moths or so, I’m actually in now in favour of having the stupid thing removed.
Out of curiosity, how many trees had to be permanently removed? Will their removal greatly affect the tree scheme on the street?
Yes, the council did an excellent job with the trees (they had also done a good job with the bins by installing nice, contemporary, large silver ones, but as we now know that’s all gone wrong!)
By planting semi-mature trees they made sure that vandals or wind couldn’t knock them down or damage them. It also meant it took less time for the trees to have the desired impact on the street.
I’m always amazed at the ‘twigs’ which so many councils seem to plant in suburbs all over the country which are then broken or simply snapped by vandals a few days later. I live in Rathfarnham and there’s a stretch of grass just in front of Marlay Park which has had its trees replanted at least three or four times in as many years because of vandals’ actions. I know it’s not convenient or even possible to plant 100-year-old, grandiose, fully mature trees all over the city, but why the councils can’t plant trees that are at least a few years old and big enough to withstand the Irish winter wind and vandals’ actions is beyond me.
Also, by leaving sufficient space around the trees’ roots on O’Connell Street, the Council has left room for them to grow without destroying the new pavement in future years. Again, this is something that the councils appear to have overlooked in so many other areas of Dublin.
Truly hideous, although one wouldn’t expect anything less from DCC.
Does no one in the Council have any idea about how to make the city appear prettier? I agree that the Council has implemented many good initiatives over the past decade or so and has spent much time, money and effort on rejuvenation projects in the inner city. But when it comes to simple tasks like street beautification projects and street repavings etc. they’re a disgrace. It’s as much their fault as it is the citizens’ that Dublin remains such a dirty, unappealing looking city
I know we always say this, but you wouldn’t see anything like this in Paris, Madrid or Rome etc.
Those bins look truly appalling. What in God’s name happened to the nice, clean, silver ones that used to line the street? As happened with Henry Street after its redevelopment, the silver bins only seem to have been used for a few months before being replaced by older ones. Is it the case that the DCC couldn’t afford to rent them out for longer lol?
I’m in Sydney at the moment (in general, a very clean and well kept city, puts Dublin and the DCC to shame) so haven’t seen the bins first hand, But before I left Ireland in September, the council seemed to be ‘testing out’ several different types of bin, as there were at least half a dozen ghastly different styled bins littering the city. Is this still the case?
Has anyone contacted the DCC to ask them what the hell they’re doing?
Also, does anyone agree that Dublin doesn’t need more bins, but rather fewer bins that are simply bigger? Bins on a street can really detract from its character and look ugly. This is especially the case where the bins are badly designed and do not blend in with the surrounds, as is the case on Henry and O’Connell Street now that the silver bins have been removed. In my opinion, people who litter are always going to litter, no matter how many bins are beside them. Whereas people who don’t will walk the extra few metres to find a bin. Again, Henry Street is a good example. There seems to be an ugly, out-of-character bin literally every 10 metres and yet you’ll still see people dropping their rubbish on the street.
”This move calls into question the viability of some convenience stores, with some areas seeming to be close to saturation in some areas.”
Well you don’t say! I’m so surprised, and I have to say a little disappointed, that this type of thing hasn’t happened earlier and more often. As I always say here, I just can’t get over the number of convenience stores in the city. How thay all manange to survive when the market seems to be so over saturated is beyond me, but as they’re all still open, they must be getting by. Hopefully, with increased costs and rent etc. more stores will begin to feel the pinch and start to close down. Let’s hope some of those convenience stores are the ones in and around Grafton Street!
I have to say GregF I completely agree with you about the bins on Henry Street. They really don’t fit in with the ‘new’ look of the street. Does anyone have any idea why the Council got rid of the silver ones a few years back and replaced them with those awful, dirty black ones? It seems all the more surprising given that the Council has placed the new silver ones all along O’Connell Street. Furthermore, the paint or the iron or whatever it is on those black bins always seems to seep away after a few weeks and ruin the underneath paving surrounding the bins.
Having said that, I’m a huge fan of the new lights on Henry Street. Simple and reasonably elegant looking. I think the old ones were so tacky and cheap looking. An embarrassment really when one looks at the Christmas lighting erected in major cities like Paris, Strasbourg and even Oxford Street in London. What bugs me though is that the Council never seems to test the lights properly before they put them up each year. If you look at some of the Christmas lighting on Exchequer Street, George’s Street and even Grafton Street you’ll see that half the bulbs aren’t working on some of the decorations. It makes cheap and tacky lighting look even worse.p.s. I know this post doesn’t really concern O’Connell Street but I wanted to reply to Greg’s comments
I think it is just for litter control. How sad I know, but Irish people are probably the dirtiest in the world, with no respect for public places, so unfortunately it had to be done I guess.
It may not be as bad if all the fast-food outlets were replaced by coffee shops, but it wouldn’t be much better either as there’d still be a major lack of choice regarding the use of the outlets on the street..
em, Kefu…that exact opinion is what allowed O’Connell Street to turn into the big, dirty, smelly dump full of tacky convenience stores and fast-food outlets that it is today!!! O.K. O.K., so they’ve tried to spruce to street up a bit, but until there’s actually a reason to go TO O’Connell Street rather than simply pass THROUGH the street to get to Henry Street, then it’ll never be the grand, majestic, fashionable boulevard which the Council, and almost eveyone else I’d presume, want it to be.
You should also note Kefu that major cities all over the world have extremely strict guidelines concerning what goes where in their prime city-centre locations. London is a good example, where Oxford Street has strict limits relating to the location of fast-food stores on the street, as the London authorities recognise that the street needs to remain a retail-based shopping destination. If fast-food outlets want to set up shop in the capital then they simply go to Leister Square or wherever.
I don’t know why so many people have difficulty understanding the benefits of some light regualtion regarding the opening of shops in the cty centre. Everything else in our lives is regulated by the government in some shape or form, so why not this?Dallas, as Stephen quite rightly pointed out, this isn’t necessarily anything to do with Starbucks itself, or ideed anything ‘anti-American’. There’s a wider issue here which concerns the use of prime city-centre locations for tacky shops, such as convenience stores, or mega chain stores. And while Starbucks itself may not have any other outlets in the city centre for the moment, there are already dozens upon dozens of coffee shops in the city centre. Again, as I keep on saying, having a Starbucks on Fosters Place doesn’t really help with the Council’s plan of diversifying the retail mix which the city centre offers. A good selection of high quality shops/restaurants is what is needed to keep the city centre thriving and ward off the competition posed by out-of-town shopping centres (which by the way offer an amazing selection of restaurants and clothing stores).
Dallas, you also say that – ‘I would be challenged to find a part of the city centre not graced with an O’Brien’s. It’s totally hypocritical (and very Irish!) to get all upset over the arrival of Starbucks when infact we’ve done quite a good job creating our very own version.’Is this not therefore a perfect reason to make sure that we don’t worsen the situation by allowing Starbucks/coffee chains to do the same all over again?
As for what should go there, I think a high-quality, up-market clothing store would be perfect. Practically every major fashion label in Europe is trying to get a presence in the Irish market, so I’m sure any number of takers could be found.
Kefu and Dallas, just because there’s a Centra convenience store two doors up from the proposed Starbucks site doesn’t mean that the coffee chain should automatically get the go ahead to locate on Fosters Place. If anything, that’s a reason to stop it! This is a prime city-centre location and one which could be used for much more useful and fashionable purposes!
A bland, multinational coffee shop which has thousands and thousands of outlets all over the world is hardly going to add to the supposed high-quality retail mix which the Council is trying to achieve in the city centre! Trust me, in a few years’ time, Starbucks will probably have a store on every street in the country, just like Spar and Centra have now! That may be fine, but they shouldn’t be allowed do it in such important locations, right beside protected Georgian buildings.Although what’s said about the rent levels in relation to convenience stores is ture, you’re forgetting that a new convenience store just opened near the middle of Grafton Street. Like Thomond said, how they manage to afford the sky-high rents is beyoned me, but they obviously do as othersiwe they simply wouldn’t be there! However, the main problem as I’ve already said, is that the city centre is being flooded with these bloody stores. There’s a Mace/Spar/Centra store on every corner! It’s really beginning to diminish the choice for shoppers in the city.
In relation to the new Vodafone store that’s opening up, I think that Vodafone is simply moving its second store from its current location because of its size. Thus, at least we’ll be spared from having THREE of the same shops on the one street.Actually, I think the whole issue of paving in general needs to be looked at properly by the Council. While the new paving they’ve used in places like O’Connell Street and around Stephen’s Green is a welcome improvement, it does need to be cleaned regularly in order to maintain its original appearance. However, this is something which the Council seems totally unprepared to do.
What I can’t understand though, is that even in places where the Council is putting down new paving, they’re doing it with ugly, old, cheap, grey stones that look dirty and worn even before they’ve been put down! The paving put down around the entrance to the new Bank of Scotland (Ireland) premises on Stephen’s Green is a perfect example, as is the paving that was put down the entire length of Camden Street and George’s Street around 3 years ago! Here, the paving looks as if it’s been there for over 20 years! I really wonder about the Council…The main reason why Dublin city is so dirty, and will remain so for the distant future, is quite simply because its citizens don’t give a shit.
I’m always amazed at how little Dubliners care for the city in which they live. Whereas littering would be something that would be grossly frowned upon in almost every other European country (bar the U.K. perhaps), it seems an entirely exceptable thing for people here to do. Whether it be throwing away your McDonald’s bag, spitting out your chewing gum, or even urinating on the streets, it’s all an O.K. thing for people in Dublin to do. And with regards to the debate surrounding the problem of chewing gum, I think the stuff should simply be banned. The Environment Minister’s response to the problem was simply a joke, and a perfect example of politicians bowing to corporate interests.
However, it’s not really just a Dublin problem, it’s a country-wide problem. I don’t think there’s really a single town or city in the entire country that could be called clean by European standards.
Nevertheless, I do think Dublin City Council could clean up its act a bit (excuse the pun lol). Bins should be cleaned and emptied far more regularly, and the actual street pavements themselves should be cleaned with high-pressure steam hoses at least once a week to get rid of the dirt, as opposed to simply the litter, on the streets.
Also, all those Buscar Bruscar bins all over the city should be replaced with the stainless steel onces that are currently on O’Connell Street. They’re bigger and they don’t smell as bad! Seriously, the smell which is coming from those bins on Grafton Street these days is just ridiculous! Indeed, the smell on Grafton Street itself is pretty bad! I think the street is really in need of repair. Perhaps now that the final stage of the O’Connell Street improvement works is about to begin, the Council will consider improving our main thoroughfare south of the Liffey?This doesn’t concern O’Connell street directly, but I read with interest today that two of Grafton Street’s current vacant premises are going to be occupied by … wait for it… a Mace convenience store and another mobile phone outlet! The mobile phone outlet will be run by Vodaphone, which already has TWO shops on Grafton Street alone! As for the Mace convenience store, does anyone not think that we already have enough of these bloody shops in the city? Can Dublin City Council, or whoever the hell ‘manages’ the city, not place some type of restrictions on the type of shops that open up on our main thoroughfares?
We’ve only just begun to realise the damage that was done to O’Connell Street by allowing all those tacky shops, convenience stores and fast food outlets to open on it. And yet the Council now seems to be prepared to stand idly by while the same happens to Grafton Street! I really dispair with this city sometimes..
