City of Culture in a chaotic condition

I HAVE lived in Cork all my life because I believe it is probably the best city in the world.

However, I now feel as if I am residing in Beirut.

Cork city is in an appalling state; roads dug up, foul smells, no parking and no incentives to bring people in.

Every second car seems to be clamped by our over-vigilant cruisers in red vans and God help any car-owner driving behind the tow-trucks, snailing its way around the city searching out expired discs on legally-parked cars. There seems to be no end in sight to City Hall’s policy of closing down the city at all costs, and now they seem to be homing in on the suburbs, turning the old railway line in Blackrock into a bus route for example.

2005 is rapidly approaching. Do we honestly have enough time to avoid becoming the European City of Chaos?

Cathal O’Herlihy,

Willowbank,

Blackrock,

Cork.