Bray - A kip - And I'm from bray !

foxy06 · 08-09-2011 6:58pm

MrMickeyMouse wrote: »

The thing is though, it's not just the promenade that makes a town and attracts the money in. Having terrible traffic jams along the Dublin Road and the graffiti over everything also takes away the shine from the once popular Bray of the 50's and 60's.

There is no point having a spotless seafront with zero crime when the rest of the town and 'burbs is left to suffer, don't know about you but I don't live on the promenade and my part of Bray is covered in dumped litter and graffiti!

I was just saying that I disagreed with the poster that said the council need to do something about the beach. In my opinion its about the only part of Bray that doesn't need a whole lot of work. And for the record I live a good bit from the beach!!

The main thing I think should be on the agenda is the sight people see when they get off the DART. The first thing tourists see when they get off the train isn't a pretty sight.

Tippex · 09-09-2011 2:34pm

foxy06 wrote: »

I was just saying that I disagreed with the poster that said the council need to do something about the beach. In my opinion its about the only part of Bray that doesn't need a whole lot of work. And for the record I live a good bit from the beach!!

The main thing I think should be on the agenda is the sight people see when they get off the DART. The first thing tourists see when they get off the train isn't a pretty sight.

I presume you are toalking about the old cashNcarry. I believe but am open to correction that this is owned by irish rail and it is up to them to do anything I believe the council are more or less powerless with this (don;t get me wrong I'm not a council fanboy and yes they have made a huge arse of the town over the last 15-20 years)

Alun · 09-09-2011 2:39pm

Yes, I think that whole frontage is owned by CIE/Irish Rail as they have paid parking on the bays along the front of the shops opposite the station. Wouldn't surprise me if they owned the shops and the Cash and Carry land too.

Community Police Bray · 10-09-2011 4:50pm

They do not own the cash and carry land.

MyPerfectCousin · 10-09-2011 5:32pm

Community Police Bray wrote: »

They do not own the cash and carry land.

Who does own it?

Also, off topic, can anyone confirm the cash and carry building was once a venue known as the Arcadia Ballroom (in the 1950s-60s) and briefly Fillmore West (in the 1970s).

I've been told the stage is still intact, that the cash and carry simply worked around it.

Maybe however there was a different building on the same site that was a venue...

Judgement Day · 10-09-2011 6:06pm

It was the Arcadia Ballroom back in the 1960s.

10-09-2011 6:06pm

I heard that too. Don't know if it's true or not though. There used to be a big room above the Hibernian that was a gig place. Anyone remember what it was called?

brayblue24 · 12-09-2011 10:40pm

Despite everyting that has been said here I have to give praise where it's due for the high standard and the considerable amount of, road re-surfacing, that has taken place lately in and around the town

tc20 · 13-09-2011 10:00am

Deleted User wrote: »

I heard that too. Don't know if it's true or not though. There used to be a big room above the Hibernian that was a gig place. Anyone remember what it was called?

The Mississippi Rooms is sticking in my mind, im fairly sure that was it.

re The Arcadia/Cash & Carry building - i think the Cash and Carry is a newer building, or a redevelopment of the original, on the same site. I've been in it and there's definitely no stage as such that i can recall. My parents actually met there (in the Arcadia in the late 40s)

Judgement Day · 13-09-2011 10:08am

tc20 wrote: »

The Mississippi Rooms is sticking in my mind, im fairly sure that was it.

re The Arcadia/Cash & Carry building - i think the Cash and Carry is a newer building, or a redevelopment of the original, on the same site. I've been in it and there's definitely no stage as such that i can recall. My parents actually met there (in the Arcadia in the late 40s)

I think you're right about the Mississippi Rooms and the Cash & Carry IS what was the Arcadia Ballroom - I lived only a short distance away so I know that for a fact. The original Arcadia burnt down in the 1960s and was replaced with the horrible building that was later adapted into the Cash & Carry.

moomooman · 13-09-2011 11:07am

I live in Bray and while it could be a nice place, and it has amenities that most places would kill for, they are never exploited and the small efforts made to spruce the place up are immediately destroyed by the towns feral humans.

The beach is even dangerous in broad daylight never mind at night, thanks to the crowds drinking alcohol and smashing bottles on the beach front, locals and visiting Dubliners. Seems people think the place is the wild west and behave accordingly, cant really blame them when you wont see a Garda actually enforcing the law i.e. prohibiting drinking on the beach. Why is it not possible to allow drinking on a beach in Ireland? Plenty of other countries (Australia) make a virtue out of it, even providing public barbeques on the beach, which would be destroyed overnight in Bray.

Its embarrasing to see foreign tourists with their families surrounded by gangs of drunk skangers in their trackies roaring abuse at each other. Saw a Muslim family being attacked by Bray kids while the kids' father threatened to kill the Muslim father for telling the skangers not to attack his family. I was shocked at my own surprise that the Muslim man actually called the Gardai. I suppose in normal countries threatening someones life is a serious matter. A real family atmos...

The management of the towns business affairs has been catastrophic, Florentine center, wasnt there a standoff in how high it could go before it was abandoned? However they got some things right, like refusing the Tesco expansion (no room and it would have been the death knell of the main street) and dropping the notion of building a huge retail/residential area on the bray golf course floodplain....:rolleyes:

</rant>

catch me if you can · 13-09-2011 11:18am

I was born and bred in Bray and I moved away for work. I hope to move back someday if things get better here economy wise.
Bray is and could be a little gem of a town. It has some truly beautiful areas. The surrounding mountains are spectacular and whenever i come back to bray to visit family the second the sugarloaf comes into view I feel like i am home. The beach is beautiful and so much more could be done, esp the cove area.
What is destroying Bray is unfortunately the people. The gangs of scumbag teenagers, and scumbag parents,What’s making the scumbag element worse is not the estates (there are good people in them!), its unemployment. High unemployment in the town is also contributing to the massive drug problems.Even the so called normal decent young people who use recreational drugs, just have no cop on to see simply by buying drugs they are fuelling the drug problem and the criminal element grows.
I was saddened to see the drug shop on main street and thankfully I heard it is now closed down.The council made a huge mistake holding up the Florentine centre for years. And also the closing down of the cinema was another dark day.It was just as bad when Lenihans closed down.
The town needs an injection of cash, short of someone winning the euro millions and opening some much needed business in the town I can’t see it happening.

Annasopra · 13-09-2011 11:51am

Folks - could we please stop referring to the people of Bray as feral and scumbags

13-09-2011 11:58am

I actually don't blame Drink and Drugs for Brays demise and the behaviour of the local skangers. It's really easy hto use a big Drink/drugs brush and paint them all the same but I believe it's incorrect to do so. Alcohol and drug abuse are symptoms but not actually the disease.
That, in my opinion is all about lack of respect. They have no respect for their town and no respect for themselves. This obviously isn't just Brays problem, but it's a problem I see all over Ireland.
I don't want to be one of those "Blame the parent" types, but that is generally where we learn our manners from. In Ireland, it has always been a good thing to get one over someone. Paid too little for an item? Bargain. Get away with not paying your TV licence? Fair play, there's nothing on the box anyway. Look at the parents that get told by teachers that their offspring are trouble, "Sure what would they know" is a usual response.
I lived in Vienna for a year and the difference in how children are raised is astounding. There was one particular street, about a kilometer long, with a set of traffic lights in the middle. Everyday it amused me to see people with children (Sometimes without) waiting to cross the road as the red man was up. You couldn't see a car 1/2 a kilometer in either direction, yet they still waited. It was all about teaching the kids respect from a young age.
But more importantly, what can we do about it?

When I was a kid, my gran lived in Charnwood, and twice a year, at the start of summer and the end, flyers were posted in all the houses saying the residents committee were having their "spring clean" of Charnwood on a certain weekend, please help out. I'd say the turnout was about 60-70% of residents including kids turned out, rubber gloves on and cleaned the estate up, mowed all the verges, trimmed the shrubs, that sort of thing. It fostered in me a real, "Don't mess this place up, as we'll all have to clean it afterwards" attitude. Which has stuck with me all my life. People need to remember that instead of it being the councils responsibility, it's ours. We're an awful lot more powerful than most people think, but it just takes a little bit of effort from our part.
So it's one thing I'd do. If it was to work in partnership with the council, where they'd provide a few skips for rubbish in return for people cleaning their estates it would be even better.
In the area of crime, for small crimes (small possession, drunk and disorderly and other minor crimes) I would give them all long stints of visible community service. Cleaning graffiti off the walls of Main St, tidying up (not necessarily street cleaning as the unions would be protesting about that) the main st. But giving them something to remind them that this is their town too. And if they mess it up, they'll have to clean it up.

It's only a small thing, but enough small things make a big thing

catch me if you can · 13-09-2011 11:59am

apologies sorry its just hard to call them anything else if you have lived there and seen it firsthand.

MrMickeyMouse · 13-09-2011 2:29pm

It's only a small thing, but enough small things make a big thing

Yep, start at a very early age with the please and thank you's. Teach them to pick things up that they drop and teach them that respect is not just for parents, but teachers, shop workers...in fact anyone.

You can't start at the age of 19, you have to start young. And don't get me on the subject of lazy ejits that claim benefit and do sod all!

13-09-2011 2:37pm

MrMickeyMouse wrote: »

Yep, start at a very early age with the please and thank you's. Teach them to pick things up that they drop and teach them that respect is not just for parents, but teachers, shop workers...in fact anyone.

You can't start at the age of 19, you have to start young. And don't get me on the subject of lazy ejits that claim benefit and do sod all!

I'm sorry to say, but we can't adopt the highlighted attitude. The fact is while it's important to start when they're young, these 19 year olds are going to have kids (if they haven't already!) and they'll be raising them in their way. Unfortunately with not a lot of respect.

So, while we can teach our kids to behave with respect, what do we do with those that are "too old to learn"? Do we just forget about them? That niggles me, as for this town to get back to work again, we're going to need everybody! I really don't want to see it as a foregone conclusion that nothing can be done and that we'll be living in a Mad Max version of Bray in >10 years!

As for the other part, unfortunately it seems to be modern human nature on this Island. Maybe if they saw other people doing things on a long term basis, they might feel compelled to get off their asses and try something?

Annasopra · 13-09-2011 2:59pm

Folks

Maybe some of you could start yourselves by volunteering with Bray Tidy Towns and Bray Coastcare - they are always looking for volunteers and encourage all of your friends/family to do so too

http://braytidytowns.weebly.com/about-btt.html

http://braycoastcaregroup.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=1

Also - Comments about Social Welfare Scroungers etc are off topic and I will delete them from now on

MrMickeyMouse · 13-09-2011 3:25pm

I guess the end result will eventually be the situation in the UK recently with widespread disturbances and eventually the local communities standing up and saying enough is enough.

Don't get me wrong I totally agree we should not give up on older people, but we also need a law that is present on the streets and enforces the rules already in place.

As we all know, drinking in public is not allowed in most of the town, dropping litter is illegal, yet I'm going to get very rich with my new aluminium can recycling business!!

So, isn't it about time we had extra law enforcement officers actually on the beat, handing out on the spot fines and making sure the fines get paid. They would make €€

Whilst we're on the subject of Bray..lol...looking forward to the traffic jams when Lidl opens..sigh...oh and when on earth are you going to put a decent slip-road into the Woodbrook Glen estate and relieve an awful lot of the queues at the lights...

Oh yeah....you were too busy building fancy apartments no one in Ireland actually needed...sigh...rant over...back to looking at the lovely blue sky!

Judgement Day · 13-09-2011 3:47pm

Without wishing to nit pick the first thing Bray Tidy Towns Committee need to do is tidy up their website. Second word in....as Chariman!! There are other spelling mistakes and typos littering the front page - can nobody in Bray use Word or spellcheck? The photo on the front page also shows the horrendous lighting on the promenade - and the missing seatbacks - and apart from all the litter and graffiti problems there needs to be a grand plan drawn up to return Bray to its Victorian splendour while there's still a chance.

Thought I was seeing things when I came across the above pic - that cast iron seating backing used to run almost the entire length of the promenade.

The public road was separated from the grass by another type of ornate cast iron fence too now replaced by awful bollards and chains.

Like Bertie **** all done and a lot more to do.

MrMickeyMouse · 18-09-2011 12:03am

The latest bit of fun seems to be throwing large fireworks at houses in Woodbrook Glen area, causing house alarms to go off for hours on end, dogs to hide scared and families frightened.

Will we see extra Gardai patrolling the valley area and the estate? Will we feck! So it looks like it'll have to be a baseball bat (sadly the law says i'm not allowed) and a bit of community action! Grow some balls Gardai and do something!

Bray is a kip at the moment, undisputable.

Annasopra · 18-09-2011 12:30am

MrMickeyMouse wrote: »

Will we see extra Gardai patrolling the valley area and the estate? Will we feck! So it looks like it'll have to be a baseball bat (sadly the law says i'm not allowed) and a bit of community action! Grow some balls Gardai and do something!

Advocating violence will not be tolerated in this forum. Under any circumstances.

Witcher · 18-09-2011 12:32am

MrMickeyMouse wrote: »

Will we see extra Gardai patrolling the valley area and the estate? Will we feck! So it looks like it'll have to be a baseball bat (sadly the law says i'm not allowed) and a bit of community action! Grow some balls Gardai and do something!

Bray is a kip at the moment, undisputable.

Has anyone actually called the Gardai..they haven't got spidey sense you know?

MrMickeyMouse · 18-09-2011 2:09am

Twice they were called, 35 mins to respond so i'm told, each time. As I said, as much use as a chocolate tea pot.

Kip comment remains.

LEIN · 18-09-2011 2:21am

MrMickeyMouse,

Banned for a week for ignoring Mod warning and breach of forum charter.

catch me if you can · 19-09-2011 8:13am

I have to agree the guards are disgraceful in Bray. I was up visiting 2 weeks ago and my mother in laws window was smashed in by teenagers. she is elderley and respectable and it was just a bunch of idiots throwing stones at random houses.
anyway she has cctv (long story basically had to get it after home heating oil stolen twice ), sao we rang the gurads. here we are with cctv evidance. they say they would be up to us in the hour.
I was there 2 days and they never showed.
welcome to Bray, you may as well be entering the wildwest but instead of horses and guns , we have pitbulls and syringes. and from all accounts in yesterdays sunday world! we have guns too.

foxy06 · 19-09-2011 11:09am

Yesterdays Sunday World was not the best advert for the town!

Ophiopogon · 20-09-2011 2:03pm

I have to say I really don't think bray is that bad. I've lived here for about 15 years. I've worked all over bray. It has its rough spots and has its d!ckheads.
But really I don't know anywhere that doesn't.

I think its great how green bray is as well as the great views (the sea,the mountains) and the litter situation has improved over the years.

I had my car stolen a few years ago and I found the gardai grand.

I would have a problem with the traffic in and around bray and I would question the council bright idea for giving planning to Lidl at one of the worst traffic black spots. But I would really question a lot of Bray and Wicklow council decisions.

Otherwise I hate when people say Bray is a kip as in my experience its people from outside bray that say this to me.

Judgement Day · 20-09-2011 2:32pm

I lived in Bray for the best part of thirty years and while I wouldn't call it a kip, it is not a very inviting place anymore. Yes, the surrounding countryside is still beautiful but even that has been messed up by urban sprawl and Bray Head is no longer the safe place to roam that it once was. Also whoever gave permission for the housing development at Briar Wood (?) - half way into the beautiful woods off the Bray/Greystones road needs to be shot bayonetted.

Tippex · 20-09-2011 10:14pm

foxy06 wrote: »

Yesterdays Sunday World was not the best advert for the town!

missed that don;t suppose there is any chance of getting the article posted?