Dublin and London have been beaten by Edinburgh for the Academy of Urbanism's title of European City of the Year. St Stephen's Green also lost out to Borough Market in London for the academy's "Great Place" award.
The winners, announced yesterday at an Oscar-style awards ceremony in London's Dorchester Hotel, also included Ludlow taking the title "Great Town"; the Merchant City, Glasgow ("Great Neighbourhood") and Marylebone High Street, London ("Great Street").
It is clear that one of the main reasons why Dublin lost out was that, although the academy's assessors acknowledged that the city is lively and thriving in many ways, not enough had been done to improve the lot of pedestrians in a "car-dominated" environment.
However, Dublin was ranked ahead of London, which was seen by the assessors as very attractive to young people and tourists but "much less appealing to people with families and the elderly" because of the cost and mix of housing and the "quality of life on offer".
More than 750 nominations were made for the Academy of Urbanism's awards earlier this year. Subsequently, a shortlist of three in each category was selected and each city, town, neighbourhood, street or place was visited by a team of assessors.
Key criteria included whether the shortlisted entries were "inclusive, fair and well-run", what they had done to maintain local character, as well as being an attractive, safe and enticing place for people to live, work, play and visit. Environmental sustainability was also an issue.
Academy chairman John Thompson said: "Great places have the power to fire the imagination of their citizens. No one can create them on their own . . . we must first share a common view. This is the mission of the academy. "
Frank McDonald is a founder member of the Academy of Urbanism
