How to get Galway back on track?

The Crescent in Limerick is not an out-of-town development given that there are thousands of residences surrounding it, it is accessible by PT and within walking and cycling distance of thousands. It is an edge-of-town development in a similar manner to Briarhill or Gateway

What was proposed was a development between Oranmore and Athenry with its own motorway exit.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against shopping centres. For example I would wholeheartedly support the Comer's getting off their collective bums and building the long promised one in Galway city.

But a shopping centre in the middle of nowhere, nope. If the only benefit is to avoid traffic, then go earlier/later/walk/cycle.

Also, given that this thread is "How to get Galway back on track", I don't see how something that pulls people away from Galway does anything to get it back on track.

what_traffic

Deleted User wrote: »

Also, given that this thread is "How to get Galway back on track", I don't see how something that pulls people away from Galway does anything to get it back on track.

Exactly - this white elephant proposal has nothing to do with Galway City.

what_traffic

Deleted User wrote: »

They don't even build these in the US anymore because of the amount of negatives

Not alone are they not building them, many of them have been shutting down before Covid19 (online shopping) and now the pandemic is accelerating the process even further.

Whereisgalway

what_traffic wrote: »

Not alone are they not building them, many of them have been shutting down before Covid19 (online shopping) and now the pandemic is accelerating the process even further.

Any ideas yourself?

cooperguy

Whereisgalway wrote: »

Any ideas yourself?

Build Augustine Hill

Whereisgalway

Whereisgalway wrote: »

Any ideas yourself?

Enhance the public realm

• People visiting a town centre are increasingly doing so with a focus on the experience. The customer experience in-store and on-street is becoming more important, and ensuring a pedestrian friendly, permeable and attractive environment is essential.
• Local heritage and history should be embraced. Utilising and enhancing natural and built heritage assets is not only important in reinforcing sense of place, but is important in creating a sense of destination.

Manage parking and public transport effectively

• Rationalise parking through the use of Park & Ride facilities and the elimination of all on-street parking
• Ensuring effective and efficient public transport and prioritising pedestrians and cyclists ensures a more accessible high street, where dwell time is likely to be longer.
• Traffic speed restrictions can reduce noise and pollution, improve safety and offer a more tranquil social environment.

Use incentives and dis-incentives

• Flexibility by the local authorities with regards to rates and taxes can create more of an incentive to high street investment.
• Tax relief and grants can be used to improve buildings and shopfronts with a collaborative local authority led approach the most effective way of implementing this, in tandem with a design guide.
• A grant relief scheme can be used to incentivise take-up of vacant premises.
• Disincentives can be utilised in terms of penalising land owners for land hoarding and dereliction.
• Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPO’s) can be a useful instrument in enabling acquisition of key sites.
• Transparency on budget allotment and dedicated spend to stimulate local enterprise, specific to economic rejuvenation. An annual, bi annual council public accountability presentation open forum could be held to discuss what was done, what wasn’t and why not as well as strategy for forth coming 6-12 months. Consistency is vital in delivery in the medium to long term.
• Vacant units, particularly if they stay empty for a long time or there is a sudden increase, can be a very clear sign that all is not well, and can prompt a mass exodus of visitors and businesses. The temporary use of empty units – often called “meanwhile use” – for public and community purposes such as artistic displays and galleries, pop-up shops or market stalls, or by community groups, can temporarily turn these spaces into part of the public realm and nip area decline in the bud by maintaining a sense of energy as well as adding to local diversity.

Simplify planning and adapt to the changing commercial landscape

• Currently the processes that exist for a change of use are more complicated than they should be. Simplifying the option to change a vacant commercial property to use as residential or other purposes would make it easier to bring buildings back to life, while recognising that Galway needs more mixed uses.

Enhance a sense of place

• Support for, and attraction of, indigenous retailers such as craft and food stores can encourage production of locally produced goods, create employment and bring diversity and personality to the city.

Reclaiming the space

• Shared and public spaces can in themselves also provide a venue and a reason to visit – for example a space in which to work, to play, or to exercise.
• Interactive maps, planters, trees, water features, wireless internet access, art and sculpture can provide reasons to slow down, to stop and reconnect with the world around us.
• Carefully placed street seating and pavement cafés enable people to rest, to talk, and take time to soak up the experience.
• Community growing projects in otherwise neglected spaces can create colour and interest and turn eyesores into attractions
• Pop-up stalls, stands and markets can add colour, enticing smells and noises, and energy to the streetscene, and can encourage people to move along from one part of the street or town centre to another less frequented part
• The evening and night-time economy should not be ignored – not just in terms of outside seating areas for pubs, bars and restaurants, but also events such as night markets, outdoor concerts and theatre, firework displays, and night-time street performances. These need to be sensitively and carefully managed to preserve acceptable noise and crowd behaviour.
• Clever lighting can highlight attractive or historical features and architectural details, deter anti-social behaviour, and increase safety.

what_traffic

Whereisgalway wrote: »

Any ideas yourself?

It aint going to be Out of Town shopping centres thats for sure.
Hard to even find a Developer who is even going down that path.

Dacor has covered it very well. Just taking the first topic point: Enhance the public realm

Local heritage and history should be embraced.

Why for example are some of the old market areas glorified car parks?
Small Crane and Woodquay are examples of that.

The big change I would make.
Reform local Gov. As it stands currently its not in any shape to do anything much.
The Galway Corportation back in 1960's Galway City had far more power to do things on the ground.
Have a directly elected Mayor instead of the CEO and have full time paid up Cllr's.
Need more professionals and attract younger people to become a Cllr's .
Reduce no of seats down to 9. 3 per ward.

ben.schlomo

what_traffic wrote: »

It aint going to be Out of Town shopping centres thats for sure.
Hard to even find a Developer who is even going down that path.

Dacor has covered it very well. Just taking the first topic point: Enhance the public realm

Local heritage and history should be embraced.

Why for example are some of the old market areas glorified car parks?
Small Crane and Woodquay are examples of that.

The big change I would make.
Reform local Gov. As it stands currently its not in any shape to do anything much.
The Galway Corportation back in 1960's Galway City had far more power to do things on the ground.
Have a directly elected Mayor instead of the CEO and have full time paid up Cllr's.
Need more professionals and attract younger people to become a Cllr's .
Reduce no of seats down to 9. 3 per ward.

Ya Woodquay and the Crane have great potential if they were pedestrianised/had parking removed.

Bobeagleburger

Would love to see cars removed from Woodquay. Great potential there as mentioned above.

Mrs OBumble

ben.schlomo wrote: »

Ya Woodquay and the Crane have great potential if they were pedestrianised/had parking removed.

Am guessing your not a resident of either of those areas.

Small Crane residents have repeatedly rejected having their neighbourhood turned into a public drinking area.

Can't say I blame them: the best bit of the pandemic has been the reduction in piss and puke on the inner-city streets.

Notice that most streets which have been pedestrianised have few residents left on them. This is at least partly because of the type of public realm behaviour which pedestrianisation generates.

2pm latte-sippers are not the problem. 2am drinkers, fighters and fúckers are.

ben.schlomo

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Am guessing your not a resident of either of those areas.

Small Crane residents have repeatedly rejected having their neighbourhood turned into a public drinking area.

Can't say I blame them: the best bit of the pandemic has been the reduction in piss and puke on the inner-city streets.

Notice that most streets which have been pedestrianised have few residents left on them. This is at least partly because of the type of public realm behaviour which pedestrianisation generates.

2pm latte-sippers are not the problem. 2am drinkers, fighters and fúckers are.

You're anti pedestrianised areas, tell us something we don't already know.

bodyguard1

Introduce a Park & Ride Facility from the Airport which is owned by Galway City & County Council thus reducing the amount of traffic traveling into the city from the east of the county

bodyguard1

bodyguard1 wrote: »

Introduce a Park & Ride Facility from the Airport which is owned by Galway City & County Council thus reducing the amount of traffic traveling into the city from the east of the county

Tried and failed due to no bus priority infrastructure. No point parking there, getting on a bus, and then being stuck in the same traffic.

It failed so badly they cut the trial short.

Laviski

tried and failed.
somehow P&R from racecourse does better but distance between the two isn't massive.

lemmno

cooperguy wrote: »

And Limerick city suffers because of it. The last thing Galway needs is an out of town shopping complex, sucking the life out of the city. It really would be a bad idea

Kildare village has had the opposite effect on its neighbouring towns. Newbridge and Naas make lots of money on people who make the trip to Kildare Village. There aren't many places to stay in the immediate vicinity of the outlet so the hotels of Naas and Newbridge gain those tourists, not to mention the pubs and restaurants. There are a lot of tour companies who have Kildare Village as a 'stop', bus loads of people come, and they stay overnight in either Naas or Newbridge, spend hundreds in the area, some even thousands.

It also hasn't killed the Whitewater or the high street, as it is a totally different shopping experience. You won't ever find H&M, River Island or Penneys in the outlet for example, you'd have to go to Newbridge for that. Kildare Village really has been great for the area. People who come to Kildare for racing at the Curragh, Punchestown or Naas will often stay an extra night purely for a day at the outlet. Not to mention all the local jobs it has created.

I think something similar just off the motorway into Galway would actually enhance and draw more people into the city. Shuttle buses from the big hotels or the city centre etc.

The more investment into Galway and it's surrounding areas the better. The place really needs it.

Mrs OBumble

ben.schlomo wrote: »

You're anti pedestrianised areas, tell us something we don't already know.

Feel free to suggest some changes for your own neighbourhood.

I'll suggest some for mine:

1) Convert 1/3 of on-street parking to parking for two-wheelers. Some of it with fixed some bicycle stands, some left free-format for other vehicle types (motorcycles, bicycles with cargo wagons. Accompany this with a strict policy of removing bicycles which are left littered on footpaths.

2) Convert 1/3 of on-street parting to short-stay (15 minute) pick up and drop off zones, between 7am and 11pm. The rest of the time, this is free parking for central city residents and their visitors. This is available for all vehicles, not just commercial ones, and is to facilitate the newly grown call (or click) and collect trends.

3) Use the existing process to allow businesses to apply for licences to put outdoor seating outside their premises. Review the charges - reduce if possible.

4) Tell the heritage officer to get over himself when it comes to applications to put canopies over areas outside businesses over or where people queue to get into shops. The needs to currently-living people should outweigh the desire to keep things as they ever were.

5 Develop bird-control measures which drastically reduce the number of birds nesting on city-centre buildings. The major litter problem in the city streets at the moment is bird-****. Sitting or queuing outside certain inner city buildings is very risky, if there's a nest above. You can tell which ones this is - they've got high concentrations of white-splattering on the ground.

gordongekko

1 Pedestrianisation of woodquay from Fridays to Sundays for a period of 12 months. Businesses in the area can use the outdoor area for food and drink. The set up of a market in the area for the period.

2 Dominick street down to the west blocked from traffic from 7pm nightly to allow for outdoor seating of resturants . Same for middle street.

3 5 euro congestion charge for anyone travelling into town after 7pm via car.

4 increased public transport.

5 Massive expansion of the public bike scheme to the suburbs.

6 24/7 trading hours allowed for all businesses for a trial period.

7 Expansion of the current market into St Pats school and a removal of parking from that location.

ben.schlomo

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Feel free to suggest some changes for your own neighbourhood.

I'll suggest some for mine:

1) Convert 1/3 of on-street parking to parking for two-wheelers. Some of it with fixed some bicycle stands, some left free-format for other vehicle types (motorcycles, bicycles with cargo wagons. Accompany this with a strict policy of removing bicycles which are left littered on footpaths.

2) Convert 1/3 of on-street parting to short-stay (15 minute) pick up and drop off zones, between 7am and 11pm. The rest of the time, this is free parking for central city residents and their visitors. This is available for all vehicles, not just commercial ones, and is to facilitate the newly grown call (or click) and collect trends.

3) Use the existing process to allow businesses to apply for licences to put outdoor seating outside their premises. Review the charges - reduce if possible.

4) Tell the heritage officer to get over himself when it comes to applications to put canopies over areas outside businesses over or where people queue to get into shops. The needs to currently-living people should outweigh the desire to keep things as they ever were.

5 Develop bird-control measures which drastically reduce the number of birds nesting on city-centre buildings. The major litter problem in the city streets at the moment is bird-****. Sitting or queuing outside certain inner city buildings is very risky, if there's a nest above. You can tell which ones this is - they've got high concentrations of white-splattering on the ground.

Oh I do apologise, I didn't realise mods had changed the thread title to 'propose changes to your local neighborhood'. Dunno how I missed that.

Daisy78

JoeA3 wrote: »

Too near the city centre. It’s an already heavily congested traffic area.

A shopping centre wouldn’t be the very first thing that comes to mind but I do think Galway is very lacking when it comes retail outlets of a certain scale. Would think somewhere like Briarhill/Oranmore would be ideal. Love the idea of a cycle path too.

Mrs OBumble

ben.schlomo wrote: »

Oh I do apologise, I didn't realise mods had changed the thread title to 'propose changes to your local neighborhood'. Dunno how I missed that.

Really hard to see how making life unpleasant for residents of the Small Crane and Woodquay could get the city back on track.

Until Covid-19 goes away, our economy needs to be based on things which do not encourage mass-gatherings




I'm delighted to see that the Fringe Festival is going ahead with a programme of home, outdoor and on-line events. (ref)

what_traffic

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Feel free to suggest some changes for your own neighbourhood.

This is a good suggestion, does not apply just to the City Centre. For example -anywhere where people are been funnelled onto one street/road/bridge if they are walking and cycling should be looked at. As restrictions loosen it is going to be a bigger and bigger issue.

xckjoo

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Am guessing your not a resident of either of those areas.

Small Crane residents have repeatedly rejected having their neighbourhood turned into a public drinking area.

Can't say I blame them: the best bit of the pandemic has been the reduction in piss and puke on the inner-city streets.

Notice that most streets which have been pedestrianised have few residents left on them. This is at least partly because of the type of public realm behaviour which pedestrianisation generates.

2pm latte-sippers are not the problem. 2am drinkers, fighters and fúckers are.

Has there been a substantial decrease in the number of residents on streets since pedestrianisation? Granted we've a very small sample size here but I can't imagine the number of people living on these streets has decreased to any major degree.



I've heard a new resident of Woodquay declare that they'd fight tooth and nail to stop a playground ever being built there since nobody wants it. Not sure the life-long residents with grandkids would agree (in fact I've heard them decry the lack of young families in the area), but he insisted he spoke for everyone. Point being that it's rare to have universal opinions on what should happen to an area and opinions are often conflicting.

Johnny_BravoIII

lemmno wrote: »

Kildare village has had the opposite effect on its neighbouring towns. Newbridge and Naas make lots of money on people who make the trip to Kildare Village. There aren't many places to stay in the immediate vicinity of the outlet so the hotels of Naas and Newbridge gain those tourists, not to mention the pubs and restaurants. There are a lot of tour companies who have Kildare Village as a 'stop', bus loads of people come, and they stay overnight in either Naas or Newbridge, spend hundreds in the area, some even thousands.

It also hasn't killed the Whitewater or the high street, as it is a totally different shopping experience. You won't ever find H&M, River Island or Penneys in the outlet for example, you'd have to go to Newbridge for that. Kildare Village really has been great for the area. People who come to Kildare for racing at the Curragh, Punchestown or Naas will often stay an extra night purely for a day at the outlet. Not to mention all the local jobs it has created.

I think something similar just off the motorway into Galway would actually enhance and draw more people into the city. Shuttle buses from the big hotels or the city centre etc.

The more investment into Galway and it's surrounding areas the better. The place really needs it.

Large shopping malls draw shoppers, footfall and commercial activity from town centres. The shopping mall is not a village. The village itself should be protected. Kildare Village has recently been refused planning for an extension.
Cork City are fighting back against a similar 'village' development. It would only be negative and a retrospective step for it to happen here. The is plenty of room withing the city environs from commercial development in line with existing development plans and zoning.

lemmno

Johnny_BravoIII wrote: »

Large shopping malls draw shoppers, footfall and commercial activity from town centres. The shopping mall is not a village. The village itself should be protected. Kildare Village has recently been refused planning for an extension.
Cork City are fighting back against a similar 'village' development. It would only be negative and a retrospective step for it to happen here. The is plenty of room withing the city environs from commercial development in line with existing development plans and zoning.

I was under the impression it had been allowed but with a refusal on one of the units. The other 28 being allowed. Open to correction though.

rgace

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

5 Develop bird-control measures which drastically reduce the number of birds nesting on city-centre buildings. The major litter problem in the city streets at the moment is bird-****. Sitting or queuing outside certain inner city buildings is very risky, if there's a nest above. You can tell which ones this is - they've got high concentrations of white-splattering on the ground.

I have never noticed so much bird-**** around town before. Are there more birds around then usual or what is going on?

zell12

rgace wrote: »

I have never noticed so much bird-**** around town before. Are there more birds around then usual or what is going on?

Less people, traffic, leads to nature slowly regaining lost grounds.
More foxes around suburbs is another example

gordongekko

zell12 wrote: »

Less people, traffic, leads to nature slowly regaining lost grounds.
More foxes around suburbs is another example

Or just the driest spring on record so less rain to wash it away

Whereisgalway

Few more gardai doing a beat, just see a video of a woman performing a oral sex act in the middle of the square

Fitz*

Whereisgalway wrote: »

Few more gardai doing a beat, just see a video of a woman performing a oral sex act in the middle of the square

I think it was more the man than the woman Either way, it's something you don't want to be seeing out in the open in Eyre Square.

Whereisgalway

FitzShane wrote: »

I think it was more the man than the woman Either way, it's something you don't want to be seeing out in the open in Eyre Square.

Junkies high as a kite blemish any experience