Cork - A missed Opportunity!

Cork has undergone some pretty drastic changes since the beginning of the COVID lockdowns, there’s no denying that. Significant parts of the city centre are finally pedestrianised, particularly Oliver Plunkett Street and its side streets. A smattering of small side streets north of Patrick Street have also been given the pedestrian treatment. Outdoor dining is finally taking hold in Cork in a major way, with Princes Street in particular taking the lead here. Expansions of Cork’s nascent bike lane network have also taken place, with the South Mall bike corridor in particular being a prime example of what can happen if the city really puts some effort into things, while many existing cycle lanes have been secured against incursion by all but the most obnoxious and selfish motorists! Between “parklets” and the controversial City Trees, public seating has also increased across the city, making it feel less like a crumbling, poorly maintained strip mall and more like an actual city centre. 

The changes in parts of the Cork docklands are simply breathtaking.

Outdoor dining in places like Princes Street has really made the city feel more alive.

On bright days, which we've had quite a few of this summer, areas like Grand Parade can be great places to hang out.

However, while all these steps are without a doubt very welcome, I can’t help but think that the city missed a major opportunity to capitalize on the changes precipitated by the pandemic. Large parts of the city are still dominated by cars. The vast majority of which provide no benefit whatsoever to the city centre, as they are just using Patrick Street and/or South Mall as a transit corridor. Those motorists that do have the city centre as their destination are often just as much of an issue, parking wherever they feel like it and blocking bus stops, driveways, cycle lanes or sidewalks with impunity. The same impunity seemingly applies to business and property owners that can seemingly do as they please. The recent bait and switch by John Cleary Developments with regards to their Albert Quay apartment tower is just the latest example of this seeming lawlessness, while the intervention by the planning development in the case of the GAA’s land grab in the docklands is much more of an exception than the rule. This lack of enforcement is clearly visible on Patrick Street, where the afternoon bus priority measures have been completely abandoned, while the street has become a safe haven for con-artists and grifters. It appears as if no one in city hall actually gives a damn about the city anymore.

This apathy is visible in other ways as well. Derelict buildings are an everyday occurrence at this point, with steel braces to hold up crumbling facades having become a permanent fixture on many Cork streets, with North Main Street and Tuckey Street being particularly egregious examples. While councils have the power to take over derelict sites, Cork City Council has to my knowledge only taken action with regards to one of the sites on North Main Street, and that one is being fought tooth and nail by the slumlords that own the property in question. All other sites are apparently being let be by the council.

Tuckey Street - Cork City Council's idea of outdoor hospitality. Have your coffee spiced up by the opportunity of being bludgeoned to death by falling masonry!

While it's great to see the Victoria Hotel finally see some attention, I'm not sure that either the Vanilla Cafe or John Grace's are particularly thrilled about the construction or the fact that other parts of this street are allowed to fall into ruin. Remember, this is the city centre, the supposed heart of the city!

Then there’s the state of transport infrastructure in Cork, which at this point is simply abysmal! Mind you, I’m not just talking about cycling infrastructure here, but any type of infrastructure that gets people from point A to point B. Roads are pockmarked by potholes that leave the street looking like someone has been taking pot shots at it with a 5.7cm naval gun, with repairs often consisting of just a shovel full of asphalt being thrown into the pothole from the back of a moving truck. Bike lanes are often not even getting that treatment, though to be fair, potholes are hard to find anyway when the entire lane is clogged by fallen leaves, debris and other detritus, or indeed flooded due to clogged storm drains, both of which are also regular occurrences. And then, there are the sidewalks. They often suffer from the same flooding issues that affect cycle lanes and also regular roads, to be fair. However, the main “attraction” of sidewalks is the abundance of loose pavement stones that the council just doesn’t seem to care about. While many of these are in all likelihood caused by the repeated strain of far too heavy vehicles mounting said sidewalks to use as parking, a lot of these are found in long pedestrianised areas such as Princes Street. To be fair, there is an online reporting system for residents to report these issues to the council but honesty, it shouldn’t need that. A municipal administration in charge of a city the size of Cork should have a comprehensive inspection and maintenance program in place, that’s just civic administration 101.

Cork city traffic on a quiet day. As you can imagine, this doesn't really do wonders for the state of the street.

Paved areas such as here in the recently acquired territory of Ballincollig, are getting the worst of it.

These cracks on Patrick Street are a lot less harmless than they look. And that's after some major repair works, mind you.

However, these basics seem to be beyond the grasp of the council. City leaders seem content to be sticking to high exposure building inaugurations and releasing copious “Strategies”, “Development Plans”, “Design Studies”, and “Whitepapers”. You almost get the impression that one of the council executives has a printing press owner in their immediate family, given the amount of high-gloss paper the city is putting out. I guess basic things like maintenance are just not as “sexy” by comparison.

Finally, let’s talk a bit about the improvements that did take place. Here too, Cork City Council seems to have consistently taken the path of least effort in most cases. Let’s first talk about cycle lanes. The vast majority are physically segregated from motor traffic, which is a huge plus. And the South Mall bike corridor really shows what the city council can do when they set their mind to something, it has to be one of the best bits of cycling infrastructure in the city. Even the cycle lanes linking Albert Quay to the Marina and the Passage Greenway are, for the most part, pretty good. However, the cycle lane network is still disjointed, with the individual components not linking up in any useful way. It also appears as if only the absolute bottom drawer materials were used in constructing these cycle lanes, resulting in some truly atrocious quality surfaces.

Then, there are the city’s pedestrianisation “efforts”, to put it charitably. Granted, Oliver Plunkett Street is effectively fully pedestrianised and so are many of its side streets. The quality of said pedestrianisation leaves a lot to be desired though. For starters, preparatory work consisted simply of putting down another coat of asphalt on the street. The curbs are still there, the pavements are still crooked and suffer from loose blocks and stones, and even the parking bays were left untouched. Even Princes Street, the “jewel” of the pedestrianisation efforts has only gotten the most basic of treatments, with the exceptions of mounting holes for large umbrellas/sunshades. The pavements are still a crooked, narrow mess and with most of the street now taken up by tables of the numerous restaurants, it has become a major obstacle course for people with disabilities.

This picture perfectly demonstrates the self-entitlement of motorists in Cork, as well as the efficacy of the council's "pedestrianisation" efforts. Hats off to the staff at Rob Roy Bar for boxing this particular "gentleman" in like that!

While I'm sure that Diners at Nash 19 and other such venues enjoy Princes Street, this area has become hell for wheelchair users or people with reduced mobility.

Some of the older pedestrianised areas are little better, to be honest.

THIS is the extent of pedestrianisation measures undertaken by Cork City Council. Easily moved by one person, as this one was.

Then, there’s the “quality” of the measures designed to keep cars out of the pedestrianised areas. This is, to put it bluntly, pathetic! In most cases, it is just a simple barrier that can easily be moved out of the way by a single adult, something that often happens when a certain breed of particularly vile motorists, leading to cars with the mass of a WW2 armoured car rolling up pedestrianised streets with little to no concern for pedestrians. It appears that even the use of plastic planters is too much work for the council in this regard. Oliver Plunkett Street at least has the advantage of having already been equipped with retractable bollards following an earlier useless pedestrianisation attempt, and those are coming in really handy now. Still, the sheer lack of effort that is visible through 90% of the city centre improvement measures implemented over the last summer leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

All of this wouldn’t be as unpalatable as it is if it weren’t for the fact that the very same council that seems hellbent on winning a laziness contest against a particularly lethargic sloth is at the same time promoting their minimal efforts as “taking the lead” in transforming the city centre. What’s worse, when it comes to cycling and pedestrianisation, this isn’t actually that far from the truth in Ireland. If you look at the mind-numbing stupidity put out by Galway or Limerick councils, or the paranoid ravings of evolutionary dead ends such as Mannix Flynn up in Dublin, Cork does actually seem like a shining example of vision, intelligence and determination. Here’s the thing though: When your competition seems to delight in sniffing glue and repeatedly prodding live electrical sockets with metal forks, having enough brain power to see that this might be a bad idea does not automatically make you a genius. It just means that you have at least the bare minimum of intellect necessary to be a human being!

With all that being said, where do we go from here? What are the ways forward? This is where I’d normally put forward alternatives, courses of action or even simply point out positive trends. However, for the first time, I really don’t see any apparent solution to this issue. The management structure of Cork City Council has been deliberately crafted to avoid any effective public scrutiny, city CEOs such as Ann Doherty, as well as the individual department heads are virtually untouchable, easily able to evade any scrutiny by the elected council members, even if those could get their shit together and do their job for a change. Alas, a significant number of councillors seem to be only intent on amassing as many terms in office as possible while doing as little as possible, while the Terry Shannons and Ken O’Flynns of the council seem to be actively working to hinder any scrutiny of the executive. While I have my suspicion about their motives, this is not the place to discuss them. What is clear however is that there is no quick and easy way to address the accountability crisis in the city council in the short term.

This will require long-term action on the streets of Cork. Those who are fighting for a more liveable and people-friendly Cork will need to take their campaigns to the streets. Both councillors and city executives should be challenged and questioned every time they show themselves in public, and they should be challenged in their businesses or places of work. Only sustained pressure will bring about any change whatsoever and this pressure will need to be applied beyond the confines of Twitter, out in the real world, if there is to be even a small chance of success!