Retail Excellence Ireland has drawn attention to the damage being done to commercial business by institutional investors, particularly on the High Street.
The group highlight (http://bit.ly/bVOfvg) that Rent levels in the Irish commercial property market are now more than double the global average. Without downward movement in rent, they state that the industry will move from a “full serve” model to a “self-serve” model, and a further 40,000 jobs will be lost (additional to the 35,000 lost in 2009).
They highlight a group of institutional landlords including several who are being looked after by the state in NAMA with whom they are tactfully seeking "closer co-operation" as reported in today's Irish Times: http://bit.ly/bNVx4z from @the_irish_times
Their capacity to make any progress with policians in the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment today is much more important to the health and vitality of town centres than any number of policy documents or assessments. This is at the heart of the "Dalkey Dilemma" as previously noted.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Ordinary Places
CABE's lastest publication, Ordinary Places says a 'Smart' thing: "We have a serious problem with the quality of most ordinary streets. Streets determine how places feel,
yet cars still dominate. To civilise them, streets need to be designed first and foremost as places in themselves, prioritising the needs of disabled people,pedestrians and carers with pushchairs, and cyclists, above the motorist. This frees councils to remove clutter such as unnecessary signage and guardrails.
Once sights are raised, streets can start to reflect local identity".
They call this 'Sparking the Debate', and then proclaim the need to teach people visual literacy.
Excuse me, but who did the ******* designing in the first place? Was it 'Ordinary' people or the people trained in visual literacy? If post-war development is anything to go by, training in 'visual-literacy' isn't necessarily an asset.
The pamphlet is described as "a starting point for debate about creating the culture and conditions to help ordinary places to become valued and valuable".
Its 2010, why are we at a starting point? Jane Jacobs pointed this all out over 40 years ago.
CABE goes on to say "It asks how people can directly influence the quality of their places? Why don’t all pupils learn about design, to help make sense of the places around them?"
Another question must be, why should normal people have to give up time from their busy lives to tell professional designers how to do their job for them?
Jane Jacobs pointed the finger firmly at the professional planners, architects and traffic engineers and challenged them to recognise the value of ordinary, messy, mixed use places, which the quantitative models couldn't and can't deal with.
Its entirely condescending and elitist to presume ordinary people need teaching a bit of visual literacy to improve the public spaces and public elevations they have no control over. Isn't this somebody elses job??
Recognising the value of ordinary places is really the only show in town now. Value in the ordinary comes from appreciation of the small humble things, and taking the time patience and care to do things well.. plot by plot..builidng by building etc.
yet cars still dominate. To civilise them, streets need to be designed first and foremost as places in themselves, prioritising the needs of disabled people,pedestrians and carers with pushchairs, and cyclists, above the motorist. This frees councils to remove clutter such as unnecessary signage and guardrails.
Once sights are raised, streets can start to reflect local identity".
They call this 'Sparking the Debate', and then proclaim the need to teach people visual literacy.
Excuse me, but who did the ******* designing in the first place? Was it 'Ordinary' people or the people trained in visual literacy? If post-war development is anything to go by, training in 'visual-literacy' isn't necessarily an asset.
The pamphlet is described as "a starting point for debate about creating the culture and conditions to help ordinary places to become valued and valuable".
Its 2010, why are we at a starting point? Jane Jacobs pointed this all out over 40 years ago.
CABE goes on to say "It asks how people can directly influence the quality of their places? Why don’t all pupils learn about design, to help make sense of the places around them?"
Another question must be, why should normal people have to give up time from their busy lives to tell professional designers how to do their job for them?
Jane Jacobs pointed the finger firmly at the professional planners, architects and traffic engineers and challenged them to recognise the value of ordinary, messy, mixed use places, which the quantitative models couldn't and can't deal with.
Its entirely condescending and elitist to presume ordinary people need teaching a bit of visual literacy to improve the public spaces and public elevations they have no control over. Isn't this somebody elses job??
Recognising the value of ordinary places is really the only show in town now. Value in the ordinary comes from appreciation of the small humble things, and taking the time patience and care to do things well.. plot by plot..builidng by building etc.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
The Dalkey Dilemma
David McWilliams has a genius for coining a phrase, so that whenever we talk about town centre retail we just need to call it the 'Dalkey Dilemma' from now on. He was talking on RTE Radio 1 today following his article in the Irish Independent http://bit.ly/bqntMm. Its very welcome that a high profile, media friendly figure can highlight this pressing crisis: - the death of the mainstreet. He is entirely right that the response needs to be grass route led. The people who need to be making decisions, are the ones whos livelihoods are on the line.
However, any response needs to be seriously organised, professional, and full-time. Traders don't have the time, and while have plenty of good ideas, they may not be the right ones, at a particular time, or geared to the particular challenges of of a village. DunLaoghaire Rathdown Co. Co. brings in millions of euro in commercial rates from Dundrum Shopping Centre, and Carrickmines Retail Park - the retail centres the Council permitted. This income needs to be reinvested in the traditional towns and villages - but the Council arn't the ones to do it alone. They need to set up autonomous BID companies/TCM partnerships which they heavily invest in, and start getting serious.
However, any response needs to be seriously organised, professional, and full-time. Traders don't have the time, and while have plenty of good ideas, they may not be the right ones, at a particular time, or geared to the particular challenges of of a village. DunLaoghaire Rathdown Co. Co. brings in millions of euro in commercial rates from Dundrum Shopping Centre, and Carrickmines Retail Park - the retail centres the Council permitted. This income needs to be reinvested in the traditional towns and villages - but the Council arn't the ones to do it alone. They need to set up autonomous BID companies/TCM partnerships which they heavily invest in, and start getting serious.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Marylebone High Street, London
Marylebone High Street http://bit.ly/rkpLp is so good, when you walk down it, that you think its just happened by itself. The eclectic mix of stores is so natural,that the street is a place and somewhere you want to meander a while. Its in such marked contrast to the hostility (no I dont understand the need for 20 different shoe shops) of the typical high street (Oxford Street is just around the corner). But then people who do the right thing over a long period of time rarely make the headlines.
The Howard de Walden Estate, is the main landlord in the area, and quite uniquely (as far as I know) take a long term view on the tenant mix of the street, not because they are philantropists or do goodie types (who cares!), but because it makes good business sense, because good business is creating good place that are sustainable places because they last and have a sense they'll last, and reassure you that in you're somewhere better than the suburban retail park. This example cannot be easily followed, but it shows what can be achieved. http://www.marylebonevillage.com/en/marylebone-village/..... Adapt and prosper.
Post note: Of course like any street in London, the traffic engineers really do their best to make a mess of it.. and put up as many people cages, poles, barriers, signposts as possible...
Doughnut Dublin
Dublin Chamber of Commerce provided an interesting view on city centre vacancy by saying we need more cars and parking spaces! They got national coverage on RTE on Monday for their submission to the Dublin City Plan http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0322/dublin.html This seems to ignore all evidence from city development of the last 50 years, where its been shown time and again that its people that are needed in city centres not cars!
This headline is a shame because their submission does say some sensible things (www.dubchamber.ie/Uploads/Development_Plan-Dublin_Chamber.pdf). They're right to focus on the importance of delivering public transport. The evidence from studies such as Jan Gehl's of Copenhagen (which the Council are well familiar with), is that you have to improve the quality of the city centre, make it more people friendly and get more people living there, and enjoying the city as the 3rd space. Dublin has hundreds of iconic buildings already; it doesn't need an iconic 'tall' building to define the city, no more than the 'Gherkin' says anything about London (of course an iconic building doesn't have to be tall either!). There is a lot of space to build a flourishing city without indiscriminate glass towers.
The most disappointing aspect of their submission is their lack of understanding as a representative commercial body of retail. The first thing they don't say is that institutional investors/landlords are killing the city's main shopping streets through greed.
Secondly they point to the sad Retail Strategy for the Greater Dublin Area statement that: “The reality is that most shoppers, especially families, do not have the luxury of daily shopping (as in other parts of Europe) and will do one or two big shopping trips per week, necessitating the use of private transport, especially in more rural areas and in urban areas where there is a lack of competitive foodstores.” This was presumably written by Tesco.
The answer to this question is not more supermarkets everywhere (as they suggest), but make daily shopping convenient, attractive and affordable, because this is one of the key elements that makes urban living advantageous and enjoyable. I could go on......
This headline is a shame because their submission does say some sensible things (www.dubchamber.ie/Uploads/Development_Plan-Dublin_Chamber.pdf). They're right to focus on the importance of delivering public transport. The evidence from studies such as Jan Gehl's of Copenhagen (which the Council are well familiar with), is that you have to improve the quality of the city centre, make it more people friendly and get more people living there, and enjoying the city as the 3rd space. Dublin has hundreds of iconic buildings already; it doesn't need an iconic 'tall' building to define the city, no more than the 'Gherkin' says anything about London (of course an iconic building doesn't have to be tall either!). There is a lot of space to build a flourishing city without indiscriminate glass towers.
The most disappointing aspect of their submission is their lack of understanding as a representative commercial body of retail. The first thing they don't say is that institutional investors/landlords are killing the city's main shopping streets through greed.
Secondly they point to the sad Retail Strategy for the Greater Dublin Area statement that: “The reality is that most shoppers, especially families, do not have the luxury of daily shopping (as in other parts of Europe) and will do one or two big shopping trips per week, necessitating the use of private transport, especially in more rural areas and in urban areas where there is a lack of competitive foodstores.” This was presumably written by Tesco.
The answer to this question is not more supermarkets everywhere (as they suggest), but make daily shopping convenient, attractive and affordable, because this is one of the key elements that makes urban living advantageous and enjoyable. I could go on......
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