The best way to promote the city of limerick?

tonyheaney

To all here i wander if you could answer me this:

Q: What would you consider the best way to promote the city of limerick?

No kidding i would really like to hear your ideas and opinions.

TEMPLAR KNIGHT

tonyheaney wrote: »

To all here i wander if you could answer me this:

Q: What would you consider the best way to promote the city of limerick?

No kidding i would really like to hear your ideas and opinions.

killing all the scumbags would be a good start!

tonyheaney

lol

and...

TEMPLAR KNIGHT

tonyheaney wrote: »

lol

and...

honestly if the city is to survive( and it porbably wont), these shopping centres that they are opening on the outskirts of the city should not be allowed to open ( i know they create jobs and everything which im all for) but not at the cost of the city centre the more of these that open like childers road,the crescent, the parkway an the new one near tk max its obvious they are killing the city, the city centre is like a ghost town the majority of shops are closed and boarded up giving it a horrible look. the opera centre would be a great boost when and if it was to open...the job they did on william street is fantastic and brings a breath of fresh air to the city now if we could just get shops opening which wold be a great thing, but unfortunately there is no spport from local or national government in terms of small business or self employed people all these places are closing down(even a family member of mine closed his shop after 22 years of busiess in the city because of rent and rates which are extremely high so trying to drop these to entice people to open would be a good start) I could write about this all night but i wont haha.

juice1304

their friends:p

Insect Overlord

Promote the city in terms of national perception, or like the ideas in post #4?

vkid

they need to sort out o'connell st and patrick street fast.Its looks dirty and depressing imo and its the central spine of the city/.
Henry St, William Street, Bedford Row, Thomas St, Catherine St all look great with the works done. Sorting out O'Connell street would help a lot.

jmch81

Retail will not sort out Limericks problems. City retail is in trouble over Ireland and the Uk. People want to use retail centres because they are handy, free parking, roof etc and online shopping is taking alot of higher priced items.
Jobs are what will rejuvenate the city centre, build purpose built offices in the "opera centre" and give tax breaks for setting up there. By employing more people in offices in the city centre mean more customers in the city centre during the day resulting in more services been required for lunches and other things people need.

Now for people to disagree with me.

Kess73

TEMPLAR KNIGHT wrote: »

honestly if the city is to survive( and it porbably wont), these shopping centres that they are opening on the outskirts of the city should not be allowed to open ( i know they create jobs and everything which im all for) but not at the cost of the city centre the more of these that open like childers road,the crescent, the parkway an the new one near tk max its obvious they are killing the city, the city centre is like a ghost town the majority of shops are closed and boarded up giving it a horrible look. the opera centre would be a great boost when and if it was to open...the job they did on william street is fantastic and brings a breath of fresh air to the city now if we could just get shops opening which wold be a great thing, but unfortunately there is no spport from local or national government in terms of small business or self employed people all these places are closing down(even a family member of mine closed his shop after 22 years of busiess in the city because of rent and rates which are extremely high so trying to drop these to entice people to open would be a good start) I could write about this all night but i wont haha.

Way too much is made of the effect the out of city centres have on the city centre. It has been bleated so much by some of those at city hall that it is just taken as fact now.

The Parkway is a shell of a centre now and is losing units year on year. The Castletroy shopping centre has more empty units that occupied ones. The Jetland shopping centre has 50% of it's units empty.

The Coonagh shopping centre has had 16 of it's 17 units empty from day one.

Funnily enough most of the underperforming out of town shopping centres have something in common in that they wre either built or owned by Limerick people and who were allowed to build without having businesses lined up to fill the units or who gave false promises to retailers and then did not have the units ready in time, as happened in Coonagh.

Funny how the Mayor and city council don't kick up over that, but instead are trying to blame the woes of the city on the Parkway valley centre, a centre that does not even exist. A centre that has a man who has a track record of not only of having retailers lined up and signed up for his projects in advance, but who also has a track record of when he finishes a project that it is finished on time and the units are full. The city had him involved with the Opera centre and they dicked around. So now they are left with a pie in the sky project that if it ever comes about will no doubt go to some Limerick connection to build and will sit there as useless as the Coonagh shopping centre.


Another problem in the city centre is the size and age of many of the units (not to mention the fact that Limerick city still charges crazy money for rates etc, with the square foot cost being closer to Dublin at times than Galway or Cork), a lot of the city centre units are not modern and would not suit a lot of retailers as the storage areas would be too small, and the shop floor areas would be too small. There are also issues with getting deliveries in as the room allocated for delivery trucks is a joke in a lot of the city.


It is all well and good having new footpaths and what not, but if rates stay at silly prices, if the units are small and old, if there is not a good infrastructure in place to allow deliveries to be made with some degree of ease, then Limerick city will continue it's decline regardless of what is happening in the suburbs.

Hell even the tunnel was being claimed as being a boost for getting people into the city centre. The same tunnel that is part of a road system that bypasses the city. The same tunnel that allows 10,000, 15,000 or whatever number of cars per day to avoid the city totally. How many of those cars beforehand would have stopped off at a service station or shop in the city for petrol, ciggies or whatever? How many might have decided to buy their groceries in Dunnes ion town or in Tesco in town rather than getting stuck in the Dock road traffic trying to get to the Crescent or wherever? Well now they can just use the bypass to shop outside the city. Joke that the bypass tunnel was ever claimed by City Hall to be a way to bring people into the city

I would be very confident that even if the Parkway valley centre gets blocked and remains an eyesore on the outskirts, that the closure of units in the city centre will continue and some other excuse will get trotted out by city hall as to why it is happening.

Medium to long term planning does not seem to ever be on the table in Limerick. A major knock and build is needed in the city centre, something along the lines of Liverpool One. Yes it would cost big, but as L1 has shown, it can totally change a city and can be down quickly in relative terms. And far more than Retail is needed to save Limerick, retail is just the tip of the iceberg.

Nickel and dime planning/ambition has Limerick where it is.

Kess73

jmch81 wrote: »

Retail will not sort out Limericks problems. City retail is in trouble over Ireland and the Uk. People want to use retail centres because they are handy, free parking, roof etc and online shopping is taking alot of higher priced items.
Jobs are what will rejuvenate the city centre, build purpose built offices in the "opera centre" and give tax breaks for setting up there. By employing more people in offices in the city centre mean more customers in the city centre during the day resulting in more services been required for lunches and other things people need.

Now for people to disagree with me.

Totally agree. Retail in Limerick is dire. Choice is poor, range of brands is poor etc., but as you pointed out it is more than just retail that needs to shaken up in Limerick city.

phog

Pedestrianisation might help retail in the city centre but I think it's a dying breed. Cars have become king so shopping centres with free car parks will win the battle.

I think the local authority, hotel assocations, publicans and tourist groups should aim to have a couple of quality events held in Limerick each year that would attract people from outside the Mid-West.

Munster rugby (with a home QF in the H/Cup and a home S/F & Final in the PRO12 league can have up to 8 capacity crowds in Thomond Park.

We have the Great Limerick Run which seems to be growing in strenght.

I think we're missing something theatre wise, though they was a good run in the pantomines in UL and the Belltable over the Xmas period.

We have a river that flows through the city and it's never been used to it's potential.

Kess73

phog wrote: »

Pedestrianisation might help retail in the city centre but I think it's a dying breed. Cars have become king so shopping centres with free car parks will win the battle.

I think the local authority, hotel assocations, publicans and tourist groups should aim to have a couple of quality events held in Limerick each year that would attract people from outside the Mid-West.

Munster rugby (with a home QF in the H/Cup and a home S/F & Final in the PRO12 league can have up to 8 capacity crowds in Thomond Park.

We have the Great Limerick Run which seems to be growing in strenght.

I think we're missing something theatre wise, though they was a good run in the pantomines in UL and the Belltable over the Xmas period.

We have a river that flows through the city and it's never been used to it's potential.

The river is neglected badly despite the city often being advertised as having many riverside attractions.

Agree with the lack of regular events/things to do in the city centre. Come 17:00/18:00 each day and the city centre is dead. There just is nothing really to do bar go to a pub.

peckerhead

Clean the place up, and bolster the "City of Sport" initiative so that all the impetus of that doesn't just fizzle out at the end of the year.

It's about the only positive association most people have with Limerick, tbh.

eclectichoney

I think setting up things like an IT / digital & enterprise hub for start-ups with subsidised rent for the first 6 months etc. would encourage new businesses to set up in the city.

The potential gains would be that some of the start-ups could become successful and grow into something bigger - building a centre could facilitate collaborative projects between companies and knowledge / resource sharing e.g. broadband / phones / meeting room facilities etc.

Also, even from day one there would be a boost to local business in terms of coffee & lunch trade & even office equipment / stationery stores.

thesimpsons

gag alot of our city councillors from saying stupid things in the media -KK came out last week saying we needed more parking, yet since the new signs showing all the car parks in the city were put up, they are showing upwards of 350 spaces free at any one time. City Councillors need to be proactive about the city, need to talk it up, not put people off coming into the city cos there are no spaces.

bazz26

Refloat the Christmas Tree.....

Limerick west

I think there is no room for more big malls in the city. Unless the council has plan to restructure the city and bring the railway to the centre and move the milk market to bigger and convenient place. In the short term, I think traffic inside the city should be directed in ways to serve the city and businesses. Night market is a good idea especially at the beginning of schools and Uni terms.

dave 27

To answer your question op,

The best way to promote the city is to look at what makes the city unique or special..when I think of Limerick I think

Munster
Thomond Park
Local Rugby Legends
Sports Capital of Ireland
Third largest city in the country
one of the youngest populations in the country
one of the highest student populations in the country
the milk market

in order to promote the city, these assets need to be promoted, i see limerick city council and the university of limerick want to start developing in town, thats a great start!

tonyheaney

There are some very good ideas here, i find it saddening that after all the bad news we finally got a brake on TV last week only or it to be destroyed by the stabbing. I feel we need to show that limerick while like many other city's has more to offer

angry kitten

I'm not really sure that there is anything positive about Limerick to promote. I've got to be honest, I live in Clare and my favourite thing about shopping in the city is getting on the bus back to Clare. My husband and I had a look at Dealz on Friday morning, never again. We watched a female drug addict screaming and shouting as she was tackled by security staff and threatening to use her syringe. There's very little do in the city, it's very limited in terms of places to eat and lets be honest, given the pyjama brigade it would be laughable to even consider using the word 'pride' in any way to promote Limerick. Perhaps a good start would be for retailers to refuse to serve people dressed in pajamas.

angeldaisy

I would like to see more independent shops opening, the council needs to look at who the people are that have money to spend. Most of these people are either students and the older generation. Neither have decent shops to buy from, younger parents will generally tend to congregate in the shopping centres anyway, it's safer, warmer, dryer and there are plenty of coffee shops in them.

What I would like to see is the parking spaces in town revert back to 1 hour spaces, since they changed from to 2 hour I find it impossible to find on the road parking and if I only need a few things from town I find it too much hassle going into a car park.
We have enough discount shops now in town, we need something unique to draw people in. Surely we have enough people with business accumen and marketing skills to come up with something? Limerick could be a fantastic city, we have beautiful architecture, wonderful history and it's a great sporting city.
I'm not from Limerick but I did choose to live here and I think we need someone with a little vision.
Unfortunately we do need more garda presence in town, but we also need something for the younger kids/teenagers to do. What do they have to do in town, where can they go?
Unfortunately it's not going to be a quick fix or one solution to fit all. But I'm sure it can be done, soon before it becomes too difficult to fix.

tonyheaney

bazz26 wrote: »

Refloat the Christmas Tree.....

Put that thing down with the titanic plz :mad::D

Limerick west

I found that people in this city blame Garda for the crime issues and the council for the bad image. Only limerick's people are the hope to bring the city back. There is need to creat volunteering groups from the public to brain storm new ideas and to collaborate to start new projects to promote the current attractions. Waiting for authorities to solve our problems is not a good idea. I will be happy to see people in the street with new initiatives and I am ready to participate.

tonyheaney

dave 27 wrote: »

To answer your question op,

The best way to promote the city is to look at what makes the city unique or special..when I think of Limerick I think

Munster
Thomond Park
Local Rugby Legends
Sports Capital of Ireland
Third largest city in the country
one of the youngest populations in the country
one of the highest student populations in the country
the milk market

in order to promote the city, these assets need to be promoted, i see limerick city council and the university of limerick want to start developing in town, thats a great start!

Regarding the the milk market i finally had the chance to come down and see it i love the new indoor/outdoor vibe they now got, BUT surely they whole place needs a redevelopment. not the milk market but the surrounding
buildings.

As for the student part i think near everyone of them need a good firm kicking from the devastation i have seen in cruses street from what im told its not the first time they have caused destruction. :mad:

tonyheaney

TEMPLAR KNIGHT wrote: »

honestly if the city is to survive( and it porbably wont), these shopping centres that they are opening on the outskirts of the city should not be allowed to open ( i know they create jobs and everything which im all for) but not at the cost of the city centre the more of these that open like childers road,the crescent, the parkway an the new one near tk max its obvious they are killing the city, the city centre is like a ghost town the majority of shops are closed and boarded up giving it a horrible look. the opera centre would be a great boost when and if it was to open...the job they did on william street is fantastic and brings a breath of fresh air to the city now if we could just get shops opening which wold be a great thing, but unfortunately there is no spport from local or national government in terms of small business or self employed people all these places are closing down(even a family member of mine closed his shop after 22 years of busiess in the city because of rent and rates which are extremely high so trying to drop these to entice people to open would be a good start) I could write about this all night but i wont haha.

Re: shops not be allowed to open

While i agree this point has become a mute point. there already there standing and trading so now its more along the point we have to accept them and move on. Why these shops could have moved in to the City center i don't know. Also what would be great to see is a vast improvement to the ageing buildings in the city center. the opera center would be great but is this just a pipe dream? the new proposed building at the town hall has the whole of old dunnes arthur's quay park penny's completely demolished. would this be good? you tell me.

Amazotheamazing

TEMPLAR KNIGHT wrote: »

honestly if the city is to survive( and it porbably wont), these shopping centres that they are opening on the outskirts of the city should not be allowed to open ( i know they create jobs and everything which im all for) but not at the cost of the city centre the more of these that open like childers road,the crescent, the parkway an the new one near tk max its obvious they are killing the city, the city centre is like a ghost town the majority of shops are closed and boarded up giving it a horrible look. the opera centre would be a great boost when and if it was to open...the job they did on william street is fantastic and brings a breath of fresh air to the city now if we could just get shops opening which wold be a great thing, but unfortunately there is no spport from local or national government in terms of small business or self employed people all these places are closing down(even a family member of mine closed his shop after 22 years of busiess in the city because of rent and rates which are extremely high so trying to drop these to entice people to open would be a good start) I could write about this all night but i wont haha.

Do you really think a city of 100,000 people is going to vanish or something?

The boundary extension will change the rates in the city but anyhow, promoting the city...

Hold a beer festival.

SnoopyGunner

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Do you really think a city of 100,000 people is going to vanish or something?

The boundary extension will change the rates in the city but anyhow, promoting the city...

Hold a beer festival.

Yeah, a beer festival would be great. I'd love to see an event that makes full use of the river, maybe some kind of boat race or tall ships event similar to ones that other cities have. Then have a beer festival on at the same time for the evening's entertainment.

At the moment the only time there's any atmosphere around is when Munster are playing in Thomond Park.

angry kitten

Fantastic ideas about promoting sporting events in Limerick. The problem is what do people do when the game is over. I wonder how many first time tourists going to Limerick actually cut their holiday short and if any of them ever return. Limerick is a ghost town, sorry but the accent is God-awful, there are so many scumbags walking the streets.

In all seriousness a trip to Limerick is like visiting an alien planet with a deeply unpleasant species.

I can appreciate the desire to do something with the city, but maybe its time to raze it to the ground and start again. As for the market what is the fuss about. Dull and full of stalls selling the same thing at varying prices

Insect Overlord

Anything positive to add to this thread at all, Kitten? I get the impression you're just trying to wind up the locals.

mikemac1

What happened the flying boats?
Wasn't there some company going to fly between Galway docks to the Shannon in Limerick.

And take the scenic route, along the West Clare coastline

I'd head to Limerick for a go at that and return trip back, spend a few hours in the city

I think there was a thread here and every rowing club were fine with it but one were objecting strongly


Also Limerick is the city of sport, how about hosting a tournament for Rugby Sevens?
I know a good few lads who spent a weekend in Edinburgh when they hosted it
You'll have international fans and people from the other nations, great advertisment

angry kitten

No I'm not trying to wind up the locals. I just find it very depressing to look at what Limerick has become. I gave directions to some Australian tourists getting off the Airport bus at Debenhams recently and wondering where Jurys hotel was. O'Connell street was virtually deserted and I couldn't help wondering what on earth they'd find to do in the city centre. I'm not anti Limerick, there are some wonderful parts of Limerick county. But realistically what would you do as a tourist with a few days to spend in the city centre?