THE future is another country. Or at least it could be if Dublin planners eager to clean up O'Connell Street were to look elsewhere for inspiration.
In other parts of Europe, capital cities manage to present showcase streets to the world that are not overrun by hamburger joints, gaudy neon signs and filth.
In Paris, for instance, the Avenue des Champs-Elysees, perhaps the most famous boulevard in the world, went through a bad patch in the 1970s and early 1980s but has been restored to grandeur by being given a complete facelift.
Although it is a huge traffic thoroughfare with room for at least four lanes of traffic in each direction, the Champs-Elysees has wide tree-lined pavements.
Helped by planning laws which prohibit the construction of buildings higher than those they replace, its overall physical profile has, remained unchanged since Baron Haussmann redrew Paris in the 19th century.
The avenue took a nosedive in the mid-1970s when the regional express metro provided a direct link between the Place de l'Etoile and the underprivileged suburbs. Many exclusive boutiques closed down and old-style cafes were snapped up by the fast-food chains.
The Paris authorities adopted a clean-up plan 10 years ago. They renovated the avenue, planting new trees and replacing the modern steel and glass newspaper kiosks with retro bottle-green versions like those of the 1930s. Even the phone kiosks are in the same style.
Fast-food restaurants were obliged to remove their garish neon sings and put up smaller and more sober ones. Adding extra police to lower the crime rates, the city of Paris also banned car-parking. Previously, the pavements had been choked with parked cars.
Rome's prestige street, the Via Veneto, is an elegant four-lane boulevard which descends in a partly tree-lined curve from the ancient Roman Porta Pinciana down to 17th-century Piazza Barberini.
It was once the in-place and featured in Federico Fellini's 1960 classic, La Dolce Vita. In those days, its stylish cafes, broad footpaths and flamboyant turn-of-the-century hotels were patronised by film stars.
Still stylish (and with not a fast-food joint in sight), Via Veneto is no longer a meeting place for the rich and famous who, wisely, prefer to meet in the privacy of their own homes. Nowadays, 90 per cent of those sitting under the umbrellas and awnings of the pavement cafes, restaurants and hotels (all very expensive) are tourists.
In an attempt to revive some of its former glory, the city administration closed it to traffic some years ago, converting it into a gardened piazza. Shopkeepers, restaurateurs and traders, however, complained that the pedestrian zone had done them commercial damage in car-dependent Italy and managed to have the street revert to traffic.
The presence of luxury hotels and, above all, the US embassy on Via Veneto makes it one of the safest streets in a (relatively) street-safe city.
In Berlin, the fall of the Wall gave planners an opportunity to create a new shopping boulevard in the centre of the city, Friedrichstrasse. As the city's main commercial and entertainment street, it is subject to strict planning limits designed to preserve its character.
Neon signs are banned, steel and glass facades are kept to a minimum and even the chain restaurant Planet Hollywood has been forced to abide by the rules. Crime and begging are negligible, but the main problem is that the street's austere look is not attracting the shoppers.
Closer to home Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, boasts Princes Street, a magnificent wide boulevard bordered on one side by an escarpment with a castle on top.
In a highly specialised shopping area at the upper end of the market, businesses pay premium rents to be on Princes Street. The shops are south-facing, and the historic Edinburgh Castle stands opposite above them. There are mostly chain stores and department stores, but no neon signs are allowed and chain stores must adhere to height restrictions on their nameplates.
Roofs in the street must not block the view of the city from Edinburgh Castle. There are plans to increase pedestrian and bicycle access and reduce general traffic and a park-and-walk car-park to encourage short-stay visitors is in the pipeline.
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8
DRAPIER - AN INSIDER'S GUIDE TO POLITICS
It's a cruel trade, in the week of the walking dead
IT was the week of the walking dead in here as defeated colleagues came back, quietly clearly bruised and showing it, to clear out their desks or prepare for a lonely run for the Seanad.
Most were putting a brave face on it, but Drapier is too long around not to know how deep the hurt can be and how much resilience it takes to shake it off and rise again.
People may say there is a life after politics, but try telling that to some of those who lost their seats last weekend.
Yet there was evidence of resilience triumphing in this election. Tom Enright and Michael O'Kennedy were written off after the 1992 election but each put the head down and got stuck into constituency and Seanad work and ended up with great personal votes. Monica Barnes, too, had been written off, and Leinster House will be the better for her return.
We lost many good friends this week, but Drapier will make his commiserations in private. It's better that way. But can he single out one defeated colleague, Sean Ryan of Dublin North? Drapier has never seen a man work harder for his constituents. Day and night, no problem was too trivial for him: indeed it could be said he almost pampered his constituents with care and concern. And the result? Well, it's a cruel trade.
The one extraordinary fact to emerge in this election and one with enormous long term significance is the newly restored dominant positions of Fianna Fail and Fine Gael. Both took a pasting in 1992, and Fine Gael in particular was said to be just marking time before taking its final leave. Historical inevitability and all that sort of thing.
And yet during the election the only real vitality and freshness came from these two parties and, as Drapier predicted last week, remember, they won whatever seats were on offer.
What few of the pundits have noticed this past year or so is that each of the parties has been undergoing a period of major structural renewal. The turning point was the change of government in 1994. By going out of office Bertie Ahern got a chance to address years of organisational inertia in Fianna Fail. If he had stayed in government this would not have been possible or it might not have got the same sense of urgency.
In opposition he had the time and space to get in his own people, turn the focus for the first time on genuine policy development and set in place an effective election strategy under Drapier's good friend, P.J. Mara.
For Fine Gael the revival was even more dramatic. John Bruton was on the floor when he became Taoiseach. He knew he would get only one chance, but having got it he used it to the full.
The crippling debt which he inherited was paid off, new structures were put in place, but most of all new people were put in key positions. On top of that Bruton's own stature made his party credible and relevant. And full marks, too, to his director of elections, Mark FitzGerald.
Drapier doesn't often make prophecies. But he will make one this Saturday. The real story of the 1997 election is that Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are positioned to benefit most from the prevailing public mood of non extremist, nonideological politics which was the hallmark of this election and seems set to continue. Other parties take note.
The big question, of course, this week was "Can it last?", this new Fianna Fail/PD government that is. A decade or two ago the prospect of a minority coalition government held in place by a disparate band of Independents would have given us all the jitters, but there was little of that in evidence this week. Most people expect the new government to last, for a couple of years at least.
Drapier has two reasons for this prediction. The first is the disparate nature of the Independents. It will need all of them voting as a bloc to defeat the government. That won't happen easily.
Drapier expects to see Joe Higgins more often than not in the No lobby, but it will take a major, almost an earthshaking issue to get all the others into the same lobby at the same time. What the academics call "differential abstention" will sustain the government. In simple language, the Independents will oppose, but not all together and not all at the same time.
The government can also count on the consistent support of Jackie Healy Rae. For all the bluster Jackie is Fianna Fail to the marrow. Bringing down a Fianna Fail government is not on his particular agenda.
Thomas Gildea is an unknown quantity, at least as far as Leinster House is concerned. He has the advantage of a simple, one issue agenda. But what an issue! Drapier has no doubt the MMDS issue and the particular commercial interests of Independent Newspapers are likely to be one of the early hot potatoes of this Dail.
THE other danger from the Independents to the stability of the government lies in the increasing sophistication of our growing number of pressure groups. The party pledge protects the rest of us from the type of pressures which these groups can exert, but the Independents are particularly vulnerable.
And remember there are plenty of hard cases knocking around, not to mention the ever present topic of abortion upon which Fianna Fail has given a few hostages to fortune. It will be interesting to see how the Independents stand up to pressures that will undoubtedly be there. Drapier suspects in some cases not that well.
The other factor which will make for stability lies in the nature of the PDs. Liz O'Donnell may have proclaimed to the nation last Sunday that the "PDs had won the election", but nobody in here believes her. Ask those two good people, Mairin Quill and Helen Keogh. Ask Michael McDowell. No. The PDs are a chastened party whose self confidence has taken a battering.
Unlike 1989 when the PDs could play hard to get with Charles Haughey this time there is no holding back. Nobody really takes the negotiations very seriously. It's a done deal as far as most in here are concerned and, once in, there will be no "solo runs", no external dissociation from decisions taken by the party in government.
The truth is the PDs are at a crucial crossroads and they know it. By going in, from a position of weakness, they risk being smothered by Fianna Fail, smothered by Bertie Ahern's kindness and losing their identity.
Given, too, that Des O'Malley and Bobbie Molloy are probably into the last lap of honourable careers the questions remain: what's left for the PDs? What's their distinctive selling point? Especially if Michael McDowell decides to quit politics.
In many respects they are in a now in situation. If they melt into the new arrangement they risk their identity; if they stand on their dignity they risk being steamrolled. It won't be easy.