You May Scoff

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On Monday afternoon, despite the tempting display of pastries piled on the counter, Luigi Massone’s café, Scoff, on Ranelagh’s main street was empty save for two small tables of customers.

Pointing behind him, just hours after new higher parking charges came into force in the Dublin 6 village, Massone said: “Look, the place is empty. It’s lunchtime. They changed a lot of rules. The business of everybody has gone down.”

Parking tariffs rose across the city on Monday. However, Ranelagh and Rathmines are among the districts most affected, seeing a 70 per cent increase in charges from €1.60 to €2.70 per hour

‘Look, the place is empty’ – rise in parking charges hits Ranelagh businesses (Irish Times)

Oh.

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41 thoughts on “You May Scoff

  1. eoin

    Yep, agree with Dublin Cycling. If Luigi were stick a bike rack outside his cafe so customers could securely park for free, he might reverse any decline from increased car parking costs. “Garlic bread, Luigi, it’s the future, I’ve tasted it”.

    1. GiggidyGoo

      He’d probably need planning permission.
      But I can’t see how cars could park in bicycle racks:-).

      Dies Dublin Cycling reckon that an increase in parking charges was done for them?

        1. class wario

          Dublin Cycling obviously advocate for a more pro-cycling approach to planning and development (as well as general attitudes) in Dublin. They are critical of the apparently softball approach from the article in question as well as the resistance towards more pro-cycle moves in Dublin. However, as you say, there’s nothing to suggest this is pro cycle or anti car by design nor that this will lead to less cars moving through Ranelagh going forward. It’s about as pro-cycle as me burning out a few cars down the road.

  2. dav

    Perhaps if they lowered their prices? did some lunch time offers?
    11quid for a soup and a sambo??

    1. ChilliNuts

      I just bought a big club sandwich, a can of coke and a pastry for €10.50 in Scoff. Not bad.

    1. edalicious

      And probably the most expendable income within walking distance of any street in Ireland.

    2. Junkface

      Exactly! They have a LUAS and Bus services, also do people not walk or cycle in that area? What are they doing with their legs?

  3. class wario

    Ranelagh is a pain in the hole to park in the best of times. I would be shocked if the majority of shop/restaurant custom there was from people who park in Ranelagh: the place gets huge footfall from people living/working/passing through the area first and foremost I would’ve thought.

    That said, Dublin Cycling seem to be of the view that since this theoretically could deter people from using their cars, it is good and justifiable, despite the fact that this likely isn’t by design and probably won’t impact people that much anyway in the grand scheme of things. I feel like their biggest issue here is they perceive the article (correctly tbf) as being uncritical of businesses/motorists whereas cyclists wouldn’t be afforded such a luxury. Again, not unfair but it seems silly to support moves like this out of spite.

  4. ThomasH

    8:30am–4pm 7 days a week, Business might pick up if you opened earlier, before most people are in work so they could call in on their way and closed later so they can get stuff on their way home. Really pisses me how so many places in Dublin are only open when most people are in work.

    1. Optimus Grime

      Have to agree with you there on that one. If he is opening at 8.30 then he may as well leave it till 10am. Most people have either gone to work or are in work at that stage. I am in the office in the city centre for 8.30am and I am normally the last one in.

  5. Gah!

    How could he say everybody’s business has gone down when he was speaking just hours after the charges came into effect? That’s not enough time to gauge any effect. Could it be down to the fact that it’s a Monday in July and the sun was shining? Those off work are likely to go to a park or the beach. Or could it be that Ranelagh is saturated with eateries and he’s competing in a crowded sector? At least the article gave him some free advertising.

    1. Cian

      that report also says that those travelling by car spend a median of €70, versus €20 for the cyclists. There may be fewer in cars, but they are bigger spenders.

      1. Kingfisher

        Not really, Cian – people riding bikes tend to buy less but more often, so their spend ends up being more than the legless car riders referenced above by Junkface. And especially for cafes, wheelmen who hop off the bike, lock it to a bike rack outside, buy a soup-and-sandwich takeaway and head on to work are profitable, because they don’t take up a table but they bring in small amounts of regular cash.

        1. Otis Blue

          Which is what the study illustrates.

          Anyway my point in linking to the study was to debunk the belief that City Centre trade is overwhelmingly dependent on car borne consumers.

  6. ChilliNuts

    Because I’m a swot, I cycled out to Scoff to buy lunch just now. I explained to the owner about cyclists bringing business too, he got the point. Tasty club sandwich.

  7. Broadbag

    Are Dublin Cycling in a state of permanent outrage? I thought cycling was supposed to be good for your mental health but they just seem so angry, all the time!

    1. Garbo

      This is so true. They fly down the road screaming and roaring if a pedestrian puts one foot on the road as if they own the road, so aggressive – sick of the sight of them too

      1. postmanpat

        That’s just the culcie white-boy dreadlocked cyclone cycle couriers. Just tell’em to feck off, their bark is worse then their bite.

    2. edalicious

      They wouldn’t be doing a very good job as advocates for cycling in the city if they weren’t complaining about the things that need complaining about. Having good mental health doesn’t preclude you from being annoyed about people acting the bullocks.

  8. boniface

    They used to have really good Hick’s sausages at Scoff. The place changed hands AFAIK, and now they have horrible cheap-deli-standard stuff. I’d say that’s why the place is half-empty, at least it’s why I stopped going there.

  9. V

    Ah nothing to do with parking

    Ranelagh is dead to walk up coffee and cake traffic once the schools let out

    There’s SFA parking around there anyway

    Incidentally, anyone know if the householders permits went up by the same %

  10. ____

    Why are Dublin Cycling Campaign taking issue with this?

    Simple enough IMO, they’re challenging the common notion amongst business owners that all of their business comes from people in cars and that anything that makes driving less convenient will hurt their business.

    The facts disagree and we see from experience that places that improve access to pedestrians/cyclist at the expense of car access that business picks up, eg. where streets have been pedestrianized.

    This attitude and the scare-mongering around it has killed projects such as Patrick st. in Cork, which got drowned in the hysteria of some local businesses before it got going.

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