Catherine Drea: It's all up to us

The last time I saw David McSavage live in the Theatre Royal was a good few years ago. At the beginning of the show he had the audience in knots when he expressed confusion about Waterford being a “town but hardly a city”. 

“Ah lads you must be joking," he went on, “is it because ye have a bus station or what?” 

And every so often throughout the show he got everyone laughing again about Waterford getting away with murder pretending to be a city. He just didn’t buy it.

In a way there were lots of positives in that. The beauty of Waterford is that it has the advantages of a city but the friendliness and scale of a big Irish town. Similar to a lot of small cities all over Europe, it has a rich history, a magnificent river at its centre and a close working community of the friendliest people you will meet anywhere.

So it was with some alarm that I have yet again been hearing the worries about Waterford “dying on its feet”. 

Now I understand the concerns and as so much of it has been expressed already, I want to yet again throw in my two and fourpence worth about more positive possibilities for the future.

It’s not all about tourism and attracting people to come here. If you build it, they will come, as the movie had it. 

Waterford City should be for us; the people who live and work and shop here. If it is a beautiful and happy place for ourselves then it will be attractive to everyone who comes here to visit. 

It’s all local people who are complaining and upset about the perceived lack of life in the centre, it’s not tourists. But something is not working for those of us who live here. Something is missing and we need to work together to figure out the solutions.

First of all, we have all known for years that we must reclaim the Quays. Car parking is important, but not there. With the development of the North Quays, there is an opportunity for wonderful linked walks and parks currently absent from the riverside. 

The continuation of the Greenway should include family-friendly areas with playgrounds, park benches, picnic areas, coffee and ice cream shops. I am always struck by the lack of family-friendly and waterside fun places in the city. 

Let’s turn the city to face the river. The mighty Suir should be the heart of it.

Where are the growing families living in our city? It is understood that in city planning, sprawling suburbs don’t help to bring life to the streets. The opposite happens. We need far more families living in the centre and we need better and more family-friendly apartments, over the shop renovations and housing right in the city.

Here in Spain, every evening, families flood into the open areas. Little kids on scooters, skates and bikes cruise around, while grannies and grandads, mams and dads sit chatting and sharing snacks. There is an open tolerance for gathering and playing. 

Our street festivals encourage that but we need to also encourage the culture of local people being out and about day and night. Owning the streets is vital.

For me it’s not about a few more shops. That would be good, yes. But there is so much more and we should be thinking long-term, 10, 50, 100 years ahead. It takes that long to grow trees and we need a lot more. 

Think native trees, fruit trees, any trees! We should be planting them everywhere and encouraging greener thinking in our everyday lives. Future generations will thank us if we do!

I am struck by everywhere I go that there are key signature buildings that attract people to them. With the development of the North Quays a design competition could be held for a spectacular riverside building. Think Guggenheim Bilbao, which replaced dockside industries, or the Sydney Opera House, forever unique and mind-blowing. What I’ve seen of the North Quay buildings, which are proposed, they seem fairly bland and totally without character.

Architecture and great public art can transform a city. Inspired by friends who are part of the river communities of Waterford I have been collecting public commemoration sculptures around the coast of France and Spain. There is so much of it. 

Strangely, I have found many more statues of women workers, cockle pickers, fish sellers, rope pullers, net menders and makers, than anything else. I have been fascinated by the celebration of marine culture and women in those industries. We need to innovate and go a bit wild with our thinking about public art and celebrate our own, unique cultural heritage.

Free mid-week parking could help to bring people into the city centre. Grants and more support for creative businesses could facilitate more start-ups. Supporting and enhancing all our street festivals too.

There are already many great people working hard to encourage life and creativity in our city. There are fantastic community groups and hard-working networks. 

We all share aspirations for our people and our city. So much has been done already to enhance and improve it, now let’s think bigger and bolder and be utterly selfish. 

Far from dying on its feet, Waterford is a unique and beautiful city with a bright and prosperous future, and making it better is all up to us.