Michael Moynihan: Cork needs to be a city which facilitates both the elderly and very young
Cars pass through flood waters on Monahan Rd, near Marina Park, Ballintemple, Cork. Picture: Larry Cummins
A few weeks back I was celebrating here. New public toilet due to open in Cork on the Marina.
I know. Little enough to celebrate. Still, take your victories where you can.
The inciting incident was a story by Imasha Costa published here on October 10: “Cork City Council said it expects the toilets to be fully operational before the end of next week. The site is beside Cortado Coffee at the city end of the Marina Promenade.” You might remember reading about other public areas which have toilets — not in the city centre, but what harm — and the cost of these toilets and footfall and so on.
Yours truly duly wrote a column hoping this toilet on the Marina would be maintained after the unveiling, and true to form I even popped up on the radio chatting about it. Bladder issues, close to everyone’s heart.
Almost a month later, though, has this new toilet actually opened?
Investigating proved tricky. Getting down the Centre Park Rd last Sunday was no picnic. The day was chilly but bright, and there were plenty of people availing of the day to stretch the legs; in the normal course of events it’s a pleasant enough stroll even if the surrounding ambience tends to the post-industrial.
On this occasion recent rain had helped water to pool at various points along the road, making the cycle lanes impassable. This meant in turn that cyclists were taking to the footpaths at times — or worse, their cousins on e-scooters. There were a couple of games down in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh the same day which meant match traffic was heavy enough, cars splashing through large puddles of water to the detriment of pedestrians.
The whole point of the cycle lanes is to get people out of their cars, and the wide footpaths of the Monahan and Centre Park Rds should be ideal for walkers.
Should be.
I’m not exaggerating when I say large puddles, either. At the entrance to Funderland there was so much surface water on Saturday that cars were taking turns to nose their way down the centre of the road, avoiding vast pools along the kerbs.
After I waded through, the answer was yes: the toilets heralded for the Marina were not open. On a Sunday afternoon, when hundreds of people were walking along the riverside, spilling down from the Marina Market, heading for SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
I mentioned in that column the surprisingly high cost of public toilets, but perhaps our sights should be set a bit lower. Instead of a series of pissoirs which would do credit to the Gare d’Austerlitz stop on the Paris Métro, could we not even rise to a few portaloos at a couple of crucial points along the Marina-Passage route?
As for the surface water... We’re not living in Death Valley. Ireland is one of the wettest countries in the world. Rain is a near-constant companion: We know it’s coming and we know there’ll be no shortage.
I’m torn when it comes to picking my own favourite. Either it’s the lough you find coming down from the Boreenmanna Rd onto the Link — it forms at the bottom of the the left-hand lane at the traffic lights — or the temporary pond which is generated down on the Blackrock Rd by Kennedy Park after a wet night. They’re just a couple I see regularly, but readers should feel free to nominate their own.
Heading back to the Marina, is the surface water on those approach roads a matter of drains being blocked by leaves, blockages which should be cleared as a matter of routine when bad weather is in the offing? Or is there something else at play?
Readers who have dropped or collected people from Funderland in the last few days will know there are huge building works going on across the road, on the old Live At The Marquee site.
A vast apartment complex is being built there which will hopefully help with the housing and accommodation crisis.
However, if those building works are contributing to the problem of flooding when it rains, then those doing the building should be doing some of the solving as well. That’s not an unreasonable demand, surely — if a private operator is creating an issue which impinges on the public, why should a public body have to provide the remedy?
(Don’t all shout at once about my innocence.) A confession at this point.
The reason for investigating the Marina toilet last weekend was an email I got from a reader a few days beforehand — in their own words, a pensioner who goes for a walk every day because of a medical condition which necessitates regular exercise.
The reader pointed out that you could walk from the Marina down to Passage without passing a toilet, but, having read in the about the new facility near Cortado, they decided to press onto the Marina on the daily stroll to avail of the new toilets: "To my dismay I discovered they were blocked off for some reason. Not a great start!” Ah here, I said (to myself). Investigation needed. Hence my voyage of discovery.
I know you’re as tired of reading it as I am of writing it, but we’ll give it one more spin with feeling.
Having a city which actively helps and facilitates the elderly and the very young alike means a city which facilitates everyone: targeting those specific age groups with toilets, for instance, would mean age group is accommodated.
Instead, these are the two age groups which seem more victimised than any other in the city.
These are the people discommoded by the sliotarheaded van driver who beaches his vehicle across a footpath ‘for a minute’, forcing young and old out into traffic on the road. They’re threatened by the sunglasses-sporting woman who likes to roll the SUV through the red light because she’s in a real hurry, never mind if people are entitled to cross. They’re the people made uncomfortable by the ignorant and entitled blaring their phones on public transport at top volume, and by the reeking solipsists who impose their taste in recreational drugs on anyone close enough to smell them.
Yes, these are the people for whom large pools of water on road surfaces and footpaths are often significant physical challenges. The people for whom the feasibility of a journey around Cork depends on the availability of toilet facilities. Mobility, access, and comfort are live issues for them.
What about a city for those people, given caubogues of every kind are facilitated in the city?
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
