Public swimming
Regenerate the Docklands! It’s dilapidated and no one goes there any more, people said. So what did we do? Did we start a long-term campaign to ensure that the water at the centre of Dublin would be clean enough for its citizens to enjoy leisurely urban swims? Of course not. Now, admittedly, the DART line has plenty of fine beaches and Bull Island’s technically within the city limits, but it doesn’t feel quite the same as the idyllic scene pictured above. Bring swimmers to the Liffey in such a way that they don’t seem insane.
Excellent television
Danish television has exploded recently, with programmes like Borgen, The Bridge and The Killing becoming cult hits as syndication (and worldwide illegal access once the subtitles are on) bring them past their borders. This sort of cultural reach provides propaganda you can’t really get from YouTube ads and billboards, and makes Copenhagen the real star, even if there’s dusky murder and intrigue afoot. Love/Hate was a good start, but now we know it can happen, we should do it again.
Support the chefs
The Michelin star system was originally created to tell travellers how worth their while it was to stop off at particular restaurants to eat. Ireland may be off the beaten track in terms of food tourism, but so once was Denmark, and it’s not like either country has a particularly famous or pervasive national cuisine to jockey-back on. But now people go to Copenhagen specifically to visit Noma, best restaurant in the world 2010-12, and take in various other places of culinary interest while they’re there. You can’t fake Noma, but we could provide organised support for exciting chefs here to make it worth their while to shirk the bright lights of the bigger cities.
Mol an óige
Childcare in Dublin is very expensive, which is an issue that often elicits platitudes, sympathies and the phrase ‘hard decisions’ from politicians. However, if we’re to make Dublin a better place to live and work, it would be an idea to encourage childcare facilities in the centre of the city. Creches in town would encourage parents to stay living in town even with a family, and make it convenient to keep working if they choose to. Why should suburbs be the default?
Cycle lanes
If you’d never left Dublin, you’d presume ‘cycle lane’ was a term for a largely notional segment of road interrupted by stretches of non-existence and pock-marked by bus stops. But cycling shouldn’t be a battle. Many European cities provide Irish tourists with the rite of passage in which they are nearly killed by a high-speed bicycle zooming down a cycle lane that is treated as an actual, real thing. More than a third of Copenhagen’s citizens use bikes for their commute, and buses stop on the road, which is not the same thing as a cycle lane, making it a safe and convenient method of transportation.
