There is a bill moving through the Oireachtas to loosen which rank of Garda can apply to the courts for “anti-social behaviour orders” – also known as ASBOs.
Work on two bus corridors – Liffey Valley to the city centre, and Ballymun and Finglas to the city centre – is due to kick off this year. And that’s just the start.
Literary parks, destination playgrounds, and a sculpture park are all mooted in a draft plan for parks that is out for public consultation at the moment.
The number of allotments in Dublin has been growing, but not fast enough to meet demand – waiting lists can be long. Dublin City Council is working on that.
But did the government push Apollo House residents to the front of the queue? A look at Dublin’s two-tiered system of emergency accommodation for homeless people.
When Dublin City Council says that less than 1 percent of its housing stock is “void”, some Dubliners are confused. That might be because of how it counts.
Many people in Dublin work in the creative economy, which runs at night, and “you have to have services that support that”, says DIT transport planning lecturer David O’Connor.
In meetings, councillors discussed progress on housing and designs for a park near Christchurch, and quizzed the company behind the Poolbeg waste-to-energy incinerator.
It was once “a hive of industry”, a neighbour said. But the buildings went derelict one after another during the 1980s and 1990s, says a local business owner.
Some called such sprinklers a “disgrace”, but the shop’s staff say after years of finding faeces and needles, “our priority is the well-being and safety of our staff”.
Dublin City Council is still working out whether to move ahead with the homes on big boats for students, workers, or tourists. But as the city debates it, Dun Laoghaire is pressing ahead.
No matter who sits down on the red twisty stools by the counter of Little Mac’s in George’s Arcade, Alan Smartt seems to find something to talk to them about.
