What does Cork need?

Faith · 09-04-2013 10:31pm

evilivor wrote: »

Big hole on Paul Street after Newport closed down - the latest of many in a city centre that's dying day by day.

The Newport closed down?!

Totally Tropical · 09-04-2013 10:32pm

evilivor wrote: »

Big hole on Paul Street after Newport closed down - the latest of many in a city centre that's dying day by day.

Cork has it's challenges because of this recession but referring to Cork city centre as dying is either A hyberbole or B wishful thinking.

evilivor · 09-04-2013 10:35pm

Faith wrote: »

The Newport closed down?!

Last week - twenty jobs went with it.

Totally Tropical · 09-04-2013 10:42pm

Here is a few posts from another site about this topic!

1
Town was packed on saturday during the day.
Loads of tourists around for the time of year.
Busy saturday night too.

2
I was in the Oval and the Mutton Dagger last Thursday and you couldn't swing a kettle in them.both were jointed.

3
Was in Electric last nite, the place was packed and 32 marlboro was jointed sat night, as was The Hub.

Places like the Pav and the Triskel are jointed all day long.

Cork is flying it.

4
The Franciscan Well does a roaring trade, is winning european medals and has been bought up by Coors in order to fulfill its export potential. A real Cork success story.

5
I'd worry about the echo and their methodology for this kind of thing.
They said the same before about oliver plunkett street and some ucc academic went down and surveyed it and found 95% occupancy at street level.

Faith · 09-04-2013 10:59pm

evilivor wrote: »

Last week - twenty jobs went with it.

I assume Mangan's went too?

calnand · 09-04-2013 11:35pm

Mangan's has been gone well before Christmas.

Faith · 10-04-2013 1:35am

calnand wrote: »

Mangan's has been gone well before Christmas.

Wow, I'm living in the UK and hadnt heard at all, or noticed over Christmas.

quietsailor · 10-04-2013 11:58am

pwurple wrote: »

I would love it if we could make more use of our rivers like they do in amsterdam. The river is so much cleaner now than when I was small and the place stank. River transport like a boat from the quays that went to blackroack pier, or the other piers around. Floating cafes/bars/restaurants/B&B's.

It has been tried but failed unfortunately. Two Cork businessmen tried to convert the Nautical College's old training ship the Cill Airne to a floating restaurant but the plan fell through, she's moored up in Dublin at the IFSC now as a restaurant.

ruaille buaille · 10-04-2013 12:18pm

Clean up Peace Park - its full of winos and scumbags. It would be a great place to go during the summer and have a picnic etc. They could have a few more childrens activities in there - facepainting etc. or people selling crafts.

Also agree with some posts about parking. I would prefer not to have a car and just get the bus but the bus service is so shoddy that I am forced to. A lot of the time the bus doesnt turn up or is really late and the cost is outragous!!
Was in London recently and they have a flat rate of 1.30 to on any bus. How is it more expensive here?!!!

the beer revolu · 10-04-2013 12:40pm

ruaille buaille wrote: »

Clean up Peace Park - its full of winos and scumbags. It would be a great place to go during the summer and have a picnic etc. They could have a few more childrens activities in there - facepainting etc. or people selling crafts.

Also agree with some posts about parking. I would prefer not to have a car and just get the bus but the bus service is so shoddy that I am forced to. A lot of the time the bus doesnt turn up or is really late and the cost is outragous!!
Was in London recently and they have a flat rate of 1.30 to on any bus. How is it more expensive here?!!!

The Peace Park is pretty clean - Electric bar and restaurant have a vested interest in keeping that area pleasant and used the glass pod @ Christmas as a hot whiskey/port bar.

In my experience, an awful lot of people who complain about poor bus services have not been on a bus in years.

There was a post in this forum recently where somebody was living in Ballincollig for about two years and in all that time had always used taxis because they feared that the bus service might be rubbish. They actually posted here asking about the bus service rather than just trying it out!

murphym7 · 10-04-2013 1:03pm

the beer revolu wrote: »

The Peace Park is pretty clean - Electric bar and restaurant have a vested interest in keeping that area pleasant and used the glass pod @ Christmas as a hot whiskey/port bar.

In my experience, an awful lot of people who complain about poor bus services have not been on a bus in years.
There was a post in this forum recently where somebody was living in Ballincollig for about two years and in all that time had always used taxis because they feared that the bus service might be rubbish. They actually posted here asking about the bus service rather than just trying it out!

I live in Douglas, never use the bus. Have tried a twice on two different days at different times to get the bus recently. Both times the bus did not turn up and it was the next scheduled that collected me, which was late. I was on time, in fact 5 minutes early both times and no bus turned up. That is poor, why would I try again with what in my experience is a poor service.

denhaagenite · 10-04-2013 1:05pm

When I was younger I really loved the Gingerbread House. Is Tribes gone aswell? Are we currently missing a decent coffee house? Those places literally kept us off the streets as kids

Ludo · 10-04-2013 1:47pm

In fairness the 206 from Douglas is a brilliant service. Very regular. I've never been waiting very long for one any time I use it. Same goes for the 205 which is the only other bus I ever use. You can check online to see real time info also to see when the next bus is going to be...dead handy.

Fabio · 10-04-2013 2:41pm

Didn't think this thread would garner so much attention. Might even send it on to the City Council as a brainstorm for them to look at. Cue jokes about how it will be used as toilet paper.

Anyway yeah Tribes is gone. Cafe Eco at the Webworkhouse does a job at replacing it and is open 24/7 but it's not what Tribes was. Too many kebab shops around the place really and Tribes is another one now!

I'd love to see a Luas style system, Cork used to have many light railway lines actually.

The Peace Park can often have a good few of the emo kids in there drinking and smoking and while they are hardly troublesome they can deter some from venturing in there.

As for Bishop Lucey Park, there are areas of that that people don't go into for fear of bumping into winos and the like. A better layout could help this a lot - take down some of the entrance walls so it is open to the streets. The walls on the South Main Street entrance could be taken down as it would become a bit of a right of way then and more foot traffic could make it a safer place.

Ultimately the closing of premises on Pana needs to be stopped. I don;t know how to go about this but for a main street it looks shoddy.

Solair · 10-04-2013 2:45pm

I'd like to see Cork getting an executive, directly elected, accountable mayor who could actually get some stuff done i.e. having some actual power rather than the talking shop that is the current mess.

I'd also like to see Cork getting control of its own public transport network i.e. city + commuter busses & Midleton/Cobh/Mallow rail should all be under a locally-managed Cork Transport brand with its own identity and an integrated ticketing system using contactless cards.

I'd like to see much better transport links to Carrigaline and Ballincollig too. E.g. Luas-style trams or some kind of 'bus tram' system with large capacity and more frequency during the day and opening a train station again in Blarney.

Other than that:

Buildings:

Pairc ui Chaoimh needs an urgent and serious upgrade (not sure if that's still going ahead, I know one was planned?)

Merchant's Quay needs a total facelift as does Patrick's Quay (opposite it)
They also need to do something to make Patrick's Bridge more attractive. There's no reason it should have had non-working lights for decades.

Also, please introduce street cleaning on a Sunday!

Final bits:

Re-open the Capital Cineplex as a cinema. It's nuts just letting it rot in NAMA land and it's detracting from the whole street scape of Grand Parade.

flo8s967qjh0nd · 10-04-2013 3:15pm

Where's the Peace Park?

Fabio · 10-04-2013 3:34pm

Almost forgot about the Capitol cinema actually...what a shame.

As for river boats, if it can be done in Dublin then why not here?!

evilivor · 10-04-2013 4:03pm

Alfredo Sweet Prison wrote: »

Where's the Peace Park?

Looking at that pic reminds me, saw at lunchtime that Moran's Florists on corner of Oliver Plunkett Street/Grand Parade, has closed down too.

Rhys Essien · 10-04-2013 4:06pm

Solair wrote: »

They also need to do something to make Patrick's Bridge more attractive. There's no reason it should have had non-working lights for decades.

+1. If they cant have the all the lights working on the main bridge in the city,its a bad job.

Also,there are lovely old lights on Parliament bridge and South Gate bridge and they dont work.:mad:

Also,the Cork Coat of Arms monument on Tivoli dual-carriageway,there are spotlights around it but they are not working.:mad:

Who is supposed to be in charge of maintainance?.

who_me · 10-04-2013 4:10pm

opus wrote: »

There definitely isn't enough use made of the water front in Cork. I took a walk around Galway last Sat evening & there were loads of people out along the various water frontage there having bbq's, picnics or just having a few cans or glasses of wine.

Lots of cities would kill for the sort of opportunity those old bonded warehouses offer but seems they are just being let deteriorate here

Would be great as well if at least one of the much talked about event centres actually went ahead. There was great publicity a few years back about the ARC arena but it didn't survive very long.

True. Considering the amount of waterfront Cork has, it's a shame so little of it is suitable for sitting down and having a drink or a bite to eat. It's either used for parking, or the path is so narrow it's barely wide enough for walking let alone setting out a few tables.

I wondered about the extended quays (I don't know what's the correct term).. I'm talking about the quays between the roadside and the river such as opposite the Lapp's Quay boardwalk, or the School of Commerce, or opposite the bus station; could these be renovated as areas for small cafe/bars? They're probably all in such a bad state of repair they'd need to be rebuilt, unfortunately.

Rhys Essien · 10-04-2013 4:12pm

The bridges badly need a power hosing as well.Limestone is meant to be grey,not black/green colour.

who_me · 10-04-2013 4:14pm

evilivor wrote: »

Looking at that pic reminds me, saw at lunchtime that Moran's Florists on corner of Oliver Plunkett Street/Grand Parade, has closed down too.

Fitzgerald's store on Grand Parade too. So sad seeing them all go.

who_me · 10-04-2013 4:24pm

Rhys Essien wrote: »

The bridges badly need a power hosing as well.Limestone is meant to be grey,not black/green colour.

Definitely.

In fairness, they've done a great job on Brian Boru bridge (I think that's the name of it) by the bus station, and the stone looks great where it's been cleaned. Not sure I'm a fan of the mutli-coloured lighting they've installed, but they've fixed the old lanterns too, so it proves it's possible! (take that, Patrick's Bridge!)

They've also done a great job on cleaning the quayside - probably along with repairs on the quayside on Pope's Quay and other areas, so there's hope yet.

quietsailor · 10-04-2013 4:46pm

murphym7 wrote: »

I live in Douglas, never use the bus. Have tried a twice on two different days at different times to get the bus recently. Both times the bus did not turn up and it was the next scheduled that collected me, which was late. I was on time, in fact 5 minutes early both times and no bus turned up. That is poor, why would I try again with what in my experience is a poor service.

When you say on time do you mean you were at a stop along the route at the time posted on the stop? Bus Eireann have a habit of posting the initial departure times from the terminus for the route at every bus stop. You then need advanced maths skillz to work out;

The level of traffic,
how eager the bus driver is
how long it normally takes the bus to get to that stop.

Once you've all that worked out you've still no idea what time to expect the bus at the stop :mad:

Cork24 · 10-04-2013 4:48pm

50 Meter Swimming Pool..

Flesh Gorden · 10-04-2013 6:22pm

Dream situation:

1)

Build at least one of the two bridges that were drafted for the Lower Glanmire Road
or even have a ferry across to the centre park road

either would help on match days or for people wanting to avoid the tunnel or city centre traffic to commute across the river.

2)

A proper North Ring Road linking the M8 and N20 on the north east side, and then onto Blarney and Carrigrohane/Ballincollig on the north west side, creating an actual ring road around the city

Instead of the poor excuse of what's known as the North Ring Road that turns into a 1 mile traffic jam starting across from Silversprings Hotel up the hill to the cross in Mayfield where it meets the traffic jam coming in the opposite direction

(when the lights don't work, traffic is never that bad)

3)

Less traffic lights.

I'm definitely pro roundabout; apart from the poxy one in Douglas by the Community School that's nearly always clogged up,
it's hard to find a roundabout in the city that doesn't help relieve traffic compared to a junction with a set of lights

murphym7 · 10-04-2013 7:40pm

Alfredo Sweet Prison wrote: »

Where's the Peace Park?

Too funny.:D

Sorry for quoting the big picture, it did make me laugh though.

AugustusMinimus · 10-04-2013 8:01pm

Flesh Gorden wrote: »

Dream situation:

3)

Less traffic lights.

I'm definitely pro roundabout; apart from the poxy one in Douglas by the Community School that's nearly always clogged up,
it's hard to find a roundabout in the city that doesn't help relieve traffic compared to a junction with a set of lights

It's the lights after the roundabout which are the problem, not the roundabout itself.

pwurple · 10-04-2013 8:24pm

Solair wrote: »

Also, please introduce street cleaning on a Sunday!

Final bits:

Re-open the Capital Cineplex as a cinema. It's nuts just letting it rot in NAMA land and it's detracting from the whole street scape of Grand Parade.

+1 on the sunday street cleaning.

On the capitol, I heard rumours of it being converted into an extension of the english market. Wishful thinking perhaps, but I'd love to see that.

Buses, I use a van during weekdays, so loading bays are my friend there. Saturdays we bus it. We are extremely well served by the 202, which goes ever 10 or 15 mins and is a great bus. st paddys day parade though, we were going to take the bus in (as all the radio stations were advising public transport). We hung around at that busstop for over an hour, 2 buses sailed past us and everyone else. They were running the sunday skeleton bus service, jammed to the gills.

keithclancy · 12-04-2013 11:00am

A Water tour starting at Lancaster Quay and Finishing at Bachelors quay would be great.

What does Cork need?

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