Why can't O'Connell Street in Dublin be more like Dame Street and Grafton Street ?

It was actually a nice street back in the days. Google for Sackville Street. Nice hotels as well, such as like near the GPO. All prior to 1916.

IMO there's two major problems with O'Connell Street

First, there's almost no shops on it worth visiting. There's what, an Eason's, two Burger kings, a McDonald's and the GPO now?

Oh and a Londis that sells the cheapest booze in Dublin I believe

So no nice restaurants, shops or museums to visit

I don't really buy the idea that the whole area is a dump, Henry Street is alright and Abbey Street has improved a lot

But O'Connell Street still seems to just be a way to get to somewhere else rather than the destination itself

I think the other problem is the traffic, getting the cars off the street was a great idea but I think the bus stops need to be removed or redistributed

Let's face it, buses are pretty loud and you can't really imagine sitting in an outdoor cafe on the street enjoying lunch while a bus driver is telling some guy on a scooter to f**k off

Maybe the electric buses will be quieter and make it into less of a diesel engine symphony

I also think they need more trees and plants along the street, it's a bit of a concrete jungle compared to most streets, and it's more noticeable given how wide the street is

It's not the main street people want to go to any more. It's a transport hub and a place that people just kind of pass through, it's never going to be anything else really at this stage.

I don't know why people get so worked up about it, it was never anything special in any of our lifetimes. I was in South William St area today getting food and drinks and it was just gorgeous, it's a different world to O'Connell St. That area is where people go to shop and socialise etc, go there if you want to be somewhere nice.

The difficulty with O'Connell Street is as clear as it is unsolvable.

60 to 80 years ago, the authorities of the time decided to replace the old Georgian tenements of the north inner city with new build social housing.

Unfortunately, due to a combination of further economic decline and lack of political will, among other things, that new social housing was not managed, not protected. The people were not assisted properly and so the whole hinterland of O'Connell Street, or at least large areas of it to the east and north, became a squallid, poverty and drug ridden hole.

Sadly, despite various initiatives since the 80s, that situation has not improved a whole lot and despite also an economic transition, that same troubled area has further ghettoised with migrant communities and drug black spots.

And so, until all that is changed through a complete regeneration- and dare I say gentrification - O'Connell Street and its surrounds will continue to suffer the anti-social behaviour of some people who live close to it and who steal, mug, fight, intimidate, assault, and deal and take drugs on the streets in that area.

In fact you could put 40 Guards on permanent duty in that 1 square mile and it would still only be a game of whackamole, losing against revolving door prisons and do-gooder judges and SJWs.

O'Connell St is no better than a bus terminus and has been for the better part of 20 years.

Routing all the busses down Marlborough and Gardener St would be a huge improvement, then pedestrianize half of it and let restaurants and cafes expand out onto the street.

I agree.

there is nothing there anymore. It’s just bus stops, fast food restaurants, boarded up businesses, call / internet cafes.

the only retail shop I’d have the remotest interest in would be Easons. I wouldn’t have a single reason for going to O’Connell st now. A far nicer experience around Exchequer / Wicklow / Grafton / Georges / South William & Drury Streets…

the street and general area has absolutely bûcket loads of potential. Hopefully the Clearys quarter can be a revitalising shot in the arm, it needs it…

I used to live in East London, a wonderful multicultural place. It's a big place but pretty much all of it is so popular that house prices are off the charts. What are you talking about exactly?

I suppose you think this view from 1760 looks better that the current set-up? 😄

And not a junkie to be seen here (except yer man crossing the road looks like a bit of a laudanum fiend). 🧐

Not in anything like the same volume and it has the distinct advantage of having Stephen's green at one end and Trinity at the other.

It does look less claustraphobic to be fair - and less commercial too, no McDonald's or Starbucks...

Yep, was about to say Supermacs. 🤣

Pearse Street and Amiens Street are the main main clinics ( national drug treatment centre) , couple of satellite clinics with GPs prescribing around the city and nearly every chemist north and south side are dispensing methadone including well known multi chain chemists. There’s no particular over abundance of clinics in the north side .

Thing I notice about DCC is that rubbish in black plastic bin bags are just dumped on the street for collection, for rats and seagulls to have a field day on. Then people complain about seagulls rather than the real issues in DCC.

I think it's a contrivance to call it "The main street of our Capital City", which it's often called.

It just looks like the main St cos it's the widest and its central.

The centre of gravity of Dublin is College Green, Dame St and Grafton St.

The City's origins are in the south side on Wood Quay, Dublin Castle, Christchurch, Trinity, Dubh Linn etc.

A lot of the North Side to the East of O'Connell St is reclaimed land. Lots of the North docklands was extremely deprived recently and is only now recovering.

Mountjoy Sq and Henrietta St was originally for the upper middle class but became tenemant slums by the turn of the 19th Century, whilst the southside squares remained salubrious.

The Carlton Site, Metro Station and Clerys will make a difference though. Also all the development on the North Docks will help as they'll travelling by Luas. Likewise Grangegorman Campus.

The gentrification of places like Cabra, East Wall etc also. O'Devenay gardens also.

I suggest we try to get to the root of multi generation poverty, crime, addiction, antisocial behaviour.

Human beings have such potential and most people aren't born bad.