Ideas for Galway in 2040?

Amhran Nua

jkforde wrote: »

sigh...this thing has nothing to do with the local authorities.. this is business and civic groups

Which business and civic groups? I couldn't find any on the website. Despite organising a seminar in GMIT there isn't so much as a phone number there. I haven't the energy to go rooting around the web for information as today is a Sunday, so perhaps you could provide further details?

jkforde wrote: »

why lazily knock something that you obviously don't understand? comfy on the fence is it?

Its really not a hard concept to get, and get it I do. However the point I was making is that given the turbulent national economic and political situation, you won't be able to make any decent plans for at least five years.

Maybe a new government will want a focus on maritime shipbuilding, and demands the gearing up of much of the docklands area to that end. Maybe government ineptitude continues and emigration causes Galway's population to drop.

Whichever, the national picture is too important to ignore, and that picture is just not clear yet. Galway is not a city-state.

jkforde wrote: »

and on the day the planning part of it highlighted the fact that the centre is untouchable and all new infrastructure must be high density with civic-led project management. keep an eye on the website, all their reports will be on there soon.

Just off the top of your head, what would be the average age of buildings in the city centre, fifty or sixty years?

jkforde

Amhran Nua wrote: »

Which business and civic groups? I couldn't find any on the website. Despite organising a seminar in GMIT there isn't so much as a phone number there. I haven't the energy to go rooting around the web for information as today is a Sunday, so perhaps you could provide further details?

The thing is organised around 'pillars' or teams of representative people from the different strands of life in the city and county. So there's Marine & Energy\Research, Enterprise & Innovation, Infrastructure & Environment, Galway Docklands, Tourism, Culture\Arts, Agriculture & Food, Education and Social Inclusion. The chair of each group presented summaries of their group's work on the day and each will publish their own report soon. Some of those presenters came from...

Galway City Chamber of Commerce
NUIG Research
GMIT
HP | Boston Scientific | Medtronic
VEC
Marine Institute
Artists coordinated by Galway City Artist in Residence
Fáilte Ireland
BurrenLIFE
EPA
IFA
SIPTU
Galway Harbour Authority
National Women's Council
Galway Cycling Group
.......

The next one will be next March sometime. And there's this email on the back of the brochure: galway2040@gmail.com. The contact form on their website worked fine for me though. Drop them a line with some improvement suggestions, I found them to be open and welcoming of constructive criticism.

Amhran Nua wrote: »

Just off the top of your head, what would be the average age of buildings in the city centre, fifty or sixty years?

no clue. what the planning speaker on the day said though was that downtown is zoned as medieval in character and is considered an archaeological minefield in terms of taking on any substantial reordering of infrastructure there so the idea is to focus future development upwards (15+ stories) and on the dockland area and out towards what he called the Arduan Corridor. Should have a more detailed idea once their respective reports come out.

Regardless of the specifics, there was a good buzz there that day with people fired up to do something and not just to moan over pints and wait for the same shower in Dublin to throw us some scraps.

Amhran Nua

jkforde wrote: »

The chair of each group presented summaries of their group's work on the day and each will published their own report soon.

Okay, but I assume these groups didn't spontaneously appear, who was the initial primary motivator? There is a real issue with local level publications in my experience, they have a tendency to make the Lisbon treaty look like light summer afternoon reading, which is completely unneccessary; I hope this group can overcome that. I will say that its great to see a combination of groups as involved in the city as this putting their heads together though.

jkforde wrote: »

no clue. what the planning speaker on the day said though was that downtown is zoned as medieval in character and is considered an archaeological minefield in terms of taking on any substantial reordering of infrastructure there so the idea is to focus future development upwards (15+ stories) and on the dockland area and out towards what he called the Arduan Corridor. Should have a more detailed idea once their respective reports come out.

If its untouchable so we'd be better off just to preserve it, and build two or three new complete city centres at the three points of the compass that aren't underwater, and fast connections between those, not centred on the old city as they are now. If I want to get a bus from Rahoon to Salthill, I've to go through Eyre Square to get there. This would mean making a deliberate effort to sidestep the medieval parts as much as possible. If it can't be changed its of limited utility for the future.

Speaking of water, has anyone given any thought to the likelihood of sea level rises over the next fifty years, and the possibility that low lying areas might become uninhabitable?

jkforde wrote: »

Regardless of the specifics, there was a good buzz there that day with people fired up to do something and not just to moan over pints and wait for the same shower in Dublin to throw us some scraps.

Those scraps include money though. Its true that there should be a plan ready for when the money comes in however.

jkforde

I think the two main movers are Paul Shelly and Rory O'Connor, the latter is esp. regarded as inviting in the non-business people to prevent the thing turning into just money-money-money. The members of the steering committee are: Paul Shelly, Rory O'Connor, Jim Fennell, Michael Coyle, Kevin Leyden and Padraic Fogarty.

and I thought of the sea level rise and storm surge issue as well but no one mentioned it but the Marine Institute are modelling it...I think they're saying there'll be a 25% increase in surge frequency by 2050 with up to 0.25m increase in mean sea level.

Sponge Bob

It is a worthwhile initiative, I hope they complete their macro scoping phase soon and start to prune the initiatives down to a few good ones per major strand .

Then lets roll with those.

mikom

Sponge Bob wrote: »

It is a worthwhile initiative, I hope they complete their macro scoping phase soon and start to prune the initiatives down to a few good ones per major strand .

Then lets roll with those.

That's some blue-sky thinking right there.

Mrs OBumble

ScumLord wrote: »

No more estates and housing either they're the worst form of living accommodation out there.

Care to expand on that a bit?

I'm not fond of rows of little boxes (which is what estates look like to me), but have been quite surprised by how many Irish people like the uniformity of them, and the way they group people into village-sized units.

Some food for thought from the CSO:

Population of each Province and County as constituted at each census since 1841
Geographic Area
Galway County and Co. Borough
Census Year-Population
1841-440198
1851-321684
1861-271478
1871-248458
1881-242005
1891-214712
1901-192549
1911-182224
1926-169366
1936-168198
1946-165201
1951-160204
1956-155553
1961-149887
1966-148340
1971-149223
1979-167838
1981-172018
1986-178552
1991-180364
1996-188854
2002-209077
2006-231670

ScumLord

JustMary wrote: »

Care to expand on that a bit?

I'm not fond of rows of little boxes (which is what estates look like to me), but have been quite surprised by how many Irish people like the uniformity of them, and the way they group people into village-sized units.

The spread out living in estates is short sighted and more individualism that we just can't afford as a community any more.

A high rise village, and I do mean village with modern amenities would be much, much easier to build and run, you'd have transport, power, sewage all going to one point. While I'm not gone on some of the designs I've seen as they're too modern and bland looking for my taste (although that's just aesthetics which is easily fixed) the principle of the idea is the only one workable in a modern over populated world.

lampsie

I'd like to see in Galway City, by 2040:

a) Completion of city bypass (one would hope it would arrive earlier, but signs this far are far from good)
b) Pedestrianisation of Eyre square and its surrounding area's (e.g. the square itself, middle street etc)
c) Harnessing of the coastal resources, including but not limited to modernisation of the harbour (thread on that in last few weeks with a pre-viz youtube link?) and harnessing tidal and/or offshore wind for the city

If I've completely missed the point of this thread - ah well

mrsdewinter

PG633's figures are interesting - but I don't see Galway city becoming a 100,000-plus city any time soon. The growth of the past 20 years was fuelled by the boom, which attracted lots of natives home from abroad/Dublin and lots of non-nationals. As belts tighten, I think a lot of the younger people with no ties will leave.
And honestly, it's no bad thing. When I lived there eight years ago, it was bursting at the seams. If you lived on the western side and worked on the east side (a choice a lot of people made), you were punished for it during the drive to and from work.
Why does nobody address the issue of why Galwegians continue to live in Salthill/Knocknacarra, a cluttered city-centre away from their place of work on the east side?

ScumLord

lampsie wrote: »

I'd like to see in Galway City, by 2040:

a) Completion of city bypass (one would hope it would arrive earlier, but signs this far are far from good)
b) Pedestrianisation of Eyre square and its surrounding area's (e.g. the square itself, middle street etc)
c) Harnessing of the coastal resources, including but not limited to modernisation of the harbour (thread on that in last few weeks with a pre-viz youtube link?) and harnessing tidal and/or offshore wind for the city

If I've completely missed the point of this thread - ah well

Those things shouldn't take any longer than 5 years. The human race at this stage in their existence can make just about anything happen in ridiculously short amounts of time. The major obstructions to anything we do these days are money and bureaucracy. Both of which are imaginary constructs.

jkforde

what'd I'd like the west to do is to install a dedicated tera\petabit cable (and upgradable as tech leaps on) across the Atlantic to MIT\Boston and make Galway the sister tech town over here with equivalents of MediaLab, MIT research, etc. and have the next generation WiMax (or whatever is next) for 20miles around Thonabrucky. Online is where everything is going so I'd dream of Galway being a mini-Korea (the Koreans are making 1Gbit standard by 2012!...aah, what's Eirscam planning again?!)

Jamey

I was at this conference for the morning. It was very city-based, and I was disappointed at this as they had mentioned it being a plan for the county as well in much of the documentation before the event.

However, I found the talk given by the Harbour master very encouraging, and his vision for the development of the docks looks promising.

Did anyone else see the crazy entrepreneur who stood up early in the morning and went on a rant about the city failing him? He walked out after his rant. He had been trying to get permission to build an ice rink in the city for something like 15 years with no luck. Complained about teenagers only option being to drink cider in a park as there wasn't enough amenities in Galway for adolescents. Personally, I don't see an ice rink as the solution to any teenage anti-social behaviour in the city... :rolleyes:

DRakE

blindpilot wrote: »

Traffic will be a bitch in 2040.

hover cars

jkforde

Jamey wrote: »

I was at this conference for the morning. It was very city-based, and I was disappointed at this as they had mentioned it being a plan for the county as well in much of the documentation before the event.

the afternoon sessions dealt with farming and tourism so not as city focused.

Jamey wrote: »

Did anyone else see the crazy entrepreneur who stood up early in the morning and went on a rant about the city failing him? He walked out after his rant. He had been trying to get permission to build an ice rink in the city for something like 15 years with no luck. Complained about teenagers only option being to drink cider in a park as there wasn't enough amenities in Galway for adolescents. Personally, I don't see an ice rink as the solution to any teenage anti-social behaviour in the city... :rolleyes:

that was Joe O'Donnell trying to get his ice-skating park on Terryland Forest Park lands, a council saga I'd say! he did come back in but he didn't stay for the whole thing, looked :mad: as hell.

Sponge Bob

jkforde wrote: »

what'd I'd like the west to do is to install a dedicated tera\petabit cable

That is already being planned but not by Galway2040 .....at this time anyway.

jkforde

Sponge Bob wrote: »

That is already being planned but not by Galway2040 .....at this time anyway.

am intrigued SB, any more info, this a national thing? anyhow, any time you read about the latest tech advances it's invariably either the east coast or the west coast of the States coming out with the research so a dedicated research link to the east coast centres would pay for itself multiples I reckon

Sponge Bob

Nope, Galway thing for now, then International _obviously_

challengemaster

ScumLord wrote: »

Those things shouldn't take any longer than 5 years. The human race at this stage in their existence can make just about anything happen in ridiculously short amounts of time. The major obstructions to anything we do these days are money and bureaucracy. Both of which are imaginary constructs.

You're forgetting that anything county council related completely defies this, and will take atleast 4 times the normal amount of time :pac:

ScumLord

challengemaster wrote: »

You're forgetting that anything county council related completely defies this, and will take atleast 4 times the normal amount of time :pac:

True, people can't really talk about achieving anything in the future until these muppets are taken out of the equation.

Jamey

There was a lot of talk about establishing cross-atlantic links between Galway businesses and East coast US businesses, and making Galway a hub for US-based commercial groups, and my first thought was how far away is a Galway - US air link. Obviously the airport must be redeveloped first but it's a realistic goal that would increase business and tourist revenue...