Rush Main Street
The bottom line is that Rush Main Street scored a highly respectable 111.
For the purposes of the exercise, we started at the junction of the main street and the Channel Road, and we continued down the main street, past the Skerries turn, and finished at
But perhaps the most interesting thing to come out of the exercise is to play with the figures and see what happens if some of the negatives could be eliminated. For example, if someone waved a magic wand and all those 18 vacant units suddenly became occupied, our score would shoot up to 136, easily beating even the very pretty Greystones, and even beautiful Lahinch. In fact, if even 5 of those vacant lots could be given a new life, we would have had a higher score than any of the streets surveyed by the Irish Times. And that’s not even counting any extra marks that those five units might get for whatever new use might be found for them. Certain parts of our main street deserve great credit. We have become so used to seeing the
the Carlyan pub. This seemed to represent the main area of retail activity in the town. Side streets, such as Echlin Court, were excluded. The individual findings will not come as much of a surprise to residents of Rush, but a few points do command attention.
On the positive side, we scored very well in some areas (3 surgeries, 3 pharmacies, a Health Centre, a Gym, a community centre, and 2 playschools). This all helped build up a healthy total of positive marks.
lovely hanging baskets along the street , that we hardly even notice them any more. The public seating area outside Supervalu is a really nicely designed area, and the wall carvings are a great feature. The
The bottom line is that Rush Main Street scored a highly respectable 111
community centre is a great re-working of the old school. Straying outside the confines of the main street, the Millbank Theatre is a gem that the town can be proud to have, and we have no less than two long beaches, two harbours, a park, and more. Many of the shopkeepers in the town make heroic
It also may come as a bit of a surprise to note that there are no less than 48 occupied homes along the main street, and this also gave a boost to the scores. On the other hand, the high number of fast food / take-away outlets, and the large number of hair salons, beauty therapists and suchlike is regarded by the judges as a negative. This is not a comment about any particular business on our behalf, but it just reports on how the judging system works. As might be expected, the largest single negative factor was the fact that between retail and residential, there are no less than 18 vacant units in the area surveyed. So how did we score ? The scoring system is about as complicated as understanding how proportional representation works, but presumably the boffins in the RSPH know how to figure these things out. Working out the score involves a lot of adding things up, multiplying by 100, taking away your first thoughts, subtracting your grannie’s age when she got married, and dividing by the total ages of your next door neighbours. Well, not quite, but there’s no need to go into the ins and outs of the calculation here.
efforts to present their businesses well, and of course when Christmas comes around, the lights come on and the whole town is transformed. So in many respects, the glass is most definitely half full. But there is no getting away from the fact that despite the high score on the Irish Times Survey, the overall impression for a visitor walking the length of Rush is not too impressive. We look forward to the time (hopefully soon), when life is breathed into the derelict buildings once again.
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