2.0 | Key Components & Attributes 2.1 | Cork City: The Heart of the Cork Metropolitan Area
29 The following trends are an indicator of dynamics of the city centre: • A whole city in renaissance with 5.5% growth in the last Census period; • Higher percentage of young age and working age cohorts in the City Centre Central Business District (CBD) than the Metropolitan Area overall, Region and State average (for example 51% aged 25 to 44 in the City Centre CBD compared to 31%, 28% and 29.5% for those other areas respectively); • A truly international city, recording 42% of the population as Non-Irish in the City Centre CBD; • A higher labour force participation rate in the City Centre CBD (68.6%) than the Metropolitan Area overall, Region and State (60%, 59.5% and 61.5% respectively); • High recorded rates of travel to work/education by green modes (46.5%) compared to the Metropolitan Area overall (18.5%), Region (13.5%) and State (17 %); Other unique attributes of the city include: • A university and learning city with a student population of more than 35,000; • Ranked no. 1 for business friendliness among small European cities by FDI Intelligence under the 2014- 15 European Cities and Regions Future report; • Higher education institutes, UCC and CIT, establishment of the Munster Technology University and elite research centres including Tyndall, and Rubicon Centre; • Dynamic clusters of specialisms such as it@cork technology cluster and Energy Cork; • Leading FDI and indigenous enterprise location within the City Centre, Mahon, north, west and south suburbs with many companies have multiple sites across the metropolitan area (Apple, Lilly, J&J, Dell, Stryker, etc.); • World class digi tal and telecommunicat ions infrastructure assets including Tier 1 connectivity and the fastest latency to New York than anywhere in Europe; • Cork City twinned with six other international cities including Cologne, Coventry, Rennes, San Francisco, Swansea and Shanghai; • Designated by the World Health Organisation as a Healthy City; • Cork City Centre awarded the prestigious Purple Flag
EU research by ESPON identified Cork as Ireland’s second tier city 28 .
Thestudyhighlights thecontributionofwell organisedcity strategic land use planning, good working relationships and collaboration between stakeholders, success in attracting FDI, balanced economic profile between sectors, young educated and highly skilled workforce, strong third level sector and research community and conscious local policies to promote place quality assets as key contributors to its success.
Cork City is notable for initiatives including:
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Strengthening a vibrant retail core;
• Enhanced public transport and sustainable travel; • Public realm and transformational projects including the Grand Parade/Beamish and Crawford/Sullivan’s Quay Cluster, the Cork City Harbour Interchange Cluster; • City medieval spine and cultural precincts of South Parish and Shandon; • Regional scaled city parks and waterfront amenities connecting the city centre to the harbour; • Regeneration initiatives delivering housing, commercial and community development. Collaboration and confidence to meet the challenges of delivering future growth are evident through examples such as: • Cork: A City Rising is a Beautiful Thing initiative which highlights progress on over 30 prime regeneration and development sites in the city; • We Are Cork initiative between Cork City and Cork County Councils, marketing the city and county internationally. The Cork City Centre Strategy (2014) works to deliver a “Healthy Heart” by revitalising the City Centre through increased investment, improvement and development, better management based on partnership and increased marketing of the City Centre experience.
28. ESPON Second Tier Cities and Territorial Development in Europe: Performance, Policies and Prospects, Section 3 How Do National and Local Policies Affect Second Tier Cities: 2012. 29. AIRO Key Regional Indicators Socio-Economic Baseline Report.
Southern Regional Assembly | RSES
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