...A strong Limerick city is built on strong social ties and communities. We need to build a city that prioritises social connection, that allows Limerick people interact with each other in a pleasant and healthy city centre. The best social places work when you interact with your community without realising you are doing so, where it is natural to share a conversation or a joke with a neighbour without worrying about traffic or noise.
Before we can start such an overhaul of our city centre, we need to decide on where and how the city will grow for the next generation. The city should not repeat the mistakes of other cities across Europe, which were allowed to sprawl without thought for the consequences of such sprawl. People want to live in strong vibrant communities and we know that unthinking sprawl has been detrimental to communities across Europe. It is hard to know your neighbour when you do not have the time to spend getting to know them because you spend too long in traffic or because your local street is an unpleasant place to stroll around. When we talk about Limerick city, we mean a city all of us calls and considers home, in the best sense. We can learn from other cities on how Limerick can build on its already strong communities into an even better city to live in....
http://www.brianleddin.ie/2020/01/people-need-to-be-at-the-heart-of-urban-strategy/
