Michael Moynihan: Even if there was a plan to make Cork better, who’d enforce it?

“Social psychologists and police officers tend to agree that if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken.

“This is as true in nice neighborhoods as in rundown ones. 

"Window-breaking does not necessarily occur on a large scale because some areas are inhabited by determined window-breakers whereas others are populated by window-lovers; rather, one un-repaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing.”

The lesson derived from this theory was that if police focused on minor crimes and maintaining public order, then that would create a safer environment all around; ‘broken windows’ is often credited with the sharp improvement in public safety in New York in the nineties, for instance, even if there are competing schools of thought on that issue.

Still, who wouldn’t like public order and a better environment?

It’d be nice to see that in Cork, where we learned recently that there were no fines issued in Cork for dog fouling in 2023. At all.

Either the dogs of Cork city have absorbed the teachings of Barbara Woodhouse completely or there is no enforcement of the bylaws which govern dog fouling.

The man who uncovered this, Labour Party local election candidate Peter Horgan, told The Echo: “Not even one fine issued is a sign of failure to tackle the matter, not that the issue is solved.

“The mind continues to boggle at the seemingly disinterested approach to tackle dog fouling in City Hall. 

"Kerry County Council conducted 173 operations last year that resulted in 12 fines — still low but an insight to some proactivity at least.

“It is an issue raised on every door I knock on and will only be resolved through a change in approach by a new bylaw and proactive method of tackling the issue.”

He’s absolutely correct on this being an issue that exercises people. 

The amount of dog shit — sorry, no other term will do — which owners are happy to see Fido or Buster deposit all over the streets of Cork is staggering. 

At certain points, the footpaths seem mostly brown, in fact.

And not one fine?

Lack of enforcement is a recurring theme in Cork. Take the MacCurtain Street area, unveiled last year to much ballyhoo as a retail-hospitality quarter with a bus corridor and two-way traffic, etc.

Now it’s a car park at night.

It’s so bad that Labour Councillor John Maher told this newspaper last November that towing should be introduced.

“I am not trying to be negative. I am trying to get the best out of this project but people are breaking the law by parking on the new pavement and in the bus stops," he said.

"And it’s being tolerated at certain times.

“This project was undertaken to improve the movement of public transport, pedestrians, and cyclists but now, parts of it are like a free car park and there are little or no signs of enforcement.”

Later that month Eoin English of this parish reported that traffic wardens would work later in the evenings and on Sundays “... but the city council has confirmed that the additional enforcement will be occasional and that there will be no additional recruitment to bolster staffing numbers in its traffic warden team”.

Occasional enforcement: better or worse than no enforcement?

And then of course we have the big one. Dereliction enforcement.

Before Christmas, a meeting of the Cork City Joint Policing Committee was told that Cork City Council received marginally over 10% of an estimated €1.1m in fines levied on owners of derelict sites in the city in 2023: invoices amounting to €1,109,324 were issued to owners in 2023 but just over €102,000 was collected that year.

The committee was also told there were 147 sites on the Derelict Site Register, up from 109 in 2022, though the local authority were looking to add another 55 sites to the register.

Park the fact that that’s €1m left uncollected for a moment. Wilson and Kelling had something to say about dereliction as well.

“A piece of property is abandoned, weeds grow up, a window is smashed. Adults stop scolding rowdy children; the children, emboldened, become more rowdy.

“Families move out, unattached adults move in. Teenagers gather in front of the corner store. The merchant asks them to move; they refuse. Fights occur. Litter accumulates.

“People start drinking in front of the grocery; in time, an inebriate slumps to the sidewalk and is allowed to sleep it off. Pedestrians are approached by panhandlers.” The Atlantic, 1982. Or Cork, 2023, with 2024 shaping up to be worse.

Obviously, there is an element of personal responsibility here.

If you are happy to let your dog defecate anywhere in the city then you’re not functioning in a civilised society. 

Maybe the dog is taking you for a walk rather than the other way around.

Likewise, if you enjoy blocking footpaths for the elderly and the disabled with your car, endangering lives by impeding the emergency services, and inflicting your worldview on everyone in the vicinity ... it’s your planet, clearly. We’re just extras in the movie of your adventures.

If life teaches us anything, however, it’s that relying on people to do the right thing by their fellow citizens is a losing proposition. That’s why we have laws. Correction: laws that are enforced.

The cumulative effect of the issues mentioned above is depressing. 

The boarded-up windows and peeling plaster on unpainted walls; cars beached crossways on pavements, the token blinking hazard lights by way of an excuse; those same pavements speckled with dog waste in many areas. It all adds up, and the result is plain.

Cork is grim, and going into the centre of the city can be a depressing experience. What makes it worse is there seems to be no champion of the city, nobody sounding the alarm.

There seems to be no awareness of just how bad the experience now is for people using the city.

The authorities made great play of long-term plans and bold visions of the future recently, but what about the city as it is, rather than the city of a PowerPoint presentation?

Case in point: Eoin English reported earlier this week about the graffiti on the South Gate Bridge. 

Cork City Council said something something natural stone something chemicals something: “We will assess it with our heritage experts and decide on the best options but that will take time.”

Where is the urgency? The vision for the present? Where is the plan to make it better for those who live here now?

And even if there were a plan, who would enforce it?