{"id":47026,"date":"2025-09-06T09:18:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T09:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/47026\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T09:18:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T09:18:11","slug":"from-public-baths-to-scrapping-gated-communities-10-things-to-make-the-city-better-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/47026\/","title":{"rendered":"From public baths to scrapping gated communities, 10 things to make the city better \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past year, I\u2019ve been working on a podcast series called Saving The City, examining the issues cities are still facing post-pandemic, and, using Dublin<\/a> as a jumping off point, offering practical solutions to address them. As a European capital, Dublin city centre remains underpopulated, expensive, behind the times regarding amenities, public space, and cultural offerings, and increasingly less attractive as a destination. But it doesn\u2019t have to be this way.<\/p>\n

Discourse around Dublin often takes the shape of existential fatalism, or overly concerned with its reputation as a tourist offering. What also emerged during the dozens of interviews with international and local experts, is that we have things the wrong way around when it comes to addressing the city\u2019s issues. A top-down approach or superficial interventions will not tackle the fundamentals. We need to address the quality of life of those who call it home, from the ground up.<\/p>\n

There are multiple potential approaches one could take to do this, but were those tasked with \u201crevitalising\u201d the city to focus on a single one, then there is a very clear pathway: address the needs of working-class communities living in the city centre. By focusing on the needs of people who aren\u2019t rich, the direction of the city becomes honed on livability rather than \u201cexperience\u201d. An experience is temporary. Everyday livability is robust and long-term. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Gay Spar, the George\u2019s Street Arcade, traffic junctions: 52 reasons to love Dublin right nowOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Were the needs of people who aren\u2019t rich met (and that can include Dubliners who live in the city generationally, new immigrant communities, students, and populations with less disposable income more generally), a different kind of city would emerge, one that would be more appealing to everyone, including international tourists, office workers, middle-class communities, people journeying into the city from Dublin\u2019s suburbs and around the country, and so on. When we look to the needs of working-class communities, public housing becomes a priority, public space is improved, public amenities become more numerous, street-life becomes more vibrant, local businesses are more supported, markets multiply, community wealth-building can happen, co-operative models come into play, civic pride is enhanced, and safety through social cohesion, vibrancy, public happiness, and a thrumming urban ecosystem is achieved. <\/p>\n

All of this chimes with the guiding principles we foreground on this podcast series: the urbanist Jane Jacob\u2019s foundational philosophy on a collective approach to urban life that ultimately serves everyone, and where capital and property ownership don\u2019t exert a disproportional influence. Jacobs wrote that: \u201cCities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because and only when, they are created by everybody.\u201d While the series is packed with big ideas and radical solutions, here are 10 lesser-thought-of things that would improve Dublin. <\/p>\n

Public bathing amenities <\/b><\/p>\n

A public Lido in George\u2019s Dock, diving amenities on the Liffey, and rebuilding derelict public baths on the city coast would dramatically enhance recreational facilities in the city. Dublin Bay is a Unesco biosphere, but is dogged by poor water quality. Looking to Paris\u2019 ambition for making the Seine swimmable should be our goal for the Liffey. <\/p>\n

Address build-to-rent development soullessness<\/b><\/p>\n

Build-to-rent<\/a> blocks have sprang up around the city but the alleged ambitions of fostering new communities and goals of \u201cplace-making\u201d tend to end at construction hoarding declarations. Rent<\/a> is too expensive, and street life is absent. Empty ground-floor commercial units need to be opened up to community groups, arts collectives, and others, to breathe life into these developments.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Middle-aged renters: \u2018At this age, unless I won the Lotto, how would I afford anything?\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Tackle racist crime<\/b>\"UnitedUnited Against Racism and Dublin South-West Together demonstration against racism near Rua Red, The Square, Tallaght, earlier this year. Photograph: Dan Dennison <\/p>\n

Safety is spoken about a lot in Dublin city, yet missing from the conversation is that many of those made vulnerable to violence are people of colour. Government needs to get serious about tackling racist crime, abuse, harassment and hate on our streets.<\/p>\n

Reforming licensing laws for more vibrant and diverse night-time culture<\/b><\/p>\n

After dark, our draconian licensing laws mean there are few late-night options, with essentially nothing happening after 2.30am. Midweek nightlife is especially threadbare. The long-promised licensing law reform hasn\u2019t happened, curtailing business activity, reducing the number of nightclubs, limiting options for tourists, and rendering the city\u2019s streets desolate at night. Licensing reform isn\u2019t a panacea, but it would help.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Just how did Ireland end up with such weird licensing laws?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Open school playgrounds at weekends<\/b><\/p>\n

On our first episode, the urbanist Carlos Moreno (who popularised the 15-minute city concept<\/a> drawing from Jane Jacobs\u2019 theories) details a simple initiative in Paris where schoolyards were opened at weekends and are also being greened. This results in a network of mini-parks across the city, and utilises what already exists, creating \u201cnew\u201d public space.<\/p>\n

Co-operative models for purchasing buildings and creating community-owned enterprises<\/b>\"BohemiansBohemians FC club climate justice officer Se\u00e1n McCabe. Photograph: Sportsfile <\/p>\n

Financing needs to be much more accessible to groups pursuing co-operative models and interested in everything from saving community spaces to starting grassroots initiatives with public good at their heart. One leading force for this in the city is Bohemians FC<\/a>, who under club climate justice officer Se\u00e1n McCabe<\/a> have attracted Bernie Sanders and Mary Robinson to endorse their initiatives. <\/p>\n

An abundance of public seating<\/b><\/p>\n

Public seating should be much more present on retail streets, and across the city centre. The more public seating there is, the more welcoming streets are to the elderly, young families, and teenagers. The more people can hang out without a commercial transaction, the more people there are on streets, and the safer they are.<\/p>\n

End gated communities in working-class areas<\/b><\/p>\n

Luxury purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) gets built in areas of Dublin city where people are least likely to go on to third-level education and have the most acute housing needs. This is where public housing, not PBSA should be built. Gated PBSA developments in working-class communities embed a sense of segregation, and foster resentment and a feeling of disorientation in one\u2019s own community. <\/p>\n

Lighting<\/b>\"TheThe old orange lights, which gave the city\u2019s sky its distinctive sepia hue for more than 70 years. Photograph: Getty <\/p>\n

In 2023, Dublin City Council<\/a> began \u201cupgrading\u201d public lighting, replacing 40,000 light bulbs with LED lights. While the goals are to address energy efficiency, the impact on ambience has been less successful. Increasingly, public lighting is white and glaring. Lower lighting with its glare shielded is better for insect life, and a softer, tungsten-like glow generates a more pleasant ambience for people.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0From candles to LEDs \u2013 the transformation of Dublin\u2019s lightsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

A coherent design aesthetic<\/b><\/p>\n

Dublin desperately needs a coherent design aesthetic across street furniture, paving, signage, bollards, street lights, and everything one of our podcast guests \u2212 the Financial Times architecture and design critic Edwin Heathcote – calls \u201cin-between architecture\u201d. The city\u2019s \u201clook\u201d has become jumbled and ad hoc. Protect what\u2019s charming, and stick to a design identity that speaks to the capital\u2019s character, not the anywhere-ness of cheap homogeny. <\/p>\n

Saving the City launches on all podcast platforms on September 10th<\/p>\n

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