5 Simple Ways to Improve the City

7th Jul 2014

Cork has some great new assets like the new bike rental scheme, the dedicated contra-flows for cyclists, the new band stand and grassy area in Fitzy’s Park, the opening of Elizabeth Fort and the (albeit seemingly never-ending) regeneration of Barrack Street. We tend to hear more about the ones closing down but new businesses are opening every week too.

Last week our newly elected councillors called for us, the Cork public, to start talking to them about our ideas for the city. While fancy long-term strategies and artist-impressions of the future are all great, sometimes we can overlook the obvious warts festering on the good skin we have already grown – particularly when the solutions are obvious and cheap. 

1. Peace and Prohibition
Drinking in public is illegal yet next to large bold signs that warn of fines of up to 600 euro for drinking alcohol in Bishop Lucy Park, our one public space in the city centre, you’ll almost invariably find red-faced shouty ‘Martyrs to The Drink’ lining the park’s benches knocking back cans with impunity.
 

The peace park has served Cork well but of late its getting a bit too gatty.

Tourists who pop in for a look at the city walls turn on their heels once they see the large groups of alcoholics panned out on benches surrounded by a sea of beer cans. The bushes on the Tuckey Street side are used all day as a public toilet by patrons of the virtual ‘Peace Park Pub’ and during the recent warm dry spell ordinary punters were subjected to inevitable wafts of urine – hardly a place to find ‘peace’.

We shouldn’t want to brush the country’s problem with alcohol and drugs under the carpet but we don’t want the problem panned out and knocking back cans on the nice rug in our ‘good room’ either. We need more Garda patrols in the park and for the law to be strictly implemented. 

2. Graffiti Patrol
In some city districts, notably in areas of London, local councils have teams of volunteers known as ‘Street Watchers’ – they have at least one on every street and roadway keeping them informed of everything from illegal dumping to anti-social behaviour. One of the most impressive schemes run in Ealing was a graffiti patrol unit: basically two lads going around in a van with solvents, paint and cleaning equipment. Their secret was just perseverance. And some elbow grease:

Some langer would spray a tag on a wall. A street watcher would call it in and the council would remove it within a few hours. This would of course irk the disenfranchised ‘artist’ who would return and tag again – determined the give two fingers to ‘the system’. The council would come back shortly afterwards and paint over it. Then ‘Leonardo’ would do it a third time. The council would remove it again. Eventually, in the face of such dogged resistance the taggers got bored and went home to their Playstations. And now that council area is graffiti free.
 

A recent simple paint job on derelect buildings on Market Lane didn't cost the earth but really tidies up the street

There are scores of buildings in the city centre, especially around the Marsh that are destroyed with graffiti – and not the interesting artistic kind. George Boole’s old house, ironically just yards from a paint shop, and many of its dilapidated neighbours are plastered with graffiti and tags for years. Kyle Street, South Main Street, North Main Street, Sullivan’s Quay have had graffiti on them for far too long. How about a new crack unit with the task of totally eliminating all graffiti from the city centre by Christmas?

3. One Foot in the Rave
It’s rare that something laid on by a local authority gets such a vehement thumbs up from its young citizens but when Patrick Street was closed off to traffic one Saturday afternoon in 2005 and dotted with club sized sound systems and mini-raves we all thought it would be no-brainer to make it an annual event.
 

More of this please

A repeat of this great event with a selection of the city’s bigger clubs getting a dedicated stage (a tasty advertising opportunity for all of them) would bring thousands into the city on an otherwise dull Saturday afternoon. Rebel Week Part Deux, anyone?

4. Young at Art
There’s a building full of fantastic artists and creative types in the old Fás building on Sullivan’s Quay, right in the heart of the city we should be using them, Berlin-style, to add their creativity and colour to the city centre – be it murals, painted manholes, knitted ‘socks’ on lampposts, flags or bunting – we need their help to make Cork stand out even more from the rest.
 

Excellent artwork elliminated a wall stewn with tags

5. Fronting Up to Manky Shops
In the unenviable task of trying to encourage new businesses to open in the city we may be compromising some of our standards. Particularly since the recession, too many gaudy plastic shop fronts have appeared on the streets we showcase to tourists.

Discount stores, gold-exchange shops and more recently those pedalling e-cigarettes are largely responsible for a plague of gaudy plastic shop fronts that would make a blind man wince.
 

Potentially beautiful buildings that haven't had a decent paint job in decades along with gaudy frontage take the gloss off Pana

Increasingly, the architecturally impressive upper floors of buildings on Patrick Street and Grand Parade are negated by the tacky frontage of ground floor tenants. Accepting cheap tat on our main streets for the sake of lowering the vacancy rate and the promise of a few retail jobs will do nothing for tourism and it will effect the entire city’s trade long term. Plus, we have that Lonely Planet reputation to maintain, like!

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