Dublin is an unadulterated kip

Billy86

StonyIron wrote: »

The only other city that I've been in that has the same level of junkie problems and run down areas right in the city centre, is Brussels.

Never knew that about Brussels. It's interesting too, because I'm pretty sure I've seen Dublin and Brussels regularly take the bottom two spots lists of "European capitals by free activities". Which is why whenever someone asks "what can I do in Dublin for the that won't actually cost money just to enter" the barrel begins to get scraped very, very quickly.

Idle hands...

realdanbreen

Billy86 wrote: »

One thing Dublin (and seemingly every town/city in Ireland) needs is more bins - a lot more bins. People give out about litter and it is true that there is quite an amount, but at the same time the authorities are not doing much to help when you can walk 10-15 minutes in the city centre without passing a single one, and well over a half hour outside of it.

Wheelie bins have been a hidden gem in this regard in residential suburbs - I've thrown crisp wrappers and the like in peoples wheelie bins sitting outside their garden probably 3-4 times more often than I have used a bin in these areas. Not to be rude to the bin owners or anything, but simply because there are no actual public bins to throw them in.

Several other counties are considerably worse for this, and I'm not talking about rural areas either. It's such an easy fix, but yet nobody seems to be f***ed because bins don't win elections, and clean streets can't easily be sold to the public by way of statistics. Another one of those situations where you have to wonder if the politicians/councils or the people/populace are more to blame.

That's it then! A few more bins and Dublin is ready to be included in the 'lonely planet of the Apes guide' or whatever it's called.

MilesMorales1

I think gardai should enforce the no littering thing, specially with cigarette butts. I don't mean hauling them off to a cell, like on the spot fines. And more gardai on the street in general, I see them on them talbot street and occasionally grafton, but the only times I've seen them on henry street or moore street is when they've had customs down there or whatever.

StonyIron

MilesMorales1 wrote: »

I think gardai should enforce the no littering thing, specially with cigarette butts. I don't mean hauling them off to a cell, like on the spot fines. And more gardai on the street in general, I see them on them talbot street and occasionally grafton, but the only times I've seen them on henry street or moore street is when they've had customs down there or whatever.

That's why cities need local police - should be dealing with things like urban traffic, public disorder, littering, being a visual presence on the street.

The Gardai should be for national issues and serious crime as the next step up.

You don't need a massive force but, just enough to maintain a visible presence in city centres where these kinds of issues are a problem.

You need someone with more authority than a litter warden but you don't necessarily need Gardai for everything.

Also those kinds of local police act as the eyes and ears for major police forces and can call where needed for support.

Ireland one size fits all national systems simply do not work.

At the very least we should have city police in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford and you're really not talking about enormous forces as all of the problems tend to occur in a pretty tight area where you absolutely need visible presence.

It's like a shopping centre - would you operate one without mall security?

I see no reason why Dublin, Cork, Limerick and even smaller places couldn't have some kind of urban street patrols especially at peak risk times.

Sofiztikated

StonyIron wrote: »

I see no reason why Dublin, Cork, Limerick and even smaller places couldn't have some kind of urban street patrols especially at peak risk times.

I see a glaringly obvious reason.

I'll give you a hint. CTRL, ALT 4.

Very Bored

I think the earlier poster missed out on Bord Failte's hit slogan...

Come to Dublin you silly mugs,
And see our citizens full of drugs.

osarusan

Dublin's ok, a bit shyte in places like any other city in Ireland.

At least it has some decent stuff to do, which helps to balance the shyteness.

walshyn93

MilesMorales1 wrote: »

I think gardai should enforce the no littering thing, specially with cigarette butts. I don't mean hauling them off to a cell, like on the spot fines. And more gardai on the street in general, I see them on them talbot street and occasionally grafton, but the only times I've seen them on henry street or moore street is when they've had customs down there or whatever.

Nah that would turn it from a dirty kip into an oppressive kip. Relations with the gardai would deteriorate significantly. You really have to go out of your way to get hassled by the Gardai at is it.

Very Bored

The adult version of the Failte Ireland advert could use the slogan:

Come to Dublin you f*****g p***k,
Our heroin addicted hookers will make you sick!

EazyD

booooring! wrote: »

It's really only people who are from Dublin think it's the best place to live in in Ireland. Anyone not from Dublin know it's a complete and utter junkie filled kip .

Calling all of Dublin a complete kip is stupid, like anywhere there are less than desirable areas coupled with other nicer areas. All the hate for the place appears to come from the country folk, smacks of inferiority complex.

Duggy747

Last time I was in Dublin I just stepped outside of Connolly station before a junkie came up to me and said "Play-ace buuud, can oi get teeeooo euros far dee luas?" before a woman started belting him across the head with a coke bottle shouting at him to give her back her fag.

"Fook off away from around meeee, ya tramp!"

Good times :pac:

Reiver

EazyD wrote: »

Calling all of Dublin a complete kip is stupid, like anywhere there are less than desirable areas coupled with other nicer areas. All the hate for the place appears to come from the country folk, smacks of inferiority complex.

What does that smack of Palesman?

Very Bored

@EazyD

Inferiority complex is nothing to do with it. Be realistic, does Dublin honestly look like a capital city? Its not at all civic, apart from in a few spots. If someone picked you up and dropped you in the centre of London, Rome or Paris, you'd guess straightaway that you were in a capital city. Yes they have rough and shabby parts of course, but the centres look like places you'd be proud to show to foreign dignitaries. You'd be embarrassed to show them Dublin. Yes, Ireland is smaller so Dublin will be smaller, but that's not an excuse. Look at Cardiff and Edinburgh, they're both beautiful in the centres. The only cities in Ireland which look civic are Belfast, Kilkenny and Galway, you could perhaps make an argument for Cork but not Dublin. Plus the insanity of giving free bus passes to every addict in the country and putting the methadone clinic in such a spot that they are drawn through the city doesn't help either.

EazyD

Very Bored wrote: »

@EazyD

Inferiority complex is nothing to do with it. Be realistic, does Dublin honestly look like a capital city? Its not at all civic, apart from in a few spots. If someone picked you up and dropped you in the centre of London, Rome or Paris, you'd guess straightaway that you were in a capital city. Yes they have rough and shabby parts of course, but the centres look like places you'd be proud to show to foreign dignitaries. You'd be embarrassed to show them Dublin. Yes, Ireland is smaller so Dublin will be smaller, but that's not an excuse. Look at Cardiff and Edinburgh, they're both beautiful in the centres. The only cities in Ireland which look civic are Belfast, Kilkenny and Galway, you could perhaps make an argument for Cork but not Dublin. Plus the insanity of giving free bus passes to every addict in the country and putting the methadone clinic in such a spot that they are drawn through the city doesn't help either.

Yeah right it's nothing to do with it. The post above ("palesman") is very telling.

MilesMorales1

Belfast city centre is soulless and drab. Highly unpleasant.

StonyIron

Sofiztikated wrote: »

I see a glaringly obvious reason.

I'll give you a hint. CTRL, ALT 4.

I've a Mac - that just launches Mission Control or summons the spirit of Steve Jobs or something...

For those of on various flavours of Linux it launches a terminal ...

Ignatius in bloom

Very Bored wrote: »

@EazyD

Inferiority complex is nothing to do with it. Be realistic, does Dublin honestly look like a capital city? Its not at all civic, apart from in a few spots. If someone picked you up and dropped you in the centre of London, Rome or Paris, you'd guess straightaway that you were in a capital city. Yes they have rough and shabby parts of course, but the centres look like places you'd be proud to show to foreign dignitaries. You'd be embarrassed to show them Dublin. Yes, Ireland is smaller so Dublin will be smaller, but that's not an excuse. Look at Cardiff and Edinburgh, they're both beautiful in the centres. The only cities in Ireland which look civic are Belfast, Kilkenny and Galway, you could perhaps make an argument for Cork but not Dublin. Plus the insanity of giving free bus passes to every addict in the country and putting the methadone clinic in such a spot that they are drawn through the city doesn't help either.

And yet amazingly its one of the top tourist destinations in Europe. Thankfully tourists aren't as big of scaredy cats as our own citizens.

awec

MilesMorales1 wrote: »

Belfast city centre is soulless and drab. Highly unpleasant.

Bollocks.

StonyIron

awec wrote: »

Bollocks.

That's what I said when I landed there too!

Ignatius in bloom

MilesMorales1 wrote: »

Belfast city centre is soulless and drab. Highly unpleasant.

I love Belfast. Its actually a cool city to walk around in and the people are very friendly. Some stunning architecture as well.

StonyIron

Belfast to be fair to it has a fairly nice city centre, especially around Donegall Square etc etc.

It has a good few very grim suburbs and serious social problems, but that's hardly a problem unique to Belfast.

Turtyturd

Very Bored wrote: »

. The only cities in Ireland which look civic are Belfast, Kilkenny and Galway, you could perhaps make an argument for Cork but not Dublin.

Comedy gold right here.

StonyIron

Turtyturd wrote: »

Comedy gold right here.

Ah the old slag cities off thing that Irish debates online always turn into.

Reality is that Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford are facing very similar problems - lack of autonomy, lack of local accountable control of urban services (especially transportation) and dysfunctional local democracy that can't shape how those cities will grow.

If anything the 5 cities need to form a powerful lobbying association and recognise they've a common interest.

Intercity slagging will get us nowhere.

whisky_galore

Irish Steve wrote: »

It's NOT just about junkies and chuggers, though they are part of the problems, it's about the feck ye attitude that means people don't give a fcuk about discarding their chewing gum all over the streets, or their dog ends where ever they are when they finish them, or their take away wrapping in whichever gutter is closest. or their bus/luas tickets on the ground as they get off the transport system. it's about election poster removers who leave the cable ties on the poles because they can't be bothered to clean up behind them, it's about utility companies that won't do a tidy job of installing service cables, and hang them randomly down walls without making them tidy and secure, it's about derelict building sites that don't have decent boarding on them, and that haven't been properly cleaned up and the debris removed,

That's Ireland as a whole (with a few exceptions) nailed.

Little sense of civic responsibility in any level of society from high end developers to the curiously named 'working class'. Everyone just out for what they can get...oh and I can throw my rubbish anywhere I like cos there's no bins (not my problem bud) and my dog can sh*te anywhere he likes cos I can get away with it. *cue cute hoor-ish wink*

WesternZulu

StonyIron wrote: »

Ah the old slag cities off thing that Irish debates online always turn into.

Reality is that Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford are facing very similar problems - lack of autonomy, lack of local accountable control of urban services (especially transportation) and dysfunctional local democracy that can't shape how those cities will grow.

If anything the 5 cities need to form a powerful lobbying association and recognise they've a common interest.

Intercity slagging will get us nowhere.

Galway has nothing like the problems that Dublin has, you don't walk around Galway and see the sort of degradation that you see in a lot of Dublin city center.

EazyD

WesternZulu wrote: »

Galway has nothing like the problems that Dublin has, you don't walk around Galway and see the sort of degradation that you see in a lot of Dublin city center.

Well that's hardly surprising considering it is a small fraction of the size of Dublin. Ones a city, the other is a big town.

WesternZulu

EazyD wrote: »

Well that's hardly surprising considering it is a small fraction of the size of Dublin. Ones a city, the other is a big town.

I never said that it wasn't; the other poster said it suffers the same problems as Dublin - it doesn't.

squeekyduck

I love the way some posters reference that other cities have junkies and somehow that justifies the acceptance of it.

Dublin has become increasingly worse and I don't know if people are just accepting it in the Irish sense or that it is going on so long it has become normal.

I am Irish but not from Dublin, I travel back now and again and myself and my girlfriend dislike Dublin because it has too many junkies and it gets genuinely scary after dark when you are walking around the city centre, there are too many junkies hanging outside Superemacs on O'Connell street and believe it or not that deters us from enjoying our stay.

People may tell me to do one, but we feel that as tourists and if we feel that it must be getting reported by others and all this affects the reputation of the city.

Tarzana2

Very Bored wrote: »

@EazyD

Inferiority complex is nothing to do with it. Be realistic, does Dublin honestly look like a capital city? Its not at all civic, apart from in a few spots. If someone picked you up and dropped you in the centre of London, Rome or Paris, you'd guess straightaway that you were in a capital city. Yes they have rough and shabby parts of course, but the centres look like places you'd be proud to show to foreign dignitaries. You'd be embarrassed to show them Dublin. Yes, Ireland is smaller so Dublin will be smaller, but that's not an excuse. Look at Cardiff and Edinburgh, they're both beautiful in the centres. The only cities in Ireland which look civic are Belfast, Kilkenny and Galway, you could perhaps make an argument for Cork but not Dublin. Plus the insanity of giving free bus passes to every addict in the country and putting the methadone clinic in such a spot that they are drawn through the city doesn't help either.

Hard to take this seriously when you say the rather featureless Galway looks more civic than Dublin. You say Dublin has no striking buildings. Um, it has more than Galway, a lot more.

Explain the junkie free pass system to me. How does that work?

Reiver

squeekyduck wrote: »

I love the way some posters reference that other cities have junkies and somehow that justifies the acceptance of it.

Dublin has become increasingly worse and I don't know if people are just accepting it in the Irish sense or that it is going on so long it has become normal.

I am Irish but not from Dublin, I travel back now and again and myself and my girlfriend dislike Dublin because it has too many junkies and it gets genuinely scary after dark when you are walking around the city centre, there are too many junkies hanging outside Superemacs on O'Connell street and believe it or not that deters us from enjoying our stay.

People may tell me to do one, but we feel that as tourists and if we feel that it must be getting reported by others and all this affects the reputation of the city.

Dubs seem to feel that junkies in an urban setting are just as natural as sheep back whesht.