One of the lesser-reported movements in Dublin at the moment is the drive to save urban trees. Across the capital, small pockets of residents are putting it up to the National Transport Authority to stop the felling of trees and encourage the creation of new green space as part of the BusConnects project, which will see new, larger bus corridors funnel workers from the suburbs and the commuter belt into the city.
The priority of the BusConnects project is to reduce journey times, but many residents who will be impacted by the new bus corridors potentially altering the fabric of their neighbourhoods are wondering whether the experiences of people driving through places is being prioritised over people who actually live there.
There is, of course, a balance. Ireland’s transport network is poor overall, and traffic in Dublin city centre has been worsened by supposed improvements to the public transport network, such as the all-day bottleneck on College Green created by the cross-city Luas, not to mention the daily life-threatening experiences for cyclists in the city.
BusConnects have been engaging with local residents and adjusting plans in response, but resistance to the project in some quarters is also about timing. Dublin is in the midst of head-spinning development, demolition and third-wave gentrification, so further altering the streetscapes of neighbourhoods with what feels like a rather blunt instrument is compounding fears and a sense of loss of place for many in the city.
So how do we improve public transport for everyone, encourage people to leave their cars at home by making public transport faster and more reliable, yet maintain the integrity of city communities? Again, balance.
Tree summit
Yesterday, a tree summit was held in Dublin, organised by Pembroke Road Association chairwoman Siobhán Cuffe. Trees and old railings in that part of town are potentially under threat, with many residents believing that the value of such things is intrinsic to the fabric of the communities, even if it’s not exactly quantifiable.
“The qualities of Dublin are the grain of Dublin, the fabric of Dublin,” Cuffe told me, “The charm of Dublin is about the difference between one area and another. And there’s something strange going on right now, this rush to modernity and blandness. We care about traditional music, so why can’t we care about traditional streets? This idea that ‘you can’t quantify it therefore it doesn’t matter’ [is wrong ].”
As well as pedestrians being impacted, and the small community feel of some areas disrupted by road widening, the destruction of trees has come to the fore. Dublin is not a green, tree-laden city. Green space is generally contained to gated parks and of course the Phoenix Park, and streets where trees excel are the exception rather than the rule.
In Dublin 4 there are about eight residents for every tree. In Dublin 1 there are 30 residents to every tree
The 2017 Dublin Tree Canopy Survey shows large swathes of the city virtually barren of trees, particularly across the north and eastern areas of the county. In the Dublin City Council area, the canopy cover is just 10 per cent. In Fingal even that low bar plummets to 6.5 per cent. In South Dublin County Council it's 17.3 per cent, and in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, it's just under 19 per cent. This averages out to 10 per cent overall. There is particularly low canopy cover stretching from the docklands across the inner city and extending out to Crumlin and Tallaght, as well as the north inner city, and towns including Rush, Lusk, Skerries and Balbriggan, as well as the business parks near the M50.
How does Dublin's 10 per cent canopy cover compare internationally? North American cities have an average canopy cover of 26.3 per cent, and while European cities vary widely, the median canopy cover is 15.25 per cent (Stockholm has 57.3 per cent cover, for example). Cork has double the mean tree cover of Dublin, as does Limerick, and Derry has four times as much. Compared with 14 other European cities, Dublin city centre "ranks lowest in terms of tree canopy cover".
Class issue
Trees are also a class issue. In Dublin 4 there are about eight residents for every tree. In Dublin 1 there are 30 residents to every tree, and in Ballybough, for example, it's 200 residents to every tree, as per the Redrawing Dublin study of 2016.
Since January 2018, South Dublin County Council has felled the highest number of trees of any local authority – 1,531 – but during that period also planted more than 3,000 trees. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council felled 1,199 trees. While planting new trees is obviously a good thing, mature trees are not easily replaceable, emotionally, aesthetically and functionally.
"Probably their mistake is that they can think you can drive these great big Clanbrassil Street-style wedges through the city centre," Cuffe says, "but it will destroy the communities if you put in these big six-lanes because people won't be able to freely move from one side to each other. The historic centres – Stoneybatter, Rathgar and so on – you're not going to be able to replace them."
As BusConnects progresses, there must be a deeper consideration and embedded criteria with regards to protecting and even enhancing our city neighbourhoods. It’s often said that we don’t know what we’ve got ’til it’s gone, but people are talking about the value of places right now, and they should be heard.