BECAUSE OF EXTREME DRUGS RELATED ANTI-SOCIAL ACTIVITY
About a week before Christmas I met my next door neighbour and he asked me if I knew why the building beside the Luas Tram Stop was being boarded up .. . that is discussed below. Anyway, the following day I went to Trim, County Meath, for Christmas but on my return to Dublin I discovered that my neighbour had sold his apartment and had moved to Athy. Despite the fact that he had lived in his apartment for about thirty years no one appears to have known of his plan to move however I was aware that he was very upset by the riot that took place nearby a few weeks ago.
In the 1960s, Dublin City Council cleared Dominick Street of a number of the terraced houses that were in use as tenements and replaced them with eight blocks of five-storey flats, containing 198 units. With a renewed commitment to regeneration and the creation of sustainable communities, the decision was made to demolish these flat complexes and replace them with a mixed-use, mixed tenure scheme, within the 1.26 ha site.
The Dominick Street Regeneration Project has seen a small number of new homes built directly across the road from the old flats which are now derelict. The redevelopment project took at least two decades to complete and resulted in the replacement of about 200 sub-standard homes with about seventy two new units. The complex now includes 72 new homes, a community centre, a residential courtyard, ground floor commercial space, car parking and street improvement works on Dominick Street and Dominick Place. The design of the building aimed to separate the private world of the residents from the public nature of the city centre
Public access to the vacant Dominick Streets flats and an associated car park are now being boarded up to prevent constant and extreme drug-dealing and anti-social behaviour.
Dublin City Council will secure the walkway and car park along the flat complex on Dominick street Lower following requests from local residents and gardaí (police).
The site will eventually be secured by hoarding at the front of the complex facing onto the Luas stop and the back of the complex will be secured by steel fencing.