City desk

Frank Gleeson was at only one of the National Transport Authority board’s meetings in the first half of 2018, and a handful of the 12 in 2017.

Six of the city’s 21 libraries don’t have toilets for the public. “I just think it’s mental,” says one library-goer.

“It’s always the people you miss the most, about anything,” Liz Meldon says on a recent return to the place she built a community around, which is gone now.

At a meeting on Monday, councillors discussed a plan to build 107 new apartments in Rathgar, offering free wifi into one of the urban villages in the city’s south-east area, and more.

Businesses say they want more, tougher policing to deal with what they say has been a rise in crime. But others say a more health-focused response is what’s needed.

Here’s some of what councillors talked about at their first full meeting of the year at City Hall.

As the high-level Moore Street Advisory Group teases out issues around the future of the street, some traders say they feel abandoned.

“Whose baby is this?” asked Lord Mayor Nial Ring, at the Central Area Committee on Tuesday.

The interest in table tennis seems to have waned in recent years, say those who still turn out to play.

Dublin City Council has removed rubbish bins from Dartry and Orwell parks, because they were often used to dispose of dog poo, and the parks department doesn’t deal with that – waste management does.

Some cyclists say if prioritising buses, bikes, and those on foot is the aim, this should be on the table.

Hercules Club was something of an anomaly when it was born in 1934. Its spirit has endured.

The Environmental Protection Agency rates the water quality at Sandymount Strand and Merrion Strand as “poor”. The council and others are looking more closely at what, or who, is to blame.

At a recent meeting, councillors talked about plans for installing a pair of Luke Kelly statues and a pair of bridges, as well as local residents’ concerns about proposed changes at Wilton Terrace.

At their December monthly meeting, councillors backed a draft climate change action plan, which proposes a series of changes meant to help the local authority achieve that goal.

Councillors in the north-west of the city met to talk about whether to agree to a land sale for affordable housing, and more.

Unnecessary guardrails should be taken out, according to the Design Manual for Urban Roads and Streets. The trends seem to be going the other way though.

Councillors on Monday discussed a motion that would try to stem growth in hotels, student accommodation and short-term lets in the city until 2022.

Councillors would need signed consent forms from constituents to get answers on their behalf, under proposed guidelines.

When Paddy Byrne was a kid, it was mostly just homes in the area, he says. Now, there are blocks of offices, and apartments where renters don’t seem to stay long.

Council officials want to press ahead with plans for a big depot at Marrowbone Lane – and have started the process. Some councillors and residents are resisting.

With sign-ups to the public DublinBikes scheme and the expansion of its network both stalled, will private stationless bike-hire scheme BleeperBike move in to fill the gaps?

“Usually we stick a plaque on a building, but if the building is gone? I think how do we remember what has been lost is an important question.”

South Dublin County Council has been trying out participatory budgeting. Why not Dublin City Council too? some councillors ask.

Councillors in the northern neighbourhoods in the city met earlier this week to talk about area issues, including whether planning rules should be relaxed to allow for more login cabins in gardens.

Many of those who are homeless and seeking mental health services end up waiting in hospital emergency departments. Many leave before being seen.

Traditional neighborhood-watch set-ups can be too bureaucratic for some, while Local WhatsApp and Facebook groups are easier.

Some Dublin city councillors say more should be done about illegal parking, whether on gig days at 3Arena or match days at Croke Park – or just everyday across the city.

With local elections coming in May, some councillors say they won’t be running again – the supposedly part-time role is just too much to juggle, in addition to a day job and a family life.

That idea appears to be based on a misuse of statistics by Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy, which was further distorted in the media.

Post-it notes with feedback on a vision for the future of Dorset Street show mixed feelings around the neighbourhood.

Members of the same family have lived in this iconic building, or earlier incarnations of it, in Temple Bar since the 1600s.

Finding places to put overground bottle banks has become harder and harder, as they can be noisy and unsightly so neighbours don’t want them nearby.

Dublin City Councillors met at City Hall for their November meeting on Monday night. Here’s some of what they voted on.

Many said they would support going back with a new plan to seek permission again from An Bord Pleanála.

The council plans to refurbish the street within the next three years.

A collaboration between a Trinity College Dublin researcher and a cycle-tour company is strapping air-quality monitoring gear to cyclists helmets as they explore the city.

Some in Stoneybatter are worried that community voices are being ignored. Dublin City Council says there will be more opportunities to shape future plans.

While Gardaí have been cautious about using cyclists’ videos of poor driver behaviour, police in the UK have embraced such evidence, calling it a “game changer”.

Problems with predictions came up time and again in the reports from An Bord Pleanála, rejecting plans for College Green.

Councillors say they don’t want to take up seats on a drugs task force in the inner city until the co-ordinator comes to talk to them. The co-ordinator says he’s only been asked once.

Some councillors have raised concerns about the fate of the site post-demolition.

Local residents are keeping a watchful eye over possible losses of green space in the Liberties.

Councillors say they don’t know where the women will go yet if and when the Abigail Centre in Finglas closes.

Lately, Rob Farrell has noticed a lot of motorbikes in the cycle lanes on his commute from Blackrock to Fitzwilliam Square.

Some says it’s not an issue that tour groups seem to be getting larger. Others say they block the pavement, and are all headed the on same loops.

Ballybough has just one tree for every 317 residents, a 2016 survey found. But locals say there’s been little progress on fixing that.

Overflowing bowls, used needles scattered on the floor, and trails of blood. One man who stayed there said he left after three nights said because he couldn’t hack the disgusting bathrooms.

There was low turnout to this month’s council meeting at City Hall, but the councillors who turned up talked about making Dublin dementia-friendly, tackling bogus self-employment, and more.

“The last five years this has just gone out of hand altogether,” says independent Councillor Vincent Jackson.

The 25a from Lucan fills up fast. But there’s a reason that buses aren’t bigger.

The council plans to move out the onions, peas, chard, raspberries and children digging in the dirt, and build social housing for some of the hundreds of families in the area who are on the waiting for it.

Councillors and local residents say the Dublin City Council effort to bring in a developer to build 640 homes on the site seems to be stalled. The council says it’s not.

“Meanwhile, people are dying on the streets,” says Labour Senator Aodhán Ó Ríordáin. “It’s not a dramatic statement, it’s a statement of fact.”

The little street, long a cluster of affordable homes hosting students, artists and hardworking families, seems to be in the process of a change that is transforming it into a different kind of neighbourhood.

“It’s there and it’s tormenting us,” says club mentor Sue Keogh. “The parents are asking, the kids are asking.” 

The plan envisions a cycle lane buffered from traffic by a line of parked cars. How would people get from the footpath to their cars? some ask.

Launched in 2012, it was meant to draw tourists from the city centre west into the Liberties and Kilmainham, but some councillors and route-residents say it hasn’t had much of an impact.

The site has been sold to an unknown buyer, the brothers have been moved out, and the school is due to close in June. What then? local residents and councillors worry. Will it sit vacant for years?

Some councillors have long wanted the room in the old Rathmines Town Hall opened up for wider use.

Zebra-crossing fans say they’re safer for pedestrians than signalled crossings. But advocates for people who are visually impaired, or have intellectual or cognitive difficulties, disagree.

Martin Heeney says he’s been reporting the spread of black mould to the council since he moved in, but it’s never been properly fixed.

At meetings at City Hall this week, councillors talked about changes in plans for how to use council land, possible traffic changes around Sandymount Green, and the roll-out of more “hubs” for homeless families.

Dublin gets offered all kinds of presents from visiting diplomats and world leaders: from plates to public artwork.

Des King hopes his diamond doves, New Zealand kākārikis and budgerigars will find their ways home.

The rent’s up and Ranelagh Arts can’t pay, so it’s out 8 October and hasn’t found a new home yet. This is one more change in a changing neighbourhood, and one more lost arts space in the city.

At their monthly meeting, Dublin city councillors talked about two sewage-treatment-related proposals, plans for a directly elected mayor, protecting historic structures, and the future of St Michael’s Estate.

There’s already a code that recognises that women take longer to use the loo, and calls for women to get more facilities than men to compensate. And yet the queues persist.

After falling since 2008, the last couple of years have seen more permits issued for HGVs to drive into the city. Some cyclists say it’s too dangerous at the moment, while those in the industry say they drive in for a reason.

Dublin City Council is trying foam, flames, vinegar and old-fashioned weeding as it tries to roll back the use of herbicides in the city. But some are asking why weeds have to be weeded out, anyway.

Fianna Fáil politicians have proposed a development authority for the area, which, they say, would put promises made in recent years on a firmer footing.

Drivers also say they’re disgruntled they weren’t consulted earlier. The consultant behind BusConnects says all feedback is welcome, but the interests of drivers and passengers don’t always align.

Charities that run such hostels say they have their own standards in place. But it’s not clear who, if anyone, is looking over their shoulders to make sure they meet them.

The adhan is meant to remind Muslims of the five subtly shifting daily prayer times. Without it, Dubliners rely on clocks, websites, apps, and other methods.

A survey funded by our readers and conducted by Amárach Research asked about issues including how often people call the freephone and can’t get a bed for the night, and the conditions in the hostels when they do get in.

“A great start would be for a developer to talk to the community,” says Tony McDonnell.

It would be the “height of insensitivity” if he doesn’t, when he stops in the neighbourhood later this month, says Social Democrats Councillor Gary Gannon.

“Services on the main roads seem to be fine and will hopefully improve. But anybody who is living in the centre of estates is losing out big time,” says Independents 4 Change Councillor Pat Dunne.

It was put up in 1979 at the time of Pope John Paul II’s visit to Ireland, but it was supposed to be temporary.

New plans for Dublin’s bus network hinge on nodes across the city, where passengers would have to hop off and change buses. What might those interchanges be like?

“Naturally we would have hoped for more. We would have hoped to feel that there was some accountability and transparency,” said Aileen Malone, mother of activist and journalist Dara Quigley, who died in April 2017.

A reader asked what determines when a book of condolences is opened in the city.

Fáilte Ireland has a plan to attract more tourists into six areas of Dublin, including the Docklands. Some councillors have raised concerns about “overtourism” and the impact it might have on communities.

There are 167 outlets – mainly restaurants, coffee shops, and pubs – that have licences to put tables and chairs on streets. Many others do it without, but some councillors are sympathetic given the cost.

Years back, the Rialto Youth Project worked up training modules for gardaí to help improve their relations with younger local residents. But they’re yet to be included on the curriculum.

PPNs were set up across the country in 2014, as a way of getting more people involved in local government. Councillors and those involved in Dublin’s PPN say it’s still finding its way.

In mid-July, council officials wrote to Clontarf Baths to query how it planned to resolve the issue of public access. It gave it two weeks to respond.

Late at night, some passengers emerge onto the tarmac to find there are no taxis or buses to get them home or to a hotel.

Meanwhile, a ballot to see if a pay-and-display should be brought in on streets in the area hasn’t gone too smoothly.

Ingrid Casey worked with friends and called in favours to make the film, released today.

People who are homeless because they’ve fallen out with family are being asked to get sworn statements to prove this, to access homeless services.

Those involved in the Horse Power project have been working to repair the relationship between Gardaí and local young men. An equine centre would help a lot, they say.

Pilot projects for five laneways in Dublin 1 are being finalised.

“We go out, we recruit and we can’t get enough of them,” says Richard Shakespeare, the council’s head of planning.

Legally, there should be no such thing as an “unpaid internship”, says employment solicitor Richard Grogan.

Councillors want more clarity on fundraising for the new city library, the council says planned “affordable” homes at O’Devaney will be for sale (not for rent), and more.

The Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan said in May that the use of noise against someone can be considered assault. Yet council officials told a councillor that Gardaí advised them to put in the alarms.

The government restricts the rights of asylum seekers living in direct-provision centres – often for years – to have visitors. “It’s not a good life,” says Ellie Kisyombe.

But campaigner Tonie Walsh says an AIDS memorial is needed more urgently right now.

There were bursts of interest in 2007 and 2015, but it seems to have dropped off the agenda since.

Looking at memorials to dark times around the world may help with ideas for the former Magdalene laundry on Sean McDermott Street.

Some parents and city councillors say banning cars from school streets would tackle school-run congestion, reduce emissions, and encourage the use of sustainable transport.

“It’s still very raw for everybody in the community,” says Antoinette Keegan, whose two sisters were among the 48 people who died in the fire in 1981.

City farms let people visit with animals, grow food, and attend workshops. But some worry that they also “encourage the archaic idea that animals are merely for our entertainment”.

When workers are recruited from outside the EU to come to Ireland, their spouses are rarely able to get work permits – often leaving them listless and frustrated.

At issue are the number and types of permits Waterways Ireland is offering: some say there aren’t enough of the right type available for all the people who want to live aboard their boats.

Iveagh Gardens closes at 6pm throughout the summer, and much of it will be closed to the public altogether throughout July. Some would-be park-goers are frustrated.

Many council jobs are in traditionally male-dominated fields – so some are asking how to encourage more women to apply.

For the Dublin City Council area, a committee recommended increasing the number of areas from nine to 11, and redrawing the shapes of existing areas. Phibsborough is now united, while Drimnagh remains divided.

For some older residents, the graveyard was their playground growing up. Others say they think they have family buried there.

William Cummings is working to create a space to support people struggling with mental-health difficulties. “There’s no pressure to talk but I’ll be there,” he says.

Traffic officials are looking at 21 schemes similar to the bollards recently put in to calm traffic on smaller streets in Drumcondra.

Even though it’s a busy shopping street, Meath Street in the south-inner city has just one lonely bin.

After Vincent Hourican retired as a community garda in the south of the city, he soon came back again as a reserve.

At a recent meeting, councillors for the north-west of the city talked about road closures, the campaign for a new school, and delayed social housing.

Some Dubliners are disgruntled that staff soak the steps to stop people sitting there. But the manager of the complex says there are litter, health and safety issues at play.

“There’s a lot of money being spent and we can’t find out what’s happened,” says Una Caulfield of the Griffith Avenue and District Residents’ Association.

Many say they’d like to see more buses or trains as part of a local area plan for the neighbourhood.

“I’ve a friend who was attacked from behind,” says Ismail Daramola, as he holds an imaginary knife in his left hand and slices at his throat.

This first evening of reminiscences was a prelude to an effort to clean up the river by 2027.

It was launched to help tackle illegal dumping in the city centre. But, despite all the founders’ work, the problem persists.

The government says it has increased its spending on the sector, plans to increase it more, and is planning an independent review.

Councillors only have two major powers left, says independent Councillor Christy Burke. With one of these recently undermined, “there’s more power in a light bulb”.

At their May monthly meeting, councillors approved the council’s annual financial statements for 2017. Here’s a brief look at what was inside.

Fusion Sundays, Dublin Flea Market, and others have until 12 June to find new homes, and some have asked if the council can, and should, help them more.

The owner says that he has always respected its historical significance, but that he needs to make changes to turn it into housing.

At their monthly meeting on Monday, councillors discussed a plan to build housing next to St Anne’s Park, how to decide who gets social housing first, the cancellation of a literary event, and more.

One proposal from Dublin Cycling Campaign and another from a city councillor call for banning cars from at least a couple of streets, once a week.

Dublin city council is looking for proposals for what to do with the old Pigeon House Hotel and power station. Some councillors would like to see them turned into artists’ studios, overlooking the bay, right by the beach.

“Local people know the area and they know the people and they have the passion,” says Tony O’Rourke.

Councillors first backed the plan for improvements to Cathedral Street and Sackville Place in the city centre – but then a disability advocate flagged a problem.

For decades, councillors have used a special rule to get information from officials in secret. Now, though, some want to change that.

Richard Grogan, a solicitor specialising in employment law, says he believes people with Stamp 1G or Stamp 3 statuses are being excluded because of “ignorance”, rather than anything else.

While the emergency hostel at Lefroy House has evolved over the years, some say they’re still concerned that teenagers have to leave during the day – and that some are there too long.

As snakes of traffic through the east of the city lengthen, some residents in Ringsend want the Environmental Protection Agency to step up its pollution-monitoring.

Council efforts to encourage coach drivers to use a new coach park, rather than the city streets haven’t gone well so far. That’s because of opening hours, one coach firm says.

The council gets about 1,500 complaints a year about unauthorised development, and more than 100 cases end up subject to legal proceedings, a spokesperson said.

That could mean historic ships, or ones with a cultural or community purpose, or tall ships. Or, just cool-looking ones.

The National Transport Authority (NTA) has set aside €8.2 million in grants for sustainable-transport projects in the Dublin City Council area for 2018.

We’re very pleased to be launching Counciltracker.ie today, which will let you quickly and easily see what issues your local councillors have been voting on, and how.

Ciaran O’Byrne, who roams the city releasing trees from the ties to wooden stakes that strangle them, mourns the deaths last week of Crumlin village’s cherry trees.

More than any other individual, it was the great Jackie Carey – hailing from Dublin’s north side – who turned the Irish public onto British football, writes historian Donal Fallon.

Dublin City Council presses ahead with plans for parking-protected cycle lanes. Plus other cycle-lane-related news.

Women who survived the laundries should be heard and heeded, when it comes to the Sean McDermott Street site, but local residents should be listened too as well, they say.

“They’re made for dancing,” says Tessie Carroll, pointing to the high heels the woman inspects before leaving empty-handed. “Jaysus, if you brought gold here they’d want silver.”

It is up to the government to intervene to make sure an agreement for 900 social and affordable housing units in Poolbeg doesn’t unravel, said Dublin City Council Chief Executive Owen Keegan.

They’ve been asking for 50 years, says one local resident. And now the council owns a site that some councillors reckon would be a good spot to build one.

The council plans to sell it off to a private developer, as part of its strategy to create a super depot in Ballymun for its waste-management services.

A government-backed effort to regenerate the area has been asking big firms at the International Financial Services Centre to hire locally. So far, it’s had limited success.

Fewer than 18 percent of biographies on the English-language version of Wikipedia are of women.

The owners have been doing some corporate restructuring, and inside the centre there’s construction going on. Is it headed for a revival?

We’re getting there. Thanks to those who have supported this project so far!

Independent Councillor Vincent Jackson says he has been pushing for a refundable deposit scheme since 1995, but that the response from government to him has been that it “doesn’t suit”.

Crumlin swimming pool has six and a half hours all week for walk-in swimmers. Two others offer windows of less then four hours a week.

Perhaps, it’s time to try to revive a pedestrian lobby, some say.

“What you have here is a late-19th-century design in a modern setting,” says local resident John O’Reilly, of the compact green and narrow roads around it. “So everyday it’s a clog.”

Draft bye-laws propose to “de-designate” the Cumberland Street Market – meaning casual trading would no longer be permitted there.

“As an Irish-American pro-lifer, I feel I have the right to do that,” said Chris Slattery, of New York-based EMC Frontline Pregnancy Centers.

Caught in the barbed wire wrapped around the convent’s front gate, a woman was trying to escape. As the couple passed by, she called for help.

The plan cost the council nearly €140,000 to draw up before the crash.

Moving ahead with plans for the birthplace of George Bernard Shaw, and “moral dilemmas” around housing. Here’s some of what has been discussed at recent council meetings.

Labour Councillor Mary Freehill wants to try a pilot in the south-east of the city.

They’ve tended to the plot not far from Thomas Street for nearly four years, and don’t know why they’re not allowed in, they said.

For the moment, the council’s plans for the Iveagh Markets don’t go as far as repossession and redevelopment. They’re much more modest.

Is the problem just bad behaviour by individual road users? Is poor urban design pitting people against each other in a fight for scarce street space? What can be done?

Since 2006, the team has worked with 432 students. Of those, 386 have graduated at least once, and the rest are studying at the moment.

“He’d come here every day,” says Mary Stafford, pointing to the image of Tom Boland, known locally as the Weatherman. “This was his life.”

There more than 30 bodies responsible for different areas of transport in the city, according to a list drawn up by two councillors.

“Could you imagine anyone in the affluent areas of Dublin allowing their children to go to school beside an injecting centre?” said Sinn Féin Councillor Críona Ní Dhálaigh.

“There is this talk of social mix, but … there is no concerted effort to hold onto the fabric of the long generations of families who have lived here,” says Máirín Ó Cuireáin, a community worker.

On Sunday 25 March, we’re going to spend the day uploading data on how Dublin councillors have voted on key issues into a new council-tracker site. If you can spare the time, we’d love some help.

Records also show that council officials were warned that a lack of clarity over the memorial could hinder the sale of the site.

Gardai and legal professionals headed to the criminal courts often block up driveways on Montpelier Hill, say those who live there.

The corner park near Christ Church is due for a €200,000 revamp in the coming months, but there is one key outstanding issue to settle first.

The council expects companies to roll out stationless bikes in the city from April, and other transport news.

The Garda Press Office said they aren’t running a specific operation right now. But some say Gardaí have been more active in moving people on, and charging them with begging-related offences.

Most councillors voted against Mannix Flynn’s motion to call for an end to the Artane Band as it is now, but he said that wasn’t the end. “This is going to go on,” he told them.

Research suggests that giving cyclists and pedestrians a few seconds’ lead at traffic lights can make cities safer. Some say it’s time for Dublin to try this route.

At their monthly meeting, Dublin city councillors approved plans to set up a new “cultural company”, discussed new rules for market-stall traders, and bade farewell to a senior council official.

New standards for homeless services call for feedback from people who use them. But some say they’re afraid they’ll be punished if they complain to officials.

The planned improvements include more trees, extra space for pedestrians, bike parking, and a small park with a new café.

The plan is to sell the council-owned property to be developed by a hotel company, but councillors have the power to put a stop to this, and several say they’d like to.

Decades of research has suggested that children from lower income backgrounds have something of a word gap, compared to their privileged peers. For the last 10 years, a programme in the Docklands has been trying to tackle that.

Several restaurant managers said that they need to try out workers to see if they are any good. Some employees say this is unfair.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” says Fine Gael Councillor Anne Feeney, who thinks that Bank of Ireland should give up its access for motor vehicles.

Dublin City Council says that the ratio of office space to homes matches its plans for the area. But some councillors have concerns.

Dáil constituencies in Dublin have been redrawn, and candidates for the next general election hope they’re better off. But there’s one who probably isn’t.

The council has started to work on a new local area plan for the neighbourhood.

Some councillors say it’s necessary, as city-centre traffic patterns have been changing. But taxi drivers say it would be bad for customers.

This would be a move towards decentralisation of government services for homeless people in the city, which some people say would make their lives better.

While he was lord mayor of Dublin last year, Labour’s Brendan Carr announced a scheme to promote businesses who paid the living wage by awarding them with a plaque.

The vision of CORE Ballymun is for a modern streetscape with affordable housing and retail, the profits from which would go back into the community. But it needs council support to become real.

On a recent day, residents were using 97 traffic cones to reserve the street parking spaces in front of their homes, in an effort to keep commuters and other outsiders from using them.

On Monday evening, Chief Executive Owen Keegan presented councillors with the targets by which the council will measure whether it’s doing a good job delivering services.

A Dublin City Council spokesperson said the council intends to put in 1,000 more stands over the coming year. Where are they needed most?

Dublin City Council bought the stadium back in 2015 for €3.8 million, and the council plans to redevelop it, but it’s still not certain how much this would cost, or how it will be funded.

At recent meetings in City Hall, councillors discussed the growth in student housing in the Liberties, and Gardaí gave updates on some of what they’ve been doing in the inner city.

Ion Anghel lugs a generator down the quays each morning, to power his coffee business. But he really wishes he didn’t have to – that the council would provide him with a power source instead.

So far, cyclists have marked 62 collisions with Luas tracks on our Cycle Collision tracker. These accidents are clustered in three areas in the city centre.

Dublin City Councillors are currently looking at who gets social housing in the city, and whether there’s a fairer way to decide.

Transport Infrastructure Ireland says that proposals for alternative cycle routes are being developed. But some cyclists ask why they should be diverted, or why measures aren’t already in place.

Willie Halpin never changed his story about where he threw his rifle during the 1916 Rising. But council officials don’t want to look there.

But the damage has been done, says Fianna Fáil Councillor Paul McAulliffe. “I’m worried about the chilling effect this will have on investment,” he says.

Councillors on the economic development committee meet every two months yet some say they don’t do much.

They’re meant to encourage car sharing, but research suggests they might not be a great idea.

Councillors didn’t get through all of their agenda at Monday’s full council meeting, so they’ll have to come back to finish it later this month. But here’s some of what they discussed.

Rossa Ó Snodaigh’s weekly forum for poets, politicians and punters wound up years ago. Soon, the corner where it took place will be erased, too.

Each year about now, the calls start. For locals and those from further afield, a visit to the Strawberry Hall pub has become an annual Christmas tradition.

Social-housing tenants in Dublin should be involved in running the estates and complexes they live in, says independent Councillor Mannix Flynn. “This is about equality, empowerment and full participation.”

The council plans to spend €917 million in 2018 on services for the city. Explore what it plans to spend it on, and how that differs from 2017.

Have you spotted a promise made by a politician that you really want us to track? Let us know and we’ll put it on our 2018 “They Said What?” calendar.

At this month’s transport committee meeting: an update on making the city better for pedestrians, and a review of how speed limits are working out.

The estimated cost of the project is now €100 million.

Over the years, there hasn’t been a uni-directional Christmas Creep in the city centre. It’s been more like a Christmas Ebb and Flow.

Gardeners used to be judged on the shortness of their grass and how perfect everything was, says Michael Noonan. Now, they’re letting some patches go wild.

An Post say it plans to contract out the post office to a private operator, leaving some with concerns about future services.

Some say they’d gladly move into a hostel if they could get a decent one, where couples could stay together, where recovering addicts don’t have to bunk with users, where they wouldn’t just get kicked out each day and have to start all over again.

Marco Feltrin says another customer flung a racist slur at him, which led to a stand-off and Feltrin and his group being ejected, while the other customer stayed.

Winnie Mc Donagh opens up her home to teach young Traveller mothers what she knows about baby massage.

A community garden, allotments, and a Men’s Shed are being evicted so the council can build a new park. The plan includes bringing them back once it’s ready, but recent events have the gardeners worried.

A young veterinarian on Manor Street feeds a drift of pigeons each day, but some of her neighbours wish she wouldn’t, saying they’ve grown into an overwhelming presence.

Nicki Killeen and her team research trends in drug taking in Ireland, so that they can respond with clear, credible information and advice for users.

Here’s some of what Dublin councillors discussed at November’s monthly council meeting.

Colleges have different policies on whether students who withdraw get their money back. “There is a lack of regulation in this area, and that is of concern,” says Oisin Hassan at the Union of Students in Ireland.

Developers are generally required to include a parking space with every apartment but these add to building costs, and only 35 percent of people drive to work in Dublin city anyway.

At this month’s housing committee meeting, councillors discussed the idea of tearing down thousands of homes in aging social-housing complexes and replacing them with new builds, among other issues.

Small businesses in Ringsend seem to be getting rising rents from the booming Docklands next door, but little custom. Some wonder what the future holds for the village.

It looks like a pub is set to reappear on the Four Corners of Hell in the Liberties, and councillors at a recent meeting considered plans for development in Bluebell.

Barbara Scully says she was stung with a fine for having a back-dated ticket, but bought a ticket from a Luas machine that same morning.

Sunniva Finlay and her team have noticed how tough it is for people recovering from substance-abuse issues to find decent work. So they’re trying to plug that gap.

For those who are attacked or intimidated in their homes, it can seem that there is not enough is done to prevent the abuse from escalating.

In Rathmines, Stoneybatter, and Clontarf, some residents argue that one way to keep order is to keep strangers out.

Some argue that Iveagh Gardens should remain cloistered and quiet. Others say that making it more accessible would benefit Dubliners and restore it to the original vision.

“I said to them, ‘If you can organise 20 or 30 people to walk to Cabra, climb up a building that a grown man wouldn’t get up, nick pallets, drag them back to the city centre … I want that skill,” says Declan Keenan.

So far this year, in the south-east part of the city alone, Dublin City Council workers have removed 52 locked-up bicycles and 36 locked-up frames – a few mistakenly.

Here’s some of what councillors discussed at their Central Area Committee’s meeting this month.

In mid-October, John Conroy will be running a day of free tours to share what he has learnt about the architecture and uses of the iconic red-brick building.

At Monday’s monthly meeting, councillors questioned Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy on current policies – before moving on to their usual business.

Twice a month, they park up – one evening in Sandymount, the other in Clontarf – and invite people to look more closely at the skies above the city.

But a gap in legislation means it’s not as easy to take back the award, as it is to give out, say some councillors.

Being treated as self-employed and if-and-when contracts make working in the sector a struggle, say some.

With smart technology as an aid, Dublin’s traffic engineers have to strike a balance when deciding who gets to go, and who has to wait, at the city’s busy junctions.

The replica famine ship cost €15.5 million to build, has been repaired already, and needs more repairs. Some councillors aren’t sure Dublin City Council should keep on paying.

While the percentage of children in Dublin who walked to school fell between the 2011 to 2016 censuses, the percentage who cycled rose.

At a special meeting, Dublin city councillors decided to cut the local property tax by more, rather than provide more city services.

At meetings this week, Dublin city councillors tried to arrange a screening at Smithfield of the All-Ireland football final, talked about plans for George Bernard Shaw’s birthplace, and more.

From flexible schedules to less testing, one service is trying to make methadone treatment as accessible as possible for Dublin’s homeless.

New bollards are meant to block cars from using smaller residential streets to cut between busy Drumcondra and Home Farm roads, making the neighbourhood nicer to walk and cycle in.

At City Hall on Monday, councillors criticised Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy for not showing up, talked about setting up an RTB for social housing tenants, and more.

Anti-homelessness campaigner Fr Peter McVerry says he’s surprised Tusla is still referring children to night-time-only hostels.

If you could borrow something from the library of things that’s set to pop up at Newmarket Square next month, would you want a sewing machine? A power drill? A wetsuit?

The council is reviewing the effectiveness of the 30km/h limits put on city streets this year, with an eye to extending the limits to new areas in 2018.

The daily struggle by delivery drivers to find spots to pull in and unload is frustrating – and can lead them to park in cycle lanes. How can we end the conflict?

Michael Higgins has been inspired by the ethos of flea markets elsewhere to set up a one in Phisboro, with few rules but mandatory baking.

This collection of 16 essays looks at how tourism has been impacting cities in Europe and beyond, and at how locals have been fighting these impacts.

There’s the taoiseach of Ballymun, the lord mayor of Sean McDermott Street, the lord mayor of Ringsend and Irishtown, and the queen of Moore Street. Should there be more?

It can be hard for those seeking an apprenticeship to work out how to get one. Some are working to change that.

Each year, Dubliners get the chance to take over a parking space from the council and turn it into a wonderland of their choice. Here’s how to get involved this time.

Matthew Johnston’s YIMBYism (Yes-In-My-Back-Yardism) is pro-development, pro-density, But the former Facebook worker is still thinking through the details – and the limits – of these stances.

Local opposition and a jump in the projected cost of the cycling route – from €324,000 to just over €1.2 million – mean it looks unlikely to happen anytime soon.

This podcast trawls through the history of the Docklands, touching on ferryboats, a cargo of dogs, and a giant pile of tripe, to answer a reader’s question about an inconvenience for city pedestrians.

Dublin City Council has fined waste-collection companies only 26 times in the last two years, according to a council press officer.

Corinthians Boxing Club in Summerhill needs €17,000 to bring its building up to fire code, or it’ll have to close. But trainers there think its past is hindering its fundraising efforts.

Children from across Dublin could soon be mucking in to take care of a few goats, a couple of pigs, a flock of ducks, and a brood of hens.

The old lock-keeper’s cottage on the Royal Canal is empty, with scrawls of graffiti on the walls and missing roof tiles. Willie Whelan has plans to restore it as a hub for outdoor activities.

Councillors backed a plan for a play park commemorating the children who died in 1916, and one for housing in Ballyfermot, and heard about plans for Bridgefoot Street Park.

Some councillors were disappointed when DCC Beta Projects was put on hold indefinitely. Now, though, it’s back, and on steadier footing.

Two groups of councillors recently voted on the current design for the track which runs from Clontarf to the city centre. One okayed it, the others said it wasn’t good enough.

He rigged a phone to take a photo when a vehicle of a certain height drove past. The result? He says big lorries make an average of 70 trips by daily.

At a meeting Monday, councillors clashed with managers over whether to close the laneway, and were denied information about plans to build housing on the Oscar Traynor Road site.

The government promised €5 million a year for three years to address the area’s troubles, based on the Mulvey report’s recommendations. Community groups say this doesn’t go far enough.

“If you got a nickname that was sort of funny or self-demeaning it stuck in the foreman’s head,” says John Walsh, who worked down the docks between 1962 and 2009.

Gardaí can take minor offenders to court, and they have quite a bit of discretion, which leaves room for possible bias based on race, class or ethnicity.

Four students from the MA class at UCD’s School of Geography ran a study to find out how much reward pedestrians get in exchange for taking the risk.

Yesterday, members of the group I BIKE Dublin lined up for a second time to physically block vehicles from parking in city cycle lanes, so cyclists could use them.

At recent meetings, Dublin City Councillors discussed regulating bicycle-hire schemes, the 1,000-home St Teresa’s Gardens redevelopment, street-sign design, and more.

Residents and a local councillor say they have been trying for years to get rid of the busted-up, broken-down (but working) payphones, which they say attract illegal dumping.

Sinn Féin’s Micheál Mac Donncha says the 1981 hunger strike got him into politics. He plans to use the ceremonial role of lord mayor of Dublin to push for progress on housing.

Most Irish universities have started climbing the ladder of Athena Swan gender-equality accreditation, but no institution of technology has even reached the first rung.

At recent meetings, some Dublin councillors passed three motions opposing plans to move homeless families into “hubs”, and also looked at several other issues.

While councillors supported sprucing up a park and a square and adding a greenway, residents say there’s a need to address a growing divide between established and new residents.

While details of what might be named, or renamed, are yet to be decided, the majority of councillors voted in favour of the idea.

In the areas around the IFSC and Hanover Quay, what appears to be a public park or footpath is often actually private property.

Here is some of what Dublin city councillors discussed at their meetings this week.

Local services like after-school programmes and creches that rely on workers from the community-employment scheme say changes are putting their futures in jeopardy.

For some, Dublin’s clubbing scene is a staple of queer identity. But how inclusive are club nights in the city?

When Íde Mhic Gabhann and Ciarán Smyth returned to Dublin from Colombia, they searched in vain for a package-free market. So they teamed up with a Drumcondra shop to start one.

Council officials, councillors, and local campaigners have different ideas for how to put a full-sized pitch on the funny-shaped site at St Teresa’s Gardens.

Ioan Irineu Craciun used to minister in an industrial estate out of town. Now, he and his congregation have done up an old building in the city, to serve a growing Romanian Orthodox Church.

In the inquiry into how DIT spent €5.1 million without following all the rules in place for tenders, and lost some €700,000, a PAC member says she’s not sure she’s getting straight answers.

While some push to make owning an electric car in the city easier by adding more charge points, residents of Parkview Avenue recently saw theirs pulled.

Since 2008, the number of Dublin City Council employees has been slashed by 23 percent. On Monday, councillors met with management about how this affects services.

Joan Rogers holds dominion over a small organic fruit-and-vegetable patch, where she preserves heritage varieties, and helps to educate the public on growing.

Research shows that many people who have substance-use issues also have underlying psychiatric conditions. There are hopeful signs the government is working on a new service for such “dual-diagnosis” patients.

Dublin City Councillors discussed one proposed housing project near Kildonan Road and another in Scribblestown, as well as a historians-in-residence initiative.

A council plan to turn a vacant lot into a community park is out for public consultation, and Richard Taplin wants as many people as possible to have their say.

Robyn Tuohy, 13, writes about the impact of robberies in Dublin. “Lots of people are not happy about it, and it’s causing lots of worry and stress.”

Mark Harmon, 15, remembers growing up in O’Devaney Gardens. “Now when I cycle through O’Devaney it is a kingdom of dust,” he writes.

Ivan Budanov, 14, writes about life in an apartment stuck between his landlord and a vulture fund. “It has been very scary, and we cannot stay at home alone.”

In votes over the National Maternity Hospital and whether or not to fly the Palestinian flag over City Hall, councillors grappled with the question of when they should recuse themselves from the chamber.

Local residents and councillors say they weren’t warned of the changes, and don’t really understand the rationale for them.

As part of a development including student accommodation, the building is being restored and turned into offices for nearby Teeling Whiskey.

Minister Simon Coveney promised to end the use of hotels to shelter homeless families by 1 July. To some, a big part of his plan sounds like rebranding, rather than real change.

Tusla says 36 percent of foster children in the area don’t have up-to-date care plans. HIQA says it’s 13 percent. Both figures are bad compared to the national average.

Every five years, businesses in the city centre vote on whether to pay a bit extra in rates and keep DublinTown. The current campaign is proving contentious.

Massimo Scaramella was trying to enliven his end of Capel Street with a piano outside for passers-by, but there’s no way to get a permit for that.

They could mean more convenience for drivers and more efficient use of space, but also loss of revenue for the council and more cars in the city.

Councillors voted on using drones to tackle illegal dumping, where to put the sports pitch in St Teresa’s Gardens, homes for Travellers, and art studios.

A plan to give the golf course to a private operator who wants to introduce footgolf conflicts with a plan to eliminate it to make way for a cycle path.

When the new Luas map was published last week, showing the Cross City line, some wondered why trams won’t carry passengers from one line to another.

Guidebook writers started using the term “institution” in the last few years, but Des Cooney isn’t interested in that. “It makes you feel old,” he says.

Councillors are frustrated with the time it takes Dublin City Council to deal with requests for changes to street markings and traffic patterns. Thousands are pending.

When kids throw stones that smash bus windows, Dublin Bus suspends the route for the day, which some locals says is unfair collective punishment.

But how much do, or should, Dubliners care that some have letters missing, or are unreadable?

Over a May weekend, Natalie de Roiste wants Dubliners to step out and give tours of their Dublin, from bricklayers to commuters, teenagers to refugees.

When groundskeeper Joe Tyrrell buried Bang Bang in the early 1980s, it was in an unmarked grave. A local business wants to get the Dublin legend a headstone.

Councillors agreed to a redesign of Wolfe Tone Park, backed public-private partnerships to build social housing, and discussed the number of rough-sleepers.

One of curator Paul Maher’s jobs has been to track the timing of the bud-bursts and autumn colours each year, feeding his data into a European network.

On our Cycle Collision Tracker, cyclists have reported accidents and near misses at roundabouts. Last month, a woman was hit by a lorry at one, and died.

At a meeting earlier this week, some residents and local politicians met to organise against the possible closure of post offices in Cabra.

Maybe not, say some transport experts. It might just mean using prime land to park cars that’ll be replaced by others on the roads into the centre.

Councillors questioned the bill for Ballyfermot Leisure Centre, discussed excavations of St Thomas’ Abbey, and learnt about plans for Francis St.

Some councillors fear that a lack of resources is meaning the closure of the Crumlin area office by stealth.

In 1891, the club had 300 members; today, it’s down to 130. “Young people don’t want this kind of stuff,” says secretary Joe O’Flaherty.

At recent committee meetings, councillors talked about new places to put homeless accommodation, and a packed house in Portobello.

Elias Edge set up his store in 1917. A century later, his great granddaughter has put together an exhibition to celebrate its survival.

The university has brought in Garda vetting for students looking to join its access programme. Some say this will put off potentially talented applicants.

West Dublin communities are giving the main event a miss, in favour of their own home-grown parades – without a reviewing stand in sight.

Councillors had €5 million in their “discretionary fund” to spend on whatever they want across the city. Should there be rules for how they go about it?

Some councillors have been weighing in for free on planning applications, but council management says they should have been paying €20 each time.

At Monday’s monthly meeting, councillors heard again about the future of the fire brigade, questioned a plank of the social-housing plan that includes PPPs, and more.

Rana Kashie says he and his friends just want somewhere free to play a bit of cricket, but they keep being moved on.

FixJam is back, and the organisers are ready to help you tinker with toasters, sew on buttons and generally learn to repair things instead of binning them.

Passengers were promised better toilets, but a plan to bring them and the rest of Busáras back to life has stalled amid financial chaos at Bus Éireann.

Even if Dubliners could stomach a mass shooting, not everyone thinks it would be effective.

Lots of the debate at a recent council meeting focused on the impact of planned city-centre transport changes. There was also a vote on “freeing” cycle lanes.

Councillors say they are waiting to see whether the promised roll-out happens.

While there have been conflicting reports as to the dangers of glyphosate, found in some weedkillers, Stephen Doody wants Dublin City Council to stop using the chemical.

Two decades after agreeing to have his picture taken by an American folklorist, Cabra man Paddy Losty has taken the internet by storm as the embodiment of excess. But who was he?

At council meetings this week, councillors heard plans for transport around Dublin City University, talked again about dumping, and more.

Trees, a cafe, seating and facilities for market stall holders could all be put in, if the funding is found.

After discontent last summer, councillors and residents seem to be happy with the plans for the large vacant sites near the Oliver Bond flats.

Local residents want to see a neglected canal bank near Labre Park turned into a proper place to keep horses, and a space for horse-welfare education.

Developers can apply for waivers so they can do construction work late at night and early in the morning. Some residents say their sanity isn’t being taken into account.

For some, it’s always had a separate feel to Smithfield and Stoneybatter. For others, it’s only recently become neighbourhoody enough.

Six cyclists have logged accidents on our cycle-collision tracker that mentioned potholes or uneven surfaces, and another cyclist mentioned cobblestones.

By discouraging vehicles from taking high-speed shortcuts through certain residential areas, the plan would create a more appealing space there for cyclists and pedestrians.

When Kieran Mulvey gave an outline of his proposals for the north-east inner city recently, one suggestion was some rebranding for the area. But some wonder if that’s a good use of money.

Here’s some of what was discussed when councillors met for their monthly meeting on Monday 6 February.

Here are 52 pages of documents we got under FOIA, about the €1.6 million funding package meant to address the neglect of parts of the north-east inner city.

The project to move the Gardaí out of a medieval building and into a shiny new one still has quite a ways to go, it seems.

Soon councillors will have the option of taking home more money if they submit receipts for expenses. But some say that’d be too much work, they won’t bother.

Members of the Dublin Dock Workers Preservation Society have gathered thousands of photos, documents and artefacts, which need a home.

Dublin City Councillors discussed the vacant Iveagh Markets, introducing solar-powered compacting “smart bins”, and transforming the motor tax system.

The Central Bank building and the plaza below it have been sold to private developers, and some Dubliners worry about what that means for public use of the plaza.

Stoneybatter could have rooms for thousands of students in a couple of years’ time – and some locals claim that’s too many in one place.

Equality for All Pollinators isn’t just about bees, says Kaethe Burt-O’Dea. It’s also about people just coming together and sharing ideas.

The issue, according to a SIPTU press release, is “a refusal by the senior management of Dublin City Council to resource an additional four ambulances to meet service demands in the city”.

Young people aged 10–14 who live or study in Dublin’s inner-city area are invited to submit stories by midnight on 31 March 2017.

At recent meetings, councillors discussed a hike in the price of a leisure scheme for older Dubliners, whether a project in Scribblestown should be 100-percent social housing, and more.

The Kilbarrack Coast Community Programme’s conflict with its landlord leave it uncertain how long it will be able to continue operating.

At midnight on New Year’s Eve each year, family and friends gather to watch the date change on the arch at St James’s Gate.

The number of allotments in Dublin has been growing, but not fast enough to meet demand – waiting lists can be long. Dublin City Council is working on that.

At the meeting Monday, councillors discussed whether to progress their flagship house-building plan, and ideas for whether, and how, to assist cafe culture.

Spending on “Dublin: A Breath of Fresh Air” campaign, part-funded by DCC, included £135,000 to the Guardian for services including an article by Will Self.

Literary parks, destination playgrounds, and a sculpture park are all mooted in a draft plan for parks that is out for public consultation at the moment.

Many people in Dublin work in the creative economy, which runs at night, and “you have to have services that support that”, says DIT transport planning lecturer David O’Connor.

One idea in the redesign is to lay a smooth strip through the cobblestones on some streets to make it easier for cyclists and people in wheelchairs to navigate the neighbourhood.

In meetings, councillors discussed progress on housing and designs for a park near Christchurch, and quizzed the company behind the Poolbeg waste-to-energy incinerator.

Some called such sprinklers a “disgrace”, but the shop’s staff say after years of finding faeces and needles, “our priority is the well-being and safety of our staff”.

Some decisions in Dublin City Council are discussed behind closed doors at meetings to which the public and the media are not invited.

The postmortem says the seals’ injuries were consistent with an attack by a predator.

For more than a year now, DCC Beta Projects has been on hold. “The council talks about citizen engagement, but this was actually doing it,” one councillor said.

At their last monthly meeting of the year, councillors approved by-laws for speed limits, sold some Priory Hall flats, and debated swallowing part of Fingal.

Luas works mean no big Christmas market at St Stephen’s Green this year and some argue that if it, and others, come back, they should be done differently.

Some of Dublin’s graveyards are filling up and one Dublin City Councillor thinks he knows how to solve the problem.

The queue people once waited for hours in for the immigration office has been abolished, replaced with an online appointment system that requires weeks of waiting.

The idea underpinning the school is that there is no need to teach children. Given the right tools and supports, they will teach themselves and each other.

There are parking spaces on pavements across the city, but there’s also some debate about whether it’s time to get rid of them.

Bernie Walsh is planning an upcycling co-op and shop. It’ll be something like the men’s sheds, she says, but with sewing and selling.

Each year, the government compares Dublin City Council’s performance with other local authorities’. Councillors are sharply critical of this rating system.

Many have dismissed calls by councillor Mannix Flynn for the band to break with its past. Others say it’s time to listen to survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

For years, Mary Gleeson has been pushing the council to make her daughters’ route to school safer. But there’s one thing she hasn’t tried: starting an organisation to advocate for pedestrians in the city.

Some households in the inner city don’t have room for bins, so they’ve been given exemptions to keep using bags. But they’re still being pushed to switch.

At Dublin City Council’s arts committee on Monday, councillors discussed an early vision for a new interpretive centre for Bull Island, and several other issues.

A woman searches for the truth about her mother’s time in Stanhope Street.

Councillors voted in favour of four new adverts in the south-east of the city to help fund DublinBikes, and said they were frustrated they hadn’t been kept in the loop about a new homeless hostel in the Liberties.

Dublin may get a directly elected mayor with real power. On 2 Nov., Dublin Inquirer invited five “candidates” to share their visions for the role.

Several programmes are trying to make refugees feel welcome, and Irish people feel welcoming, by fostering friendships between newcomers and locals.

“We’ve met with one or two people just to chat about the feasibility,” says Richard Guiney of DublinTown. “We would hope to be piloting this next year.”

An internal investigation said staff all knew how to handle data under data-protection legislation, and didn’t break those rules.

In the debate around the latest, and earlier visions, for Moore Street, the voices of the small business owners in the neighbourhood – many of them immigrants – are missing.

There was an almost 100-percent increase between 2013 and 2015 in the number of Traveller families living on unofficial sites in Dublin.

Most cyclists run red lights, according to a 2014 study conducted in Dublin. But does it matter?

The council refunds 50% of commercial rates to owners of vacant properties. Is this the year that they’ll change that?

Each year, Dublin City Council hires a company to go around and score the city’s playgrounds. Here’s where they all rank.

Electoral reforms pushed a north Dublin suburb out of one constituency and into another. Some Ashtown residents are less than keen about their annexation.

Poor facilities mean that the club is finding it hard to keep boxers, and the coaches are despondent, says Edenmore Club Secretary David Moore.

A recent survey on the potential impact of transport changes on city-centre retail produced positive feedback. But some retailers still aren’t convinced.

Car washes are supposed to have licences to regulate pollution. Many in Dublin don’t have them.

There’s a big patch of dirt in the middle of the Bridgefoot Street allotments that Richard Taplin would love to see more groups and individuals use.

At this month’s full council meeting, councillors debated whether to ask RTÉ for some of its land for housing, the cost of cutting the grass, and more.

Dublin-based DJ Calvin James has been volunteering in northern Syria, and is now back in Ireland raising funds. Should we all be following his example?

There are several fora for residents to tell Gardai what’s troubling them. But councillors in the inner city say attendance has dropped, and they’re looking for ways to fix that.

Here are some of the things that were discussed at council meetings this week: property vacancy, the property tax, and the prospect of floating homes.

“We don’t want to really have this us-and-them thing against the council. We would love to come together,” says Phili Halton.

Work is scheduled to begin Monday, 3 October to turn the derelict church into office space, and its grounds into a public park.

The fines are so small, and enforcement so slow, that it seems to make sense for companies to put up adverts without planning permission.

Edmond Sheeran first played for Shamrock Rovers FC in 1938. He was 18 years old.

Lots of those pet peeves you have about walking around, or hanging around, in the city’s centre? The council has a new long-term plan to tackle them.

Hundreds of visitors descend on the Phoenix Park’s deer every month with carrots and crisps and cameras. The DSPCA says park authorities need to put a stop to it.

After a couple of summers of pilot markets, councillors want to press ahead with more regular stalls on the underused square by the canal.

Earlier this week, Dublin’s head librarian unveiled the latest designs for the planned grand central library on Parnell Square. Here’s what it looks like.

A Dublin City Councillor who is also a member of the museum’s board proposed that the council give a once-off payment to the museum. She argues that this doesn’t present a conflict of interest.

Off Abbey Street, Dublin’s Turks gather at the Turkish Social Club.

Across Dublin, rough sleepers have given up on calling the “homeless freephone” to get a spot in a hostel for the night. There’s no point, they say.

After a month off, councillors returned to City Hall on Monday evening for their first full meeting after the summer holidays. Here are some of the issues they discussed.

From now until 10 December, a grassroots project is exhibiting memories and mementos that celebrate and explore the history of the Oliver Bond Flats.

If you live in the inner city, you might be familiar with the problem: a pile of empty bottles in your bin, and no place to recycle them. Why aren’t there any bottle banks nearby?

At Monday’s meeting, Dublin City Council Chief Owen Keegan said there was a “temporary hiccup with funding.”

Lord Mayor Brendan Carr said councillors will get a report, and a debate, around who leaked homeless campaigner Erica Fleming’s file. But that’ll come later.

In Portobello Harbour each Friday at midday, there’s a distant wailing that sounds like it might be an air-raid siren.

Several of the top managers at the council are expected to swap roles soon.

This desolate railway station in an industrial estate has a bad reputation. Will the arrival of the Luas next year improve the situation or just provide a new target for vandalism?

One councillor wants Dublin City Council’s parking enforcers to set up a hotline so you can summon a tow truck to clear vehicles parked illegally in cycle lanes.

Councillors spend a lot of time passing motions that are supposed to change life in the city, but many of them don’t seem to go anywhere. Why not?

At this Stoneybatter barber shop, men and boys with ties to Africa gather to share news, listen to music, talk football and get their hair cut.

That grey concrete mass at the southern end of the square is more than just a grey concrete mass.

Residents say they’re happy that their kids now have somewhere to play. But there are still some outstanding issues, they say.

The pilot project to catch people who don’t pick up after their dogs seemed to go well. So now different council areas have money to roll it out all over the city.

What’s the latest on the Epicurean Food Hall, unpaid work trials, that stretch of vacant buildings on Camden St, and the city centre’s free wifi?

Local residents say there’s been an uptick in strewn needles and antisocial behaviour around the homeless and drugs service centre. But there’s no easy solution to that.

Although it’s had complaints, Dublin City Council hasn’t taken any enforcement proceedings in alarm-related cases from last year.

What should go on this site? The area desperately lacks green space for children to play in, but the number of homeless families in hotels continues to rise.

Should we be filming them? Should they be filming us?

When some local residents complained about dogs and noise in the mornings in Oscar Square Park, the council trimmed the opening hours. Was it too hasty?

Some Dublin City Councillors say they spend 30 or more hours a week on their political duties, but the pay is only part-time – so many also have other jobs.

As the Repeal the 8th campaign gears up, some grandparents are planning to join the charge. It was, after all, their fight to begin with.

Promoters say we’re missing out on an eclectic nightlife because it’s just too damn hard to set up new and interesting events. Can we make it easier?

Each year, Gardai and street traders meet in the Liberties for an annual football match. “It’s a great rivalry,” says Joe Cullen.

With a lot of business to deal with before their recess, councillors held a special meeting Monday. Here’s some of what they talked about.

Bernie Brannick and Eoghan Parle set up the WeShare Dublin group because helping out your neighbours can make people happier. They’re open to new members.

Kevin Street Library closed in 2013 for renovations. What’s taking so long?

When West Dublin Access Radio shut down at the end of 2014, it left a gap. From a small windowless room, Together FM is trying to fill it.

The protests after Focus Ireland closed the hostel laid bare the challenges of balancing short and long-term solutions to Dublin’s housing crisis.

After Michael Barr was shot in April, The Sunset House closed. Over the weekend, Paul Gannon put up new pictures and flags and reopened it as The Brendan Behan.

“You’re dealing with huge trucks on very small roads that aren’t necessarily designed for them,” says Green Party city councillor Patrick Costello.

In the first meeting he chaired, Labour’s Brendan Carr imposed some discipline, cutting councillors off when their two minutes were up – sometimes in mid-sentence.

After two decades of writing, has Karl Parkinson’s time finally come?

In Rathfarnam, a clubhouse is a focal point for three generations of Dublin’s Italian community.

If you walked through Grand Canal Square between 2007 and the middle of last year, you probably noticed the stacks of marble triangles and bubbles of water.

The €368 million project is at its most disruptive phase so far. But a spokesperson says it’s on schedule and on budget, and it should open by November 2017.

A broad array of city groups and organizations are expected to gather at City Hall to discuss the challenges and opportunities. You can watch via webcast.

At their monthly meeting, Dublin city councillors got to motions that had been waiting 18 months to be debated: on sex shops, speed limits, and more.

Brendan Carr suggests that the city introduce plaques for businesses that pay the living wage, and says he’ll push for a hotel bed tax in the city.

Just 48 people have signed a petition for an arch to mark Dublin’s Chinatown on Parnell Street. What do you think of the idea?

At the Darc Space gallery on North Great George’s Street until 9 July, an exhibition plays “what if” with the Phibsboro neighbourhood.

Wildlife expert Tim Clabon reveals the flora and fauna along the banks of the north Dublin waterway, and within it.

New plans to attract adventure tourism to the Liffey Valley west of the city centre have raised hopes that shelved plans for a river park could rise again.

Some veteran carriage drivers say a new crop of young drivers aren’t trained and equipped as well as they could be. And the Garda say they have cracked down.

Some veteran councillors remember when the council had more direct income, and more discretion on spending. They’re on the lookout for new sources of revenue: like bridge tolls, and a hotel bed tax.

Rerouting bus routes from College Green to Parliament Street would increase the number of buses passing through from 85 to 1,660 per day, according to a traffic study by Transport Insights.

Dublin City Council chief Owen Keegan told councillors he’d made no statement about privatising street-cleaning services. But he’s still at odds with them over the Marrowbone Lane site.

Dublin hospitals cancelled thousands of appointments for in-patient and day-case admissions last year, according to documents obtained from the HSE.

With only two scientific staff members left at the Natural History Museum, the 19th century relic is struggling to fulfill its mission.

On James’ Street, Christy Egan knows who needs oranges, and who needs cigarettes.

Like barbershops with gigs and opticians that host poetry readings, part of the collective’s squeeze-’em-in ethos grew from the cost of space.

From another bridge over the Liffey to a new centre for dance, here are proposals that councillors pushed for in the latest debates on the city development plan.

Eight times over the last two years, the lake in Poppintree Park in Ballymun has been polluted. Dublin City Council suspects the latest incidence was intentional dumping, not an accident.

Elected councillors have voted to oppose the proposed Eastern Bypass, but that might not make any difference, and they’re not happy about it.

Through every stage of the planned skate park in Ballyfermot, there has been a whole lot of consultation. Some say more projects should follow suit.

It was supposed to be closed for maybe six months, for renovation. Fifteen months later, it’s still closed, and the company hasn’t set a date for a grand reopening.

Inchicore Sports and Social Club has a history that dates back to the nineteenth century, but modern times have been tough. So they’ve invited the brewers in.

As Ballymun Town Centre has withered away, it has left area residents with few places to buy basics. Should Dublin City Council just build a shopping centre there itself?

We looked at whether or not some landlords are reletting apartments and homes, when they’ve been forbidden from doing so. Some seem to be.

Residents, trainers, and some councillors in Harold’s Cross continue to push back against plans for the sale of the neighbourhood’s greyhound stadium.

Consultancy Aecom’s first four proposals for the cycle path seem to have been miscalculations, so now it’s come up with a fifth. How much is it being paid for all this?

Here’s what Dublin leaves behind after a night out.

At the weekend, kids and parents and coaches crammed into a small playground in the neighbourhood to highlight the need for sports facilities in the area.

Women face sexual harassment on the city streets, says an unpublished report commissioned by Dublin City Council. So, what are we going to do about it?

Some North Inner City residents say the council’s posting of CCTV images of illegal dumpers is unfair, and see undoing privatisation of waste management as the real solution.

Here are a few of the key issues discussed at Dublin City Council’s monthly meeting on Monday, and who said what.

Part of the plan to build the new National Children’s Hospital is to make sure local residents benefit from the thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of euro set to pour into the area.

It’s not easy to make old clocks run right.

Are Dublin City Councillors getting the information they need to do their jobs?

As barber Patrick Carr tells it, he can do two things: cut hair and speak Irish. So in his Fleet Street barbers, he’s brought the two together.

Here are a few big picture statistics from our cycle collision tracker data.

Frustrated residents felt Dublin City Council wasn’t addressing their concerns about safety during Luas Cross City construction, and their lack of a decent playground.

Three newbie Dublin TDs aren’t taking the unvouched travel allowance. And one Dublin TD says he is, but for a community fund, not for travel.

The scheme needs more funding, and councillors are considering both raising the membership fee, and getting more revenue from advertising.

About two decades ago, John Wolfe gave up his work as a builder and grew an obsession with the law. “I love civil law with a passion,” he said after a recent court appearance.

On both sides of the Liffey, parents are fighting for playgrounds for their kids, so they won’t be cooped up inside or forced to play on the roofs of buildings anymore.

It’s clear that posher parts of Dublin have more trees and greenery, but why? And will it ever change? Dublin City Council’s working on a new tree strategy, so now’s the time to make your voice heard.

More than 1,000 people have offered to help do up empty council houses or “voids” for homeless families. But it’s unclear if this effort will gain traction.

The arts group has found a new space in Dublin 8, and is now trying to raise money to make it look like home.

Most of what was said at Monday’s launch of the College Green public consultation has been said before, but there were a few new details.

There are a lot more facilities dealing in waste in areas where Travellers live. Survivors of last year’s fire in Carrickmines are living beside a closed landfill.

Cycle lanes, mapped: imagine if these were the routes available to cars.

Here’s the latest on plans for a revamped walking and cycling path along the canal, and the challenges involved.

In their monthly meeting, Dublin city councillors passed a new litter plan for the city, disposed of a few council buildings, and debated whether the College Green 1916 banner should be dragged from the front of the Bank of Ireland.

Dublin City Council wants 25 percent of all trips in the city centre to be taken by bike, and it needs more ideas for how to reach that goal.

The members of the Irish Naturist Association think they should be able to swim naked, and our reporter went along with them to do just that on Saturday at a pool in Dublin.

Six Dublin City Councillors won seats in the Dáil in last month’s election. So far, their parties have replaced five of them. Meet the new councillors.

In the third installment of our cycling-safety series, we zoom in on a Portobello intersection that three readers have tagged as dangerous on our collision-tracking map.

Merrion Square is due to get a new pavilion. But should it house an art exhibition or a memorial to emigrants, designed to reconnect members of the diaspora to Dublin?

City planner and rights activist Kieran Rose has found himself with more time since the marriage equality referendum passed. Now, he’s set his eyes on the Seanad.

Plans to reopen Richmond Barracks in late spring seem to be on track, and many in the neighbourhood hope the new attraction will bring much-needed footfall to the area.

As a child, CrossGuns Snooker Club owner Finbarr Ruane would watch his father at work repairing the tables and polishing the cues. Today, he does the same.

It’s an annual tradition now: the Taoiseach goes to Washington to ask Obama to help undocumented Irish in America. And in Dublin, there are calls for the Taoiseach to help undocumented people here too.

Last month the property went up for sale as “an exciting and rare opportunity to develop in the heart of Donnybrook”. But some want it preserved as a testament to this horrendous part of Ireland’s social history.

Next month, Dublin City Council is set to consider changing the title to Civic Mayor, because Lord Mayor is “in many respects . . . an alien colonialist term”. Sinn Fein’s group leader says he is against the change.

At Monday’s Dublin City Council meeting, councillors asked why they’d had to read in the papers what was going on with the modular-housing programme. Plus: renaming the East-Link Bridge and cuts to Young Ballymun.

Hiking, camping and rock climbing lets teens be kids instead of little hardmen, and teaches them life lessons that Willie Whelan hopes will keep them out of jail.

This year, it looks like six Dublin city councillors will leave City Hall for the glories of the Dáil. So, what’s the process for replacing them?

Apparently, very few of Owen Keegan’s meetings count as lobbying under new legislation designed to bring more transparency to who is influencing our public officials.

The dublinbikes scheme was supposed to be spread out across the city by 2015, but we’re not even in phase three of 14 yet. What’s going on?

In preparation for 26 February, we asked 132 candidates running in Dublin their views on a dozen issues, from abortion to building inspections, religious patronage of schools to Irish Water. Here are the answers from those who responded.

One of our readers asked why many of Dublin’s fountains seem to be suffering from neglect.

This year, spring might look a bit different from the windows of O’Carroll Villas on Cuffe Street in the south inner-city. On a patch of land below, work is underway on a new vegetable garden.

Even before councillors blundered and failed to pass a local plan for Phibsboro, some local residents had been knocking around the idea of inviting experts in to draw up a grand vision for the area.

Christy Burke has spent 30 years as a city councillor, with one stint as Lord Mayor and a reputation as a crusader for the homeless. After nine attempts to get into the Dail, could now be his time?

Business associations, councillors, and cycling advocates all seem happy with plans for a grand sweeping plaza that aim to transform College Green into a glorious civic space.

An extra €3 million has turned up, to be split equally between areas in Dublin. The South East area committee is planning to spend on arts festivals, bicycle facilities and more.

Activists in Ballymun are pressing for more clarity about what one of the government’s housing schemes means for them.

Will you have to recycle? How does it work for apartments? And what about the little waste collectors? Some questions answered.

While some clubs in recent years have begun to welcome women into their fold, there are a couple of significant hold-outs. Is it an issue?

In 2015, some councillors made it to more than 90 percent of meetings. Others made it to less than 60 percent of those they were supposed to attend.

North Earl Street and Talbot Street could do with some TLC.

Could a new track in Cherry Orchard be a solution to unsafe off-road quad bikes and scramblers? It’s one option that Dublin City Council is considering.

Since its launch in 1992, Magic: The Gathering has become the most-played trading card game in the world. What’s it all about?

For 40 years, Terry Fagan has been gathering stories, letters, photos, books, coins and other artefacts from his North Inner City neighbourhood.

As of late on Tuesday night, 20 organisations had filed returns to say that they lobbied Dublin city officials or councillors in the last months of 2015.

The Capel on Little Green Street reopened about three weeks ago after a refurb. So what’s it like now on a Saturday morning?

Dublin City Council is considering a plan that would provide for public toilets. But is there a reason we got rid of them all in the first place? And would we even use them?

Promising Muslims a “New Golden Age of Islam” if they immigrate to Ireland, a website and linked Facebook account have generated some rather heated discussions online recently.

Dublin City Council has filled its Cycling and Walking Promotion Officer position. We’re not allowed to interview her for the next few months, but here’s what we know.

In theory, homeless people have the right to vote. But once it gets down to the details, many say they wouldn’t know where to start to exercise that right.

Dublin City Council had its monthly meeting Monday. Here’s what happened with some of the issues we’ve been following.

If you live in an apartment, you probably haven’t been canvassed in the election build-up. Is that a relief, or a sign that apartment dwellers matter less than those in houses?

Most Dublin primary schools are Catholic, and they can legally favour Catholic children when deciding who they will admit. Most parties say this needs to change.

A reader’s question prompted us to research a strip of buildings on Camden Street, and learn about their stained-glass history and Weatherspoons-hotel future.

We’ve found an intersection in Rathmines that could do with some adjustments to make it safer for cyclists.

Setting a vision for the area is even more important now that the sale of the Phibsboro Shopping Centre to a developer has been agreed.

A lack of public seating makes city centres a struggle for elderly people, less comfortable for homeless people, and a drag for younger people. So isn’t about time we had more of seats?

Dublin City Council’s plan to build 22 modular homes in Ballymun by Christmas sparked protests. Now its effort to put 29 more modulars on a site in Drimnagh have hit some bumps too.

The city needs more secure cycle parking – not just on the street, but also in apartment complexes. How can we get apartment-block owners to invest in it?

For the last 18 months, Phibsboro residents and local councillors have worked hard to come up with a vision to shape the neighbourhood. They may just have bungled the last step.

Dublin’s city councillors gathered Monday for their monthly meeting. Here’s what happened.

We’ve found an intersection in Dublin’s city centre that appears to be particularly dangerous for cyclists. And we have some ideas on how to improve it.

You know the old Phibsboro Shopping Centre? With the ugly brutalist concrete tower? When it’s torn down, should what replaces it be taller or shorter?

At one time, it seemed you could buy everything at the Liberties market stalls: fruit, veg, fish or ribbons. How can we get that magic back? Should we even try?

It’s unlikely they’ll get a reprieve, but there are a stack of arguments as to why now is a bad time to offer to sell homes to social housing tenants at massive discounts.

A plan to charge for electricity for e-cars might put off some drivers, but there are still plenty of perks.

For some time, there has been a push to paint women back into the history of the Easter Rising. Now, as the centenary approaches, there’s also an effort to acknowledge that some of these women were gay.

Our pick of the week’s events in Dublin. One per day. To help you make the most of your fun time.

Coverage of the homelessness crisis has largely been focused on families. But are there other vulnerable groups we need to look after?

For the last five years, James David Seaver has whipped up costumes for Dublin’s greatest drag queen, but that’s just one side project of many.

For most women, periods are a short inconvenience. For a minority of us, they can bring weeks of depression, anxiety, and a whole bunch of other symptoms.

Homeless men in Dublin used to ask to be sent anywhere but the Morning Star Hostel. Today, it’s a different place.

DIT’s new home isn’t done yet, but it has already won an award for its innovative, open design, which is meant to integrate it with the surrounding community.

The city council put aside €1 million to support Dublin’s bid to become European Capital of Culture in 2020. Now that we’ve been eliminated, what should we spend that money on?

If all goes as planned, we will see Dublin City Council’s draft proposal for Wolfe Tone Park early next year. Should it include a new cafe?

Commuters are aggravated about being charged extra fees by shops to top-up their Leap Cards, and shops are worried about slim profit margins. A solution might be close.

Do you wander around Dublin and wonder why it is the way it is? Do you have questions about its people, politics, parks, and landmarks? We would love to answer those questions for you, or with you.

A group of councillors led by Sinn Fein passed a status quo €803 million budget Monday. The drama was in the sudden appearance of €1 million from “down the back of the couch”.

On Monday, Dublin City Council saw proposals to remake College Green. If all goes to plan, the design will be up for public consultation by next month.

Should Dublin City Council sell the last surviving Georgian coach houses on Stephen’s Green to the highest bidder? Or to the Little Museum of Dublin?

The app lets anyone with a driver’s licence and a car give lifts to passengers for money. Right now, ride-sharing for money is illegal in Ireland.

At the moment, cases against protesters are moving through the courts. Is that new? Is it political?

At Monday’s meeting, councillors said they wanted to reflect before going ahead with the sale of commercial properties in Temple Bar.

State-funded education and training courses for the unemployed have a reputation as time-wasting paths to nowhere. Maybe this one is different though.

Some have voiced concern that any health and safety problems on Traveller sites may be dealt with through evictions.

It looks like the space is earmarked for a new use.

Last week, we wrote about the dearth of information available on six recent appointments to the 12-member board of the National Transport Authority. Now we know more.

A fine art student has joined the charge to end the use of herbicides in the city. His first target? To make Grangegorman a herbicide-free haven.

The Convergence has come to town. It’s trying to get people who are interested in the co-op movement to do something about it.

Stewart Roberts expected two or three hairdressers to step up and say they wanted to help out. But more than 60 responded to his ad.

If you put up the price of parking on some popular streets, and drop it on others, could it help to solve Dublin’s parking problems?

Dublin City Council has a new plan, which is basically the same as the old plan, to improve O’Connell Street. But should it? And can it?

Following the recent deaths of two homeless men sleeping rough in the city centre, Dublin City Council’s Cold Winter Initiative will be closely scrutinised.

Fianna Fail chose Catherine Ardagh, over Daithi de Roiste, as its election candidate in Dublin South-Central. How do their records compare as councillors?

For almost five years, the issue of how to deal with inner-city dealing in prescription drugs has been on the government’s radar. Why has nothing happened?

The government has finally filled six vacancies, but it’s done so quietly, and without providing information required by public-appointments guidelines.

Sé Merry Doyle’s intimate film is a plea by Simon Walker to preserve modernist structures in Dublin designed by his father, architect Robin Walker.

Dublin Cycling Campaign are pushing for a 30 kph speed limit inside the canals. But will that lead to gridlock? (This post includes both an article and a podcast.)

The hospital is trying to attract new staff, but finding it difficult to tempt applicants.

When the tree on the corner of St Anne’s Park was first clipped back, locals complained. Now, many are delighted.

Open meetings help to ensure better, more accountable government. Right now, council-watching can be a bit tough, but improvements may be on the way.

When Anti-Austerity Alliance TD Ruth Coppinger called for a NAMA estate to become social housing, her argument fell on receptive ears. But is it practical?

Both Dublin City Council and the Fine Gael-Labour government are moving forward with plans to bring in modular homes for homeless families by Christmas.

After a bust-up over how much should be in a community gain fund for Sandymount, Ringsend and Irishtown, councillors voted to ask An Bord Pleanala.

A lot of us need to face the fact that we’re not going to be able to buy houses, and we’re going to be renting for the long-term. The new Dublin Tenants Association thinks we should organise.

David Bell represented smugglers during the Emergencia, glimpsed John F. Kennedy and served as Taxing Master of the High Court. And he’s not done yet.

Many businesses in Dublin require job applicants to work unpaid trial days – or weeks – as part of the application process. It’s illegal, but there’s not much would-be employees can do about it.

The building would be protected if it weren’t for a clerical error. Now there’s talk of tearing it down to make way for an access road to a site behind it.

At City Hall on Tuesday, councillors voted for a 15 percent decrease in the local property tax after a debate that centered on whether it is a progressive tax.

DIT’s move from a constellation of Southside sites to a consolidated Grangegorman campus will shift tens of thousands of students, changing communities.

People at risk of losing their homes because their rent supplement is inadequate can get top-ups, but many suffer because they don’t know this is possible.

Methadone maintenance programmes have a bad reputation. But is it fair?

There are growing calls for a Merrion Square that is coach-parking free. Some DIT students think they know the best solution.

The Ballymun Young Women’s Project has funding, staff, a location and plenty to do. But it might soon close anyway.

Pat Muldowney doesn’t consider himself an activist. But accidentally helping to feed hundreds of desperate refugees on a Greek holiday island opened his eyes to the crisis.

The council will soon consider two new climate-change strategy documents, and councillors have a host of energy-conservation and transport-transformation ideas.

What once was a grassy community park is now a gravel lot used for parking, portable toilets and ticketed events. Residents want to restore it to what it once was.

With one socialist TD and four prominent Labour TDs not running for re-election in Dublin constituencies, the Social Democrats might find some space.

Later this month, Dublin city councillors will vote to set the level of the Local Property Tax for Dubliners, including, in some cases, themselves. They could reduce it by up to 15 percent.

Lots of figures have been flying around in relation to the debate over school patronage. Should you believe them?

GreenBikeClub plan to launch in October with all the mod cons, offering glow-in-the-dark green cycles that aren’t limited to docking stations.

Like befriending programmes and support groups, speed friending is a way to combat loneliness in the city.

Rather than gradually sell off all of Russborough House’s old master paintings to fund its upkeep, might it be better to just sell the house and bring the paintings to Dublin?

The honeymoon period for the “favoured” option for a new Liffey Cycle Route seems to be over. Local residents say it wouldn’t be good for the neighbourhood.

Medically supervised injection centres have shown promise in Canada, Australia and Germany. Should we have them here in Dublin?

Phibsborough residents feel overrun by cars. They hope, through collective action, to wrest some tarmac away for human use, but they haven’t been helped by a slow-moving Dublin City Council.

In November, St Andrew’s Church will reopen as the new national design centre and host to the flagship show of this year’s Irish Design 2015 programme.

Last week, Dublin City Council began a stealthy mission, or if you’re less romantic, “practical enforcement measures”, against dog poo. Watch out for the €150 fines.

Walking the streets, licking an ice cream cone: that used to be summer. Now we have posh ice cream and it comes it comes in a tub with a spoon, creating problems.

On Friday, housing activists quit a city-council-owned building on Bolton Street that they had occupied, ending a stand-off with Dublin City Council.

In our illustrated comment of the week, Robert Mirolo depicts one reader’s suggestion that ships could be a temporary solution to Dublin’s housing crisis.

Stop trying to log in to Dublin’s public free wifi. It’s not going to work.

Dublin City Council wants to encourage more people to cycle, but an increase in bike thefts in recent years is hurting their cause.

The metal guardrails that block your way when you’re trying to cross the street should be uprooted, some urban-development nerds argue.

You might have heard that Dublin city-centre spending could fall by nearly a quarter if planned traffic restrictions go ahead. If so, you’ve heard what the Irish Parking Association wanted you to hear. Let’s take a closer look.

The city’s traffic signal boxes are being painted, a handful at a time, by artists. The aim? To vamp up some of Dublin’s drab-looking streets.

For thirty years, artists have hung their paintings on the railings around Merrion Square on Sundays. On 13 September, they will celebrate their anniversary.

Dublin City Council has decided to sell 25 properties it owns in the west end of Temple Bar. Affected businesses seem largely unruffled, but residents are worried their quiet enclave could turn into something like the temple of bars to the east.

A group of residents in Drumcondra are trying to crowd-fund enough money to transform a strip of grass into their dream community pocket park.

Despite the introduction of mandatory lessons through the Essential Driver Training course, driving-test pass rates haven’t perked up. Why?

Illustrator Layli Foroudi translates this week’s reader’s comment, on seagulls and sparrows, into a picture.

Businesses highlight three points of concern with the proposals for city centre transport. Is there evidence that it would be bad for business?

After years of campaigning, a community group has pushed Dublin City Council into turning a vacant lot off Dublin 8’s Cork Street into a park. Digging is set to begin next month.

When Mary Oyediran believed her house was being targeted because of her race, she embarked on a day-long odyssey.

Since it was founded, the Dublin Drug Treatment Court has expanded from a few postcodes to all of the city. But staff want to go nationwide.

Sinn Fein Dublin City Councillor Ray McHugh talks about projects in his area and why he’s against gender quotas, and argues that councillors earn less than minimum wage.

Martin Keane’s plan to revive the shuttered Iveagh Markets promises to bring new businesses and customers to the Liberties – and perhaps gentrification.

This week Karen Vaughan illustrated Daragh’s comment on our article “Frank: This City Is Filthy”. He wrote: “I live in Rathmines, right by the canal . . .”

To some, the Santry River Greenway may seem like an unattractive cycle route. But a reconnaissance mission shows that it has great potential.

It’s a rare cross-party consensus: councillors say it’s often taking Garda too long to respond.

What do Liverpool, Nashville, Berlin and Dublin have in common? Great music scenes, according to the head of music at St Patrick’s College, Dr John O’Flynn. Only, as he tells it, Dublin isn’t getting enough kudos for it.

Dublin City Council is set to discuss options today for working with private players to build homes on several council-owned plots. Councillors are wary of public-private partnerships and intent on construction of social and affordable housing.

Father Andrew Campbell grew up in Dublin and then went to Ghana to serve. Now he’s listed among the 100 most influential Ghanaians, and calls Accra home.

After a hiatus of a few years, the city has brought back the post of cycling officer. It’s a good time for it.

Walled or fenced “super blocks” like Trinity College, Dublin Castle and Leinster House are obstacles to pedestrians and cyclists trying to get around the city.

Deputy Lord Mayor Cieran Perry talks about his involvement in the 1990s anti-drug movement and how the government needs to move faster on homelessness.

In Raheny, there’s lead in the water. Who should pay to get it fixed?

Soon, Dublin City Council will almost certainly be the owner and manager of Dalymount Park, the home of Bohemian Football Club. Is this a good idea?

The debate about how to kill our weeds without killing ourselves continues: Dublin City Councillor Ciaran Cuffe called yesterday for a new approach to ridding the city of unwanted plants. He might get his wish.

At 28, independent Dublin City Councillor Gary Gannon is still trying to find his way, politically. At the Pig and Heifer, he talks about issues from housing to abortion, and about his ambitions.

Politicians who successfully opposed the opening of a sex shop in Drumcondra say they want to ensure that adult stores aren’t build anywhere near schools or playgrounds. Would that effectively ban them from the city?

Is the government going to have the Moore Street Commemorative Centre ready for the 1916 centenary? Some people aren’t too sure.

You might soon be able to get a permit to live on a houseboat in Grand Canal Basin, in the heart of the Silicon Docks. Or you might not.

Real-estate giant Kennedy Wilson has promised to give millions – and raise many millions more – to help Dublin City Council create the Parnell Square Cultural Quarter. They say they’ll get nothing in return.

A short stroll from his Ringsend office, Fine Gael Paddy McCartan talks about the rise of the left in local elections, and how he gave up his car.

In Dublin’s city centre, some of the businesses forced to pay a Business Improvement District levy have started to rebel.

Dublin City Council faces a balancing act. Should it encourage more outdoor seating, or would that frustrate already cramped pedestrians?

Barred from covering meeting at which she was elected, our reporter found that many people didn’t even know who the last mayor was – or care much.

Janice Boylan discusses her lineage as a Moore Street trader, her opposition to the O’Devaney Gardens refurbishment and her aspirations to higher office.

Dublin City Council has chosen a chair to oversee the millions of euro in a community gain fund for those living near the Poolbeg incinerator.

Kaethe Burt-O’Dea wants Dublin City Council to stop using a weedkiller she believes is carcinogenic. She’d rather see us learn to love our weeds, or spend time outside, pulling up weeds the old-fashioned way, and meeting each other.

Dublin water sports on a budget? Row out with East Wall’s curraching club.

While a plurality of respondents said they wanted Option 3 for the planned Liffey Cycle Route, there are challenges to making it a reality.

Dublin City Council Fianna Fail group leader Paul McAuliffe makes his case on the difference between his party and Fine Gael, why he voted against the O’Devaney Gardens refurbishment even though he’s concerned about the housing crisis, and why Sinn Fein shouldn’t get the mayorship in 1916.

Last week, we asked whether Dublin City Council should continue funding the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Here’s how you voted.

As Dublin starts to build again, is it time to embrace denser living? And what might that look like in practice?

There are a few parks and leafy corridors along the canals, where people sit and play guitars and read books and drink cans on hot summer days like Tuesday. But much of the city is glass, brick and cement.

Barricade Inn has been squatted since March by a new anarchist collective hoping to create a radical, autonomous social center and infoshop. The bike shop is just one of its services.

Councillors voted against the Poolbeg energy project. The executive ignored them. What now?