Poor residential offering in Limerick City

zulutango

It struck me the other day when it was announced that Uber are setting up in the city centre that a lot of the employees are going to want to live in the city centre. The problem for them is that there's an incredible shortage of decent accommodation here. Much of what's on offer is sub-standard.

It is sadly the case that many of the newer developments are the worst. Mount Kenneth, Harvey's Quay, Steamboat Quay, Haymarket, Broad Street, Johnsgate, Windmill apartments are either poor developments or outright tenements.

There seem to be some exceptions, namely The Strand complex, Carlton apartments. Riverpoint apartments are ok, but not great.

The Georgian part of Limerick is mostly crumbling and while it could be a very attractive residential quarter, there's huge issues. Many of the buildings have been poorly renovated into bedsit apartments targeted at social welfare recipients / HSE problem clients. The latter, particularly, have a tendency to drag whole streets down. Upper Catherine Street and Upper Cecil Street are bleak these days. The landlords don't seem to care as long as they are getting their basic rent.

The medieval part, again, could be great, but it's got its problems too.

No doubt when Uber starts hiring there'll be an influx of workers from outside the city, and for the reasons above many will advise them to live in the suburbs or as far away from the centre as possible. This doesn't help the situation, of course.

So, how do we change things? Are there active roles to be played by the council, developers and landlords?

Silentcorner

At the heart of the problem is Irish people's approach to cities. If you go through all 5 cities they are all in some kind of mess, Dublin being the biggest, has all kinds of deep issues, if we can't get Dublin right it make's it harder to get the rest right...

We need to reevaluate how we develop sustainable affordable quality accommodation in our city centres heretofore (with the exception of the examples you gave) it has been left to developers who by their nature will build anything that passes basic regulations without any consideration to the long term effect of poor accommodation standards.

I think we should use public money, or public/private funding to build high quality accommodation (in single/double/triple bedrooms) suitable for living for both individuals and families, so on site maintenance/security available at all times, communal areas, the financial return will not be short term but it shouldn't be short term.

The Georgian areas in the city centre are highly problematic, they are not suitable for offices, they are all owned by different private individuals with different individual financial issues, it can be very restrictive to change any part of the origional structure...but as I see it the only purpose of these buildings can be accommodation, I'd love to see the georgian areas given a new lease of life as high quality sustainable accommodation, it would give that part of the city a great new lease of life, lets be honest when they are well looked after they look beautiful.

As for office space, we need to build up, and to be fair we already have (Riverpoint) and if I remember correctly there were plans to build as high again before the bust, I'd imagine it is only time before we see some kind of high rise development in the city centre again especially seeing that the hanging gardens could well have a tennant before construction even begins...building high rise buildings is not a problem in Limerick unlike other cities....

zulutango

All great points there!!

Silentcorner wrote: »

At the heart of the problem is Irish people's approach to cities. If you go through all 5 cities they are all in some kind of mess, Dublin being the biggest, has all kinds of deep issues, if we can't get Dublin right it make's it harder to get the rest right...

You're very right. We just don't value cities at all in the same way that the British or continental Europeans do. Everybody seems to aspire to a house in the country, or at the very least the suburbs. In a way you can't blame them, seeing as the cities are in such poor shape. It's a catch 22. People won't live in the cities because the cities are a mess, and the cities are a mess because people won't live in them. I guess that's why it's up to council, developers and landlords to take a lead and break the negative cycle.

As for Dublin, I'd suggest that our problems are easier to overcome because of our size. Fix a few streets, get a few quality apartment blocks built, put an ambitious street refurbishment plan in place and things could start to move quickly.

Silentcorner wrote: »

We need to reevaluate how we develop sustainable affordable quality accommodation in our city centres heretofore (with the exception of the examples you gave) it has been left to developers who by their nature will build anything that passes basic regulations without any consideration to the long term effect of poor accommodation standards.

I wonder can the Council take a more active role here. Can they impose more stringent guidelines on developers and landlords, with a view to bringing about a radical change in the city, or are they limited by the regulations set by national government. Further to that, do the council particularly care?

Silentcorner wrote: »

I think we should use public money, or public/private funding to build high quality accommodation (in single/double/triple bedrooms) suitable for living for both individuals and families, so on site maintenance/security available at all times, communal areas, the financial return will not be short term but it shouldn't be short term.

Well said! Then again, maybe developers aren't interested in long term investments.

Silentcorner wrote: »

The Georgian areas in the city centre are highly problematic, they are not suitable for offices, they are all owned by different private individuals with different individual financial issues, it can be very restrictive to change any part of the origional structure...but as I see it the only purpose of these buildings can be accommodation, I'd love to see the georgian areas given a new lease of life as high quality sustainable accommodation, it would give that part of the city a great new lease of life, lets be honest when they are well looked after they look beautiful.

I wonder will the The Living Cities Initiative work. Time will tell.