No cars go…

 

BikeMi rank at Piazza del Duomo, Milan

Brian Cowen entered the conference hall of the FF Ard Fheis this evening to Arcade Fire’s ‘No Cars Go’. While our Taoiseach may not have seen the environmental message I have decided is contained therein it feels apt that a week ahead of the Green Party’s conference in Wexford (Eoin and Lenny will be down there for YellowRomanCandles) we check out how the Italians have established a bike rental scheme to complement its public transport system. 

Before I try to explain how the scheme works I should probably explain how far the Italians, and the Milanese in particular, are ahead of us in the public transport stakes.

The large white horse in the room

In another week where Brian Dobson has nothing but bad news to report on Six One there is something happening across the water to smile about.

Turner Prize winning artist Mark Wallinger has won the £2 million commission to build the so-called ‘Angel of the South’ in North Kent.

Wallinger’s creation, a large white horse that will stand at 50m tall, will be pretty amazing to look at. It may not be the most orthodox of public art installations but how ridiculously fabulous will it be for people who live in the surrounding areas to wake up every morning and see a huge white horse dominating the landscape?

Residents are planning on protesting. I really hope they fail.

When Dobson finally asks the last person off the island to turn the light off I’m moving to Kent.

Sophisticated anti terror measures at Blackrock station

Catching the Doirt from Blackrock last week, I noticed that CIE appear to have a very clever strategy to prevent terrorist attacks at the station. Look at the text at the very bottom of the sign:

However, after some intrepid investigation (I Googled ‘No bomb please’), it quickly became clear that, unfortunately, this wasn’t the work of everyone’s favourite semi-state. See other examples here and here. So I guess that it’s, like, street art, or maybe a culture-jam-of-sorts.

And that fairly tenuous reference gives me an excuse to post pics of some of my favourite street culture jams:

Ten things to love about Temple Bar

Temple Bar gets a hard time – from Lonely Planet, from Frank McDonald, probably from a lot of people living in Dublin. But for all its obvious problems, which I won’t bother with here, it’s got a lot going for it too. So here’s the obligatory top ten list – I have no idea if I can fill it.

The €200 parking levy

The Government has published details of the €200 employee parking levy, which is to come into force next January. Before we get to the political and policy reasoning behind this, here are the basic facts -

A fee of €200 will apply for each employee parking space within the local authorities of Dublin, Cork, Galway, Waterford and Limerick. The Minister for Finance may extend this levy to other Local Authorities in due course – watch out Sligo!

The employee will pay but the employer will administer payment through the PAYE system – so don’t worry, no one has to deal with their bureaucratic City Hall!

What could town planning learn from music festivals?

Wandering around in a haze at the Green Gathering one night, I started thinking about how the layout of music festivals is conducive to spontaneity and fun – the large open public spaces, the art installations that enthrall you as you drunkenly stumble by, the relaxed but secure atmosphere, the welcoming music venues and the late-night partying.

It’s hardly a revelation that festivals are fun, but what could we learn from them when it comes to improving towns and cities? As awareness grows of the importance of the places we live in to our mental and physical health, isn’t it possible that we could learn something from arguably the funnest urban environment there is?