City centre discussed on Newstalk this morning

I thought it gave a very good overview of how the city has gone to ruin because of poor, disjointed planning. I've been explaining the situation over the past few years to friends who don't know Limerick, and this had the facts and figures to back up my observations. (I lived there for 20 years, but I'm now in exile

In addition to the suburban big box stores, there were problems with Limerick city centre before this. A few off the top of my head:

• The retail units on Cruises Street were too small to retain large, multiple retail outlet. As soon as bigger units became available in the Crescent SC and near Claughaun, they hightailed out to the larger, more scalable units (Next, for instance)
• Arthurs Quay SC doesn't have any attractive stores in it; the upstairs retail units never attracted footfall, even from Sails Restaurant
• The loss of the cinema in the city centre was a big blow. No reason to go into town at night if you weren't going for a drink.

I'm saddened to hear that the area around Docs/The Granary has gone into such rack and ruin. There was a great vibe around that area back in the late 1990s.

So what can be done to fix this? Will the merged City and County Council put together an integrated plan for the city? Thought?

Well from seeing the desolation that is limerick on a daily basis, I expected the rest of the country to be the same. I was wrong!
I went to dublin a few weeks ago for a few days. Was buzzing, tourists EVERYWHERE and I don't think I saw a single closed shop.

I went to cork over the weekend (I don't go away often, i swear, just coincidence!) and again the city was very busy, even in the evening/night with people walking the streets, buskers doing their bit and stores open.

Compare that to the ghosttown that is limerick. I'd say send the limerick councillors to cork dublin and galway to see how cities are run, but they would use it as a junket and claim the lot on expenses

I don not get this parking crap that some people throw about. I have never not been able to get into a multi storey car park in Limerick because it was full. Thomas St car park and arthurs quay are never full and very central. You whinge and whine about the city falling down but yet you wont pay 1.80 to park and support the already struggling shops in the city.

Taxi ranks. LOL @ Taxi Demons

They have now decided, since the right hand lane has opened on William Street to park illegaly outside A-Wear prior to trying to get into the real Taxi lane on the left.

Parking in the city is easy and readily available UNLESS you try to park on the surface car park on Ellen Street. There is ALWAYS a queue for this because its only €1.50 per hour.

free parking on the streets in Limerick or in any other city would never work as the lazy fookers who work in town will just take them.

On the other hand the multi storeys could offer special rates to encourage people in at weekends.

why have 200 spaces full at 1.80 an hour when you could have 600 full at 50c an hour, less revenue yea but word of mouth and good rep is golden

would be impossible to police

I hate going into town lately - it's just depressing. The vibe is dismal with most of the shops either closed or turned into pound shops. I even hate meeting people for lunch there - it seems to be a much nicer experience in either the crescent or childers road to meet people and have a stroll around, especially if you have kids.
It was actually a million times easier to do all my Xmas shopping in the crescent last year and didn't bother trying to get into town - I got it all done in an hour and a half and chillaxed with a latte afterwards, no fuss no muss. In years before this it would have taken two - three trips into town as I would have had to drag all my purchases all the way around town and then onto a bus, painful.

The only way to fix the city would be to change it's purpose altogether - forget having it as the place to be for shopping - encourage entertainment and family friendly businesses.
Cinemas, play areas, proper skateboarding parks, fun areas,
proper restaurants that are kid friendly, toy stores,
far far more historic/science/educational/museum buildings,
more quirky shops that can't be found everywhere, a proper playhouse - the belltable is not adequate or modern,
the belltable needs to be renovated and updated to encourage tourists,
more tourist targetted bars/restaurants/shops

Now, the castle needs to get rid of that ugly ass glass building and there very badly needs to be a hell of a lot more going on inside it. The price they are asking for admission is crazy btw
The walkway needs to be finished properly and the old walkway badly updated! The buildings leading up to the castle also need to be turned into shops and restaurants - right now what is there? A run down casino and a chipper? It's a dodgy dodgy looking area for such a major landmark!!
That beautiful tourists bar attached to the castle needs to actually be open!!

Why oh why can't they do to the surrounding areas and the castle itself what they have done to Bunratty?? Why no feast banquets? No actors/tresses?? No old style working buildings? Maybe creating and docking a few old style fake boats and giving trips along the river?
There needs to be more to riverfest too - the whole summer, no two measly weeks!! More shows, more open air stuff to do! More parades!

A big thing they could have is what I saw in Brisbane - they had these, what looked like canvass, sheets covering the mains pedestrianised streets, making the streets sheltered from both rain and sun, very pleasant!

Of course, they need to do a way better job of keeping the city clean and tidy.


These changes wouldn't be insanely hard to do - they would make a world of difference to Limerick!

it is amazing reading some peoples replies to threads here, makes you wonder do they actually have their eyes open when they walk around the city FFS

On the parking side of things, here are some of the situations I've come across in various places:

Bruges (Belgium) - Huge car park at the local train station, holds a couple of thousand cars. Parking for the day is relatively cheap - can't remember the exact price, but as part of the fee, you get a bus ride into the city centre included. Essentially a park and ride service, but the distance is short and the buses are very regular. The centre of Bruges is car-free, but buses can travel through.

Donegal Town - ridiculously cheap parking, some thing like 30c an hour with a max of €1.80 for the day - and this is in the centre of the town.

Letterkenny - multistory car park with the first hour free. Anyone who knows Letterkenny will know that there are a number of retail parks around the outskirts of the town within walking distance of the town centre, but the town is still very busy.

All it needs is a little creative thinking outside the box to attract people into the city centre.

While the increased pedestrianisation of Limerick could be argued to be a good thing, the widening of footpaths and the introduction of those smaller parking slots (2-3 cars max) will force people into multistory car parks. Consumers will then argue "Why should I pay for parking when I can go to the Crescent/Parkway, etc and park for free?", driving even more consumers from the city centre. I'm not sure that there's a lot of joined-up thinking going on here between the city council, chamber of commerce, etc.

Kess you're missing the point, no 1 of these things are causing the problem. It is a mix of everything that is being discussed, the lack of parking plays a part, the poor amenities in the city centre plays a part, the doughnut effect plays a part, the poor range of stores plays a part and the high rates and poor running of the city play a part in the demise of the city.

It is a large number of things that make up a problem like we have here. You can't just say "It's not the parking" and "It's not the shopping centres", because it is, but you'd be right if you said it's not these things in isolation that's causing the problem.

phill106 wrote: »

That would be lovely actually. Wouldn't be hard for them to change their little yard at the back to a few parking spaces as well to help. Have half the side facing the river an open air section, the rest behind floor to ceiling glass windows.
Seems to be a glut of coffee shops about though?

You'd need to do more than just that, the place is bloody massive, it'd be great to build an entertainment complex there. A restaurant, cafe and bar upstairs, and something like a licensed bowling alley/cinema/theatre/music venue (or a combination of all) downstairs. Something like that in a prominent position near the river would attract loads of people.

Kess73 wrote: »

My point is that whenever a statement gets released as to what the problem is it generally is put down to either the parking "situation" or the out of town shopping centres as to why the city is doing very badly.


Granted you can say it is down to a number of factors, and a valid arguement could be given for six or seven things that have an impact, but in my eyes there is one common failing or problem that has been constant in Limerick for a long time now and that is the quality of the people who have the power and who had the power to react to problems and who had the power to be proactive in trying to stimulate/protect existing business in the city.

Limerick city has been badly let down by those who are meant to run and grow the city. I really don't think there can be an arguement that says otherwise that is actually valid based on what has gone on over the last 20 years or so.

Yeah kess, that's one issue. As I said already there's more than that one issue to blame for the decline. The local government changes continually, especially over 20 years, the council that's there now isn't the same one that was there 20 years ago. Yes there's a lot of ineptitude in how the city is run, but again it's not the only problem we're facing.