Dublin must be a whole, as well as the sum of its parts

There is a programme on Netflix called Pretend It’s a City, which consists of a series of conversations between the comedian Fran Lebowitz and the movie director Martin Scorsese. Their subject is New York, and the joys and pain of being New Yorkers, whether native or by choice.

The title refers to something Lebowitz mutters to people who get in her way on the pavement. And one of the programme’s pleasures is how it reminds us of what it means to live in a city. In that spirit, I present a few things that would make living in Dublin even more pleasant.

The first is a message to residents and civic leaders alike. Can we at least pretend, for a change, that Dublin is a city, rather than some outsized Irish county town? Thank you.

Second, let’s heed the warning recently from Michael Stanley, chief executive of Cairn Homes, one of the country’s providers of residential buildings. Stanley lamented the unbalanced nature of the development of Dublin between the canals. Office and hotel construction in Dublin 1 and 2, he said, outpaced the building of homes by a factor of 10 in the past few years. The result, he noted, is “a city that nobody lives in.”

This is not a sustainable strategy for central Dublin. There is ample space between the canals for dense residential development, which would lead to more vibrant streets, which would reduce costs for services, making it more attractive to residents, which would be good for business and the fabric of the city. Stanley’s intervention deserved more attention than it got.

Having done all of that, let’s cut to the chase. It is essential to stop the epidemic of drug-taking and drug-peddling on the streets of Dublin. Injecting drugs in public is an act of extreme antisocial behaviour. If it were an epidemic of public urinating, there would have been an outcry long ago and it would have been stamped out. But drug-taking is tolerated to the point of being indulged. That has to stop.

Then, there is much discussion about the state of O’Connell Street. It could be splendid, but it is a bit of a mess. What it lacks is a central spectacle or phenomenon that would attract one’s gaze and draw it upwards, to declare definitively that one is indeed on O’Connell Street. That is easy to provide, but it requires the removal of the Spire.

That non-entity has zero character, presence or personality as a piece of street art, and is out of proportion to its location. What O’Connell Street needs is a stone or concrete pillar similar to what used to be there – Nelson’s Column (without Nelson, of course: topping to be decided). If we are to improve the capital’s most important thoroughfare – and we must – the Spire has to go and be replaced by something with more substance.

Then, let’s stop dividing Dublin into “quarters” – Grafton Quarter, Clery’s Quarter, and what have you. These designations are arbitrary and too nakedly commercial. The practice is rife, yet it has a hint of desperation about it. Let’s also stop the proliferation of gated communities, which undermine streetscapes. Both trends contribute to notions of separateness – of lines that may not be crossed, of places you must keep out of. That is the antithesis of a city. Dublin must be a whole, as well as the sum of its parts.

Finally, we need to reclaim not just the streets but the alleyways and lanes that are such a feature of central Dublin. Most of them are in a shocking state. In Bologna, where I was recently, lanes and alleys are hubs of culture and hospitality. In Dublin, they are mainly toilets. Enough already.