Phoenix: Urban vitality

Recent comments about the vitality or otherwise of our city centre have certainly stung city management. 

A defence of the current situation was reported in the Independent on May 7 by Eoin Kelleher with council spokesman Conan Power manning the barricades. 

Our paper published the original comments and our Facebook page reported a torrent of posts, mainly dissatisfied with the current situation in parking, traffic, safety, variety, ambience, retail choice etc. 

Everyone has an opinion on these issues. Pedestrianisation, early closure of premises after business hours and alleged lack of retail choice attract the most negative comments. 

The published council explanation was long on the North Quays, while offering rational for parking, traffic and retail policies. Council obviously wants to turn around a situation, which has developed from years of indifferent decision-making and current retail and hospitality developments. 

This is never easy. 

We have a really lovely city, with some obvious difficulties, but it is not those of a similar view that have to be convinced. Regardless of council explanations and with the best will in the world, a significant number of locals are unhappy with our city centre.

In general, Waterford city hardly ever had a tourism industry. The belief that visitor numbers to Waterford Crystal represented anything other than that was deeply mistaken. 

Our business was the port, manufacturing and distribution. WRH and WIT were extras and growing student numbers created their own positive dynamic. 

The financial crash of 2008/2011 saw horrendous job losses whose impact still lingers. The subsequent change of government heralded an unspeakable and unprecedented, politically motivated attack on both WRH and WIT as they then were. 

The failure to invest in WIT/SETU has been catastrophic for that institution and the city. That has to be said. 

People understood WRH/UHW much more readily and the leadership of senior medical staff, who spoke out on the subject of health provision, created a well-spring of resistance. 

That did not happen in WIT despite the excellent work done by Dr Ray Griffin and SEEM (the South East Economic Monitor). 

Senior leadership was eviscerated for political purposes and remained mute for fear of affecting investment in the college, not realising that the bullies in the Department of Education and the Higher Education Authority would continue with their shameful desire to prevent the development of a real university. 

Had WIT kept pace with other institutions, Waterford would have an extra 8/10,000 students in the city, each spending approximately €15k per annum. 

Meanwhile, the strategic failure of SETU to seek a medical school for UHW is incomprehensible, hinting at wider political opposition.

Regardless of what anyone says to the contrary, Fine Gael has been deeply antipathetic to Waterford. Its loyalties lie elsewhere in this region. 

Micheál Martin is a decent enough Taoiseach but is so defensive of Cork that he sees any development of our small airport, education and medicine in Waterford, even as the country’s population and needs grow, as a threat to his home town. 

In a country that spends €15 billion per annum on capital projects, our share of what’s going looks increasingly risible, but is still resolutely defended by elected government representatives. 

While Irish GDP is famously inaccurate, this region has a GDP of €20 billion. Its actual level should be above €40 billion. When will headline investments in UHW, SETU, Airport, Roads and Port actually materialise? 

We are missing nearly 11,000 jobs and had WIT been invested in, we would be pumping out some 3,000 extra graduates per annum to ease the brain drain. 

Instead, student outmigration is a direct subsidy from Waterford city to the richer cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway.

These things being said of the macro picture, the council’s North Quays involvement created a dramatic lack of focus on the historic city centre. The project needed a special purpose vehicle like the Dublin Dockland’s Development Company to independently drive it. 

The Viking Triangle has stabilized the most historic part of the city centre and is slowly but surely attracting visitor numbers, but appalling dereliction in Stephen’s Street, Browne’s Lane, New Street etc., is shocking. 

Meanwhile, some property owners still seem to believe that maintenance is unimportant. 

The actual grime on the upper stories of the Odeon Cinema and TK Maxx building in Railway Square is offensive and shocking in its insensitivity, as is the ruined factory on the Dunmore Road. 

An honest examination of business input is required. 

The unused multi-storey car park in New Street and low-level usage in Penrose Lane and Railway Square car parks are symptomatic of the problem. City Square car park lower levels are invariably railed off. These are clear indications of something, other than parking cost, which cannot be explained away by the council saying, “While traffic and parking are often highlighted, data from private car park operators shows that existing facilities are not operating at capacity. Parking provision in the city centre is currently adequate.” 

The apologia in the Independent was necessary to highlight much good work being done across many different metrics, however, a large section of the local population insists something is wrong. There is not a single female shopper I have interviewed, who believes our retail offering is either varied enough or adequate. 

Smaller urban areas around this region seem not to have this problem, resulting in a reported flight of shoppers from Waterford to those places and a growth in their retail and hospitality offering. Something has to be done.

An unacknowledged truth is that the deeply flawed 1993 decision to allow City Square close after business hours instead of remaining open for pedestrian traffic has been critical. The centre, which was meant to be a publicly accessible axis of light and commerce through the heart of the city from Broad Street to the Viking Triangle, similar to its Italian great grandparent, Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emmanuel, and mirroring the historic street pattern, instead presents a dark, fortress like, night-time exterior across four historic city centre streets. 

The damage done, while unintentional, has been quite catastrophic. The planning permission associated with that decision allows the council to insist on different opening hours when it believes they are appropriate. 

If city management is seeking a dynamic answer, they might start there!