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I complain about the state of Dublin a lot, but god, Blanchardstown is textbook Edge City.
My ma lives on a residential street that has an all day stream of ratrunners in Mercs doing 60+ kmh past a bunch of ineffectual traffic calming measures.
The destinations here are...
My ma lives on a residential street that has an all day stream of ratrunners in Mercs doing 60+ kmh past a bunch of ineffectual traffic calming measures.
The destinations here are...
... all car parks with an occasional shop attached nearby. The amount of land used for car storage is unbelievable.
Meanwhile, houses everywhere have multiple cars outside, belonging to adult children who can't afford anywhere to live.
Yet so many politicians will still...
Meanwhile, houses everywhere have multiple cars outside, belonging to adult children who can't afford anywhere to live.
Yet so many politicians will still...
... prioritise the complaints of the ratrunners and nimbys and fight to the death for the status quo.
Blanchardstown is, I think, larger than Galway or Limerick at this stage, but it has no real centre. It's a giant dormitory suburb for Dublin city, and my neighbourhood of...
Blanchardstown is, I think, larger than Galway or Limerick at this stage, but it has no real centre. It's a giant dormitory suburb for Dublin city, and my neighbourhood of...
... Stoneybatter pays a significant price for this.
I've been thinking a bit on what I will submit for the @DubCityCouncil development plan, but really, the futures of Stoneybatter and of Dublin are just as tied up in what @Fingalcoco, @dlrcc and @sdublincoco do.
I've been thinking a bit on what I will submit for the @DubCityCouncil development plan, but really, the futures of Stoneybatter and of Dublin are just as tied up in what @Fingalcoco, @dlrcc and @sdublincoco do.
The governance structures of the city are a disaster, which, I suspect may not be entirely unintentional, given a strong, functional Dublin government would be almost as powerful as the Dáil.
I spend most of my time down in the weeds agitating for cycle lanes and bollards...
I spend most of my time down in the weeds agitating for cycle lanes and bollards...
... but increasingly I think significant reform of our transport governance and local government is the key to Dublin breaking the gridlock and becoming a proper, modern, well-functioning city.
Public transport is key to unlocking land for development and solving the housing...
Public transport is key to unlocking land for development and solving the housing...
... crisis, but PT is entirely the responsibility of national entities and government. So we have TDs from outside Dublin controlling what transport Dublin gets. Which means Tallaght and Blanch, which would be in the top 5 largest cities in the Republic if counted separately..
... from Dublin, will only be connected to each other by a single, twice-hourly bus under BusConnects.
Our LAs, which get blamed for failing to build housing and being nimbys, can't build PT to enable it. Yet for decades the state has had little interest in building it either.
Our LAs, which get blamed for failing to build housing and being nimbys, can't build PT to enable it. Yet for decades the state has had little interest in building it either.
LAs can't borrow to build either, nor can they boot out other state entities that waste huge amounts of city land.
Yet even if they could do both, there'd be no political support to do so, because we have no political executive in our LAs. We have large numbers of individual...
Yet even if they could do both, there'd be no political support to do so, because we have no political executive in our LAs. We have large numbers of individual...
... councillors, whose support for the big picture stuff tends to disappear as soon as there is any prospect of a negative local impact in their ward.
So positive change takes an excruciatingly long time, and we get crises in housing, transport, climate, and health.
So positive change takes an excruciatingly long time, and we get crises in housing, transport, climate, and health.
Eh, anyway, I'm not sure how a single whiney tweet about how car-centric Blanchardstown is escalated into this thread, but if you are still reading, thank you for coming to my TED talk.
