The Friday View 09/09
New shiny bins for the city, Cork County Council want to make Bandon beautiful again, Madeline McKeever will be talking seeds at Togher Community Garden and about that so-called Pana ban.
City centre changes and sameness
A few weeks ago a friend sent me a short news piece from the RTÉ archive featuring Jennie O’Sullivan reporting from “Pana” in 2007 as work was underway to rebuild Dunnes Stores and develop the site at the former Examiner offices on Academy Street.
It was a wet and miserable day, much like nearly every day this week, and in the short news segment (it’s just over 90 seconds long) Jennie packs a lot in, including a few soundbites from locals and an interview with a city council executive. She also provides context - the redesign of Pana by Spanish architect Beth Gali had been completed - and Grand Parade was also getting a face lift with a “€300m redevelopment of a whole block of the street including a new city library”.
Cue images of a shiny new city library. That never happened.
On the plans to pedestrianise the main thoroughfare through the city centre, a transport executive from the City Council briefly outlined how it would work: “the banning of cars for some periods of the day, but we will allow in buses and taxis.”
In that respect, that’s what has transpired, but it’s all a bit meh. The fact that it’s routinely referred to as the “so-called Pana ban” more or less signifies what people think of it.
Private cars are banned between 3:00pm and 6:30pm, but enforcement of the ban has routinely been criticised by councillors. That too is a bit of a cop-out, because unless the council and the Gardaí come to an agreement to station police at either end of St. Patrick’s Street every day, you wonder how else such a ban would be enforced?
Also, what is currently happening is that motorists who comply with the ban, take the alternative route through Daunt Square down Corn Market Street to reach the quays. That route north is narrow and usually chocablock with pedestrians. Adding more cars on Daunt Square is a hugely, undesirable and unintended consequence of the “Pana ban”.
What’s clear is that since Jennie O’Sullivan’s report from 2007 not much has changed. We do have a new(er) Dunnes and a redeveloped Academy Street, but the so-called Pana ban still stands. As does the old (current) city library.
The Council have surely collected enough data to take a good hard look at the effectiveness of the current regime and make changes. As for the redevelopment of the City Library? That’s a story we’ll turn to soon.
-JJ
News in brief
New solar-powered bins. Same old job. This week Cork City Council officially launched its fleet, if that’s the right word, of new bins. There are 54 in total, spread across the city. According to the City Council, the bins cost €240,000 and the funding was secured under the Litter Infrastructure Support Grant Scheme from the central government. Officially they’re called ‘Future Street – Big Belly’ bins, and according to a press release from the City Council they can hold eight times wore waste than the bins they replaced. What's more, sensors on the bins notify council staff when they need to be emptied. The council says that “this new technology will mean fewer collections, lower collection costs and fewer emissions. In addition, the fully-enclosed design means they are bird and vermin-proof, can be operated using a foot pedal and provide data on which streets generate the most binned litter.” So they’re not only collecting litter, but data.
Make Bandon beautiful. Again. Cork County Council released details of a new €100,000 fund “to make Bandon a more vibrant and colourful town.” According to the County Council, owners of commercial, residential and unoccupied buildings in the town will be eligible to apply for money to upgrade building fronts. The council goes on to say that eligible projects include upgrades to building facades, artworks, murals, lighting, street furniture and canopies. It will be interesting to see if the Council fund for example a mural that would make an unoccupied building pretty. Surely, the goal here would be to make an unoccupied building occupied?
(Another) cycle survey. Dr Eileen Hogan, a social policy lecturer at UCC, has compiled a survey to get more information about the state of cycling and not cycling in Cork. It’s a good time to launch a survey on attitudes to cycling, given the return to school. Bicycles do not feature strongly in the mix of getting to and from school. It’s a comprehensive survey, makes use of international comparisons, and gauges attitudes on using and sharing data. All data collected will be anonymised. You can read more about the survey here.
BusConnects Cork returns. In fact, it will be holding community forums beginning next week on Tuesday, September 13 and running until September 19. The forums are intended to provide more information and communication on the development of the Sustainable Transport Corridors, but attendees must register first with BusConnects. There are five community forums which cover the 12 bus corridors. According to BusConnects, “the aim is to create two way communications with local communities allowing information and feedback to be relayed clearly, quickly and accurately.” More information here.
Planning watch:
Cara Shore Hotel were granted planning permission by the City Council for the redevelopment of the former circuit court, a protected structure, on Camden Quay. The original submission had a rooftop bar, but that was withdrawn and replaced by 10 long-stay suites. In fact, the new development consists of 53 long-stay suites and 148 hotel bedrooms. Amongst the submissions was one from local residents Fiona O’Toole and Cónal Creedon who welcomed the development, but highlighted the need for car parking spaces in an area that is already short on spaces and especially as people staying in long-stay suites would likely need access to a car, and somewhere to park it. They also referenced the side profile of plans for the new building as seen from Pine Street saying they are “aesthetically dreadful” adding that “this is an opportunity for Cork City Council Planners and the developers to rise above the dross of recent buildings and create something to be proud of.”
We shall see.
Collage of the week
Out + About
🎸Take the train to Glounthaune this weekend for Up Start, a one-day music festival taking place at Craig’s Field. The music is curated by the The Glounthaune Vinyl Club and the event is organised by the Glounthane Community Association. First gig is at 4pm, and the festival runs until around 10pm. In the line-up are The Cliffords, Love Buzz, First Class & Coach, Little Known and Fonda. Tickets here.
Time, date, place: 4pm-10pm, Saturday September 10, Craig’s Field Glounthaune
🌱Here’s one planters and growers will definitely not wants to miss. Madeline McKeever of Brown Envelope Seeds in West Cork will be coming along to Togher Community Garden this Saturday morning where she will be giving a workshop on harvesting and saving seeds. It’s a free event and all are welcome.
Time, date, place: 10pm, Saturday September 10, Clashduv Park, Togher
🖼Remaining Places: The work of 20 artists responding to the quote “Where power was, there beauty shall reside” (Ann Bermingham) is currently on show at Fota House and Gardens. “Remaining Places” is curated by Blackwater Artists Group director Elaine Coakley, and network artist member Andrew Carroll. The exhibition features work from Helen O’Shea, Tina Whelan, Bernadette Tuite and many more. More information about the exhibition and exhibiting artists here.
Time, date, place: 12pm-3pm daily, September 14 - 30, Fota House, Arboretum & Gardens Fota Island, Carrigtwohill
🎨Mise en scène, Part II naturally enough follows on from Mise en scène, Part I, but moves from Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda to the Crawford, specifically the sculpture galleries in the Crawford. Part II comprises twenty small works by Dublin-born painter Eithne Jordan that respond to museum interiors in Ireland, France (where Jordan also lives), and the United States. Many of Jordan’s paintings feature sculptures which she sees as serving a multitude of purposes, but principally as a way of introducing the human figure into the institutional space.
Time, date, place: open daily from September 9 to December 4, The Crawford Art Gallery, Emmet Place
🖼Braid, is a new collaborative show from Edith O’Regan, Amna Walayat, Samir Mahmood and John MacMonagle. The foursome are all members of Sample-Studios and it stems from a lot of Zoom calls as well as face-to-face meetings over the past year. The result is the aptly titled Braid which opens today in the Lord Mayor’s Pavilion. Walayat and Mahmood are Pakistani, MacMonagle and O’Regan are Irish and Braid is an exploration of their shared artistic experiences as well as their cultural backgrounds. More information here.
Time, date, place: 11am-5pm, Tuesday -Saturday, September 9 until October 1, Lord Mayor’s Pavilion, Fitzgerald’s Park
☕️Curtain Raiser: South Parish Community will be hosting a coffee and cake evening next week that’s designed to get people in the neighbourhood meeting and mingling. The Curtain Raiser will be hosted by Lyric FM’s Evelyn Grant and features a number of guests all residents of the historic city centre parish. Free entry, all welcome.
Time, date, place: 7pm, Thursday September 15, South Parish Community Centre, Sawmill Street
This week on T +D
On Monday we published the news that since the end of August there are currently 80 applicants for International Protection being housed in the conference rooms of Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Story in full here.
On Tuesday we took a look at how many of Cork’s 18 TDs are landlords, the rules around declaring financial interests and whether being a landlord is ultimately good for politics. You can read that story here.
On Wednesday we had a story about the launch of Cork Folk Festival which featured some bodhrán playing from the Lord Mayor. The festival kicks off at the end of the month. You can read about the launch and the full line-up here.
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That’s it for this week’s Friday View. Any tips, news or events you’d like to share with Tripe+Drisheen, you can contact either of us at jj.odonoghue@gmail.com or emailellieobyrne@gmail.com. We are always happy to speak to people off the record in the first instance, and we will treat your information with confidence and sensitivity. Get in touch.
