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Are we booming or busting? – The confusion about the “current financial climate”

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Are we booming or busting? – The confusion about the “current financial climate”

A friend posted a notice from a small business in Dublin on Facebook. The business (the name or sector is not relevant for this post) closed its doors on 31 January and the explanation for the closure started with “due to the current financial climate”. Interestingly, that business was in the same part of Dublin where a 3-bed apartment on Daft.ie has a rental price tag of EUR 3,800 per month and it was not a million miles away from a number of areas in Dublin, where the pubs are booming like mad.

If we talked about a place far away from our world, we would wonder what is going on, we would be puzzled!! Why are there these type of significant contradictions happening: One business closes due to “the current financial climate” and other businesses are booming and house and apartment prices are higher than they were before. But it is just around the corner from us, in the middle of our life and neighbour hood. So are we booming or busting?

The answer is most likely that we are BOTH in a boom and at the same time still in trouble. There are some companies who are (still) in trouble, some because they were not made or managed to be ever successful and others because the people running them are still in the mindset of “trouble”. But other areas are just ignoring that and it seems to work for them.

The “current financial climate” is still in the head of people while at the same time they are prepared to spend like there is no tomorrow. It also seems that we have a new split in society with one part being still – at least partially – in the bad financial climate, while the other part is riding the crest again. Nearly all formerly bankrupt or at least “NAMA-treated” developers seem to be back in buying mode! :-O

Where does that leave us? It leaves us in a weird and eerie twilight zone of a “boom-bust”, where the emotions about the economic situation might influence us more than the actual facts.

It’s a pity about that small business, because without a doubt dreams and hopes were dashed, replaced by disillusionment and despair.But I would also guess that that small business had made it through harder times a few years ago. Maybe they just reached the point were they couldn’t take it any longer?

Dublin, Economy, Society, , , ,

The bubble is back! Crazy apartment prices in Dublin!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
The bubble is back! Crazy apartment prices in Dublin!

This week an apartment advertisement on Daft was shared on Facebook. The ad confirms that the craziness regarding Dublin rents is back. Exactly 10 years after the crash, we are were we were before.

The apartment is a 3-bedroom apartment on Parnell Street and the rental price is a whopping EUR 3,800 per month. With such a mad price, it is not surprising that it is advertised to accommodate up to 8 people and the pictures show bunk beds in the two small bedrooms. But I would expect that the people who rent it will try to squeeze at least 10 people into it. :-O

Ad is shown below here and I have also added some of the interior pictures. It looks like a really nice apartment, but the “behind the curtain” view is on the last two pictures.

 

Dublin, Economy, Irish, Odd, Society, , ,

Dublin City Council: Are they all insane? – Clontarf Sea Wall

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Dublin City Council: Are they all insane? – Clontarf Sea Wall

There are (too many!!) times when you have to question the sanity of the people that run Dublin City. Last week I wrote about the mess regarding College Green Plaza. Dublin City is definitely involved in that, but An Bord Pleanala was also a significant contributor to that mess.

This week it is getting worse. Much worse!

You might remember a big fight between Dublin City and locals in Clontarf about the flood protection wall that was built last year. The locals wanted to have a low walls so that their pretty views of the sea will not be disturbed and Dublin City banged their fist on the table and said: NO! The “No” was based on the expected flood levels and the Clontarf locals were the ones that appeared narrow minded and short sighted in that conflict. Dublin City went ahead and got the wall built and the locals had to accept.

Fast forward just little while to last Monday: In their January meeting, the Dublin City Councillors decided to LOWER the sea wall now by just 30cm for a cost of EUR 230k below the level that is the national flood level standard to …wait for it…. “improve the view for motorists”. Have you heard anything more bonkers from the shower of City Councillors? But that’s not all! After that it will cost another EUR 300k to beautify the shortened wall. And it is also expected that the wall will have to be raised again in a few years time.

The interesting thing is that Labour, the Green Party, some from Fine Gael and some from AAA-PBP were against the shortening of the wall, but the decision was 34 in favour and 21 against, 3 abstained. In the Council with 63 councillors there are 8 from Fine Gael, 8 from Labour, 6 from AAA-PBP and 3 from the Green party. That’s 25 who should have been against it (obviously the parties weren’t able to convince their own councillors).
And what parties are on the INSANE side of the house? It is Sinn Fein (16), Independents (11), Fianna Fail (9), Social Democrats (1) and Workers Party (1). Remember them when the next election comes along in 2019!

At the time of writing this, the minutes were not yet published. so a list of names who voted for and who against is not known and the above paragraph is a guess from the above referred to article in TheJournal.ie. If you want to watch the webcast, you can find it here and look for Topic No. 6.

Dublin City Council, Odd, Politics, , , , ,

College Green: Traffic Calming vs Traders – Dublin City Mess!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
College Green: Traffic Calming vs Traders – Dublin City Mess!

What a mess! With the new Luas passing Trinity College at College Green and needing traffic priority, the buses and taxis that are also still allowed to use the street are causing some problems, so Dublin City Management lead by the Dublin City Manager Owen Keegan would love to close down College Green immediately even before a decision has been made about the new College Green Plaza and the planned 10mio regeneration of the area.

The Planning Authority “An Bord Pleanala” has to decide on projects like that and Dublin City Council applied in May of last year for permission to build this traffic-free plaza and ban ALL traffic (including buses and hopefully taxis) from access to Dame Street. An Bord Pleanala was meant to decide in November, but in August the planning authority ordered a “comprehensive assessment” after they must have received submissions from organisations that had concerns (e.g. Dublin Bus, the National Transport Authority and traders in Dublin.

Dublin City submitted their assessment in October, but then Bord Pleanala ordered that the public should get full visibility of the results and should be allowed to make further submissions. This public hearing was planned for next week. However on Thursday An Bord Pleanala notified the parties that were meant to be involved in that hearing that it will now NOT go ahead. It seems that the organisation that is tasked with making sure that people stick to (planning) rules made a mistake with rules about consultation periods and it is now unclear when the hearing will happen and when An Bord Pleanala will make a decision.

Originally Dublin City Council wanted to have the new plaza in place by the time the LUAS line opens. It is questionable if that was achievable, but the LUAS is running and we are in a huge mess regarding the College Green Plaza plans.

Owen Keegan, who seems to hate cars, now wants to ban buses and taxis from College Green even before a decision about the College Green Plaza is made and he gets strong support from Green Party Councillor Ciaran Cuffe who recently fought hard against busking in Temple Bar and who always seemed to have favoured bikes over cars.

So does it make sense what they are fighting for? The answer is YES and NO. Private cars are already banned from College Green, so the question is if buses and taxis should also be banned and I would say NO to the ban of buses and YES to the ban of taxis. Taxis are nothing else but private individual transport with the difference that they are temporarily hired instead of owned by the passenger and they should be treated that way. Buses on the other hand are public transport vehicles in the same way as the LUAS and bus drivers also don’t just suddenly stop in the middle of the street as taxis do, so I think there is nothing wrong with buses sharing the LUAS lane, but get taxis out!

However, there is another question: It could happen that the the College Green Plaza will never be realised if An Bord Pleanala decides against it, so should the Dublin City traffic decision not wait for the An Bord Pleanala decision?

It all looks like a BIG mess! …it is so big that I could easily have gotten something wrong in my description above, but I hope not!

oThe Irish Times wrote about it here.

Dublin City Council, , , , ,

How do foreigners find out about Irish culture?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
How do foreigners find out about Irish culture?

“Culture” is a complex thing! Dublin has a very multi-national population and at some point many of the people from other countries will go to their home country and will bring a piece if Irish culture with them or might even be seen as experts on Irish culture. But have they really lived in Ireland?

This is not an Ireland-specific problem, but the Brazilian community in Dublin spends most of the time with other Brazilians, the Polish community sticks together, the Chinese community does the same and I could go on. By not living with Irish people, however, this means that the international community will never really get in contact with Irish culture.

They don’t know what the Late Late Toy Show means in Ireland. Or the Rose of Tralee. They don’t have experienced Christmas Day in an Irish family. They have never heard of Horlicks and when they hear “Irish stew”, they think it should contain Guinness or other new fandangled things.

Now you sure could say that nobody needs to know about about the Rose of Tralee or Horlicks or the Child of Prague because even among the Irish younger population these things lose relevance. But it still means that there are parallel universes in the same country where all people involved THINK they know what Irish culture is, but they don’t!

At Christmas, Brussels sprouts are obligatory here! Gammon/Ham and Turkey BOTH are needed to have a proper Irish Christmas Dinner. But does a Brazilian or Polish or Chinese or German who lives here but has never lived in and with an Irish family know these things?

Maybe there should be “culture classes”? ;-) To make sure that at least the stories are told, even if they other nationals won’t get a chance to live it?!

Or maybe it should be obligatory for every foreigner in Ireland to have an Irish boyfriend/girlfriend for a minimum period of 12 month. :-P

Dublin, Irish, Society, ,
 
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