Cork City - anti social behaviour etc... what's being done?

Your strict attitude here is common in Ireland, and goes a good way to explaining why we have such an awful homeless problems, social problems and filthy streets, not just in Cork, but across the country. Maybe in a couple of generations this will soften.

Cork council has dreams that need London budgets, but operates on a shoestring. Shiny master plans with no practical way to ever get there. So the people who want to make a difference are stuck tinkering around the edges where they have to apply for a smattering of random grants to get anything at all (see Robot Trees)

Instead of encouraging and supporting companies and people with money spend it on improving the city, we tie their hands up in unbendable regulations, where it ends up costing over 1MM to create an apartment worth 250k.

No way to house people above shops, but here, have a parklet and be thankful for it.

if youre blaming homelessness on fire regulations and the planning system then you really have no clue

There is an article in this mornings Irish Times (subscriber only so no link) which is so symptomatic of the behaviour of the Council, that I immediately thought of this thread. The title of the article is : "Welcome to Ireland, where trivial things are magnified and important things are ignored".

An extract from it:

"Ireland seems congenitally predisposed to putting off today any calmly-reached decisions about seminal matters until tomorrow, when it will be plunged into rash reactions in the haste of a crisis. Unlike sunny Spain, maybe our desire for time-wasting distractions springs from the gloominess of our climate."

Change Ireland to Cork city and seminal matters to homelessness and anti social behaviour. Time-wasting distractions then becomes parklets and robot trees and it kind of sums up the situation.

Sad really.

Yes, Dublin is another level of shItehole alright. It's all relative as they say.

The council got compact sweepers a couple of years ago.

Bit of both.

I think there's a certain amount of appeasing the very vocal objecting traders ; we'll reinstate the ban, but don't worry, it will only be enforced once in a blue moon!

You don’t think a lack of actual housing is anything to do with homelessness? I thought it was obvious, you can argue black is white with someone else.

Don’t really get where you are going with the kitchen thing. It’s not a kitchen of someone’s home, it’s a shop. I walked in and out of my apartment today through a shop, a few times. What’s the problem. There is no drama, it’s just a very boring entrance.

Glad you noticed some services and investment is needed, that’s still my point. In a lot of cases the investigation is costly and the investment needed to get past the weird rules makes it unreasonable to proceed. Every single case has to be individually assessed, submissions filed painstakingly and then funding sourced. It’s a giant waste of time, brutally inefficient. Publish a set of guidelines and be pragmatic about it, that would be faster and more effective.

And on your recommendation… I’ve seen the infamous vacant brand new units the council left vacant for years. I wouldn’t be in a rush to recommend handing more housing stock over to them to squander. Actually why would anyone with eyes give the council MORE to manage? They can’t manage MacCurtin street even. Why is there still that hideous temporary footpath there?

Maybe you can’t see it though, there’s a Parklet on it. :D

as others have said, your first paragraph is in no way what i was saying

i wouldnt be happy if i were the owner and someone was going through my business repeatedly to access their accommodation. what about when it is closed? sounds like a logistical (and insurance) nightmare

explain exactly what rules are so 'weird' to you if you have such a problem?

that was a good attempt at deflection in your last paragraph but i ask the question again, if you are so concerned with homelessness then why didnt you do something about it with all that investment capital you mentioned? somehow i think youre not actually that bothered and its just another flimsy excuse

You know you could really help your own blood pressure by putting me on mute, rather than reacting to every single one of my posts with a whinge and a dig, despite me ignoring and not responding for I don't know how long... maybe a year, only to see you are still pathetically prodding away in the background. Sorry to be such a trigger for you, but I think it must be very boring for the rest of the community at this stage.

Yeah, those bins are quite good, if a bit filthy, alright. It took them two gos to get it right,though.

They initially installed a couple on Paul Street, but without foot pedals. It was obvious that most people would not use them as it meant touching them with your hand, which most people would be averse to. Sure enough, after a few months they were removed.

They, then came back a year or more later with pedals. How it wasn't glaringly obvious that they needed to be hands free from day one, is beyond me!

I disagree. No one wants to touch a public bin with their hand, and never did, as far as I'm concerned.

The original ones without pedals were removed well before covid iirc.

It really does puzzle me how no one in any of these councils, nor any of the product designers predicted that very, very few people would be willing to touch a public bin with their hands!

I'm no genius but the second I (and, no doubt, many others) clapped eyes on one of those bins, I knew that, as they were, they were doomed to failure. They didn't just retrofit pedals onto them. They were entirely removed for a couple of years, iirc.

Anyway, as they are now, I agree that they appear to be working well. Let's just hope they are still working in 5 years. I suspect that they aren't cheap.

I can't help feeling that there is a preference for hi tech, expensive solutions (robot trees, solar bins) rather than tried and tested methods like planting trees and actually emptying bins. It looks more modern, I guess.

it was a question, you may see it as sneering but i was interested seeing as you mentioned homelessness a number of times, i called it a flimsy excuse as from dealing with similar clients to yourself my guess is that it is profit that concerns you much more than homelessness. which there is nothing wrong with of course, but you might as well be honest - meeting building regs costs money and thats the real problem you have

you dont need to let me know whats happening, i have a number of years experience working on these sorts of projects. i would argue you are the one refusing to listen as you continually reject to understand that the fire officers problems are generally regarding safety. fire safety. regulations that are generally in line with other western countries but somehow you seem to think are over-prescribed.

but yeah, blame the big bad fire officer and the bold boys at the council (despite the fact that as explained already, they only enforce the regulations they dont actually make them)

even allowing for your massive oversimplification of how things work (and thats a stretch), regulations are rarely as definite as to use NEVER or ALWAYS. but in your case, the solution would be relatively straightforward, you speak to the fire officer and explain that due to it being a listed building you need to work out alternative methods. if the building is constructed in such a way that there are very limited options with regard fire safety then you engage with the conservation bodies and explain that to them. generally there will be some sort of compromise from one of these depending on how significant the building is

but no, lets blame the council cause we dont want to engage in the process

and no, i have no need to justify my profession to anyone, if you have a problem take it up with the RIAI

Ripping out perfectly good fixtures tends to slow it down. There is one council house in my block empty over 2 years, my other neighbours transferred recently and they have absolutely gutted a beautiful house, tenants put a fortune into it and its been stripped back to spec.

You could of moved a family of 6 back into the day they left in the condition it was in.