Every Christmas millions of American children mail their lists to Santa Claus. As we all know, the jolly red gift bringer lives at the North Pole, but unfortunately his zip code isn’t public knowledge. This means that many of the millions of yuletide missives are addressed to the zip 12345 (it’s as good as any other).Unfortunately for the postal service of Schenectady in upstate New York, this means a flood of letters get dropped on them every December. Schenectady as you’ve probably guessed by now has the zip 12345 - so the automated mail sorters route the letters there.

So spare a thought for Schenectady!

Have you heard of Adam Curtis? He’s a BBC documentary maker, and his work fascinates me. His series tend to focus on societies and their relationships with power, and especially on how different techniques from game theory to psychoanalysis have been used to manipulate it. The shows are well recommended and have a good mix of really top notch interviewees (John Nash, Robert Rubin, James Buchanan) as well as some nifty edits and cool music.

I’ve just gotten round to watching the first major work he did for the BBC - “The Century of Self“. One of its major themes is how techniques initially used for war time propaganda were converted by Edward Bernays, a nephew of Sigmund Freud, and used to create modern consumerism.

Bernays had been a promoter of sorts in the US before the the American entry into World War One in 1917. He was sent to Europe to develop ways of selling the war back home. His knowledge of psychoanalysis drove his thinking on this and lead him to develop emotive and powerful slogans and imagery that would whip up popular feeling.

After the war, he began to think how similar techniques could be used to make people want to buy products and services. At the time this was a radical proposition: the notion of the consumer didn’t really exist. The ordinary man bought only what he needed and only when he needed it. Products were therefore sold on the basis of their ability to satisfy logical needs. Bernays dismissed this and set forth an agenda that people would buy anything as long as you could make it appeal to their subconscious self.

This might have seemed terribly abstract, but it came at just the right time in the US. After the war, industry had massive over-capacity and therefore needed to find buyers for all manner of products. Bernays offered the perfect way of creating this market by encouraging people to buy based on perceived want rather than actual need. He also coined the phrase ‘public relations’ to cover his work, as propaganda was a little too much of a reminder of war time.

One example of Bernays’s influence was on cigarette sales. In the 20’s, he was approached by the American Tobacco Corporation. They wanted to figure out how to get woman smoking. Up to that point, it was considered a taboo for a woman to smoke in public. Bernays decided that as there was no logical reason to smoke, he needed to invent an emotional one.

His plan was devastatingly simple and effective. He paid a group of young woman to join an Easter parade in New York. At a precise signal they were to light up in unison. He then advised the press that a group of suffragettes would be lighting their ‘torches of freedom‘ as a protest at the parade and got some photographers and reporters on the scene. The result? Newspapers across the US carried the bold news and his slogan. Suddenly to be against women smoking was to be against freedom. Sales rocketed and Bernays become wealthier and wealthier.

So what does this have to do with society and how it views itself. Well last weekend, as I sat in a Delhi hotel room nursing a dose of food poisoning, I was watching a lot of local television. If Bernays is to be believed, and lets face it he was quite a success in his day, then the advertising should be showing us what appeals to the subconscious of the target audience. In other words, the ads can tell us a lot about how a society views itself. If it didn’t the ads wouldn’t work.

So for example, an ad for Citibank is focused on being seen as the efficient man in the office. The dialogue is all about how the CB man doesn’t need to take time off for cashing cheques, paying bills or doing his tax returns. His bank makes him efficient and this is an admired quality. His banking habits are so well regarded that he even gets chosen for an important international assignment - obviously showing that this too is a highly esteemed task.

In Ireland this would never work. In fact, it would be seen as parody. Our banking ads, apart from featuring elves, giant owls and actors from the Sopranos, tend to focus on giving the bank a matey personality. Your bank would buy you a pint in the pub, or give you a hand painting the shed. That kind of thing.

This got me thinking again. Bernays was successful in a market that was producing its first consumers. As they became more sophisticated about their purchases, the techniques he used were surpassed by more subtle ways of hitting the same emotional buttons. Indian advertising certainly isn’t subtle: dashing men rescuing damsels in their Suzuki Wagon-Rs (seriously!); men on motorbikes that turn into posturing bulls - even the bike is called the Hero Honda Hunk; making sure your purchases impress your parents; and of course efficient banking.

In post-modern Ireland this just wouldn’t wash - not that I’m saying advertising and more widely pop culture isn’t ruthlessly manipulative back home, instead I am saying that while the individual ads tell you a lot about a societies values, the overall advertising is also an interesting reflection of wider context.

Perhaps when consumerism is less of a novelty in India, we’ll see that shift occur here too.

Here’s a view of beautiful Gurgaon. The city is on the outskirts of Delhi and is one of the Indian capital’s IT hubs. I’m out here on business at the moment, and I’m struck by something that first hit me last year in the Bangalore. It seems India has only two types of buildings - those rapidly on the way up, and those slowly falling down.

It really is something to behold - huge glass and steel buildings rising out of dusty streets, surrounded by discarded rubble and traffic that has to be seen to be believed - for more check this out for proof!

Perhaps the most striking thing about the crumbling buildings is just how many date from the days of Empire. Looking at so much of the infrastructure here you get the definite impression that it has barely been maintained since independence in 1947. It reminds me of the Charlie McCreevy quip that the British didn’t do much for the Irish nation, but they did leave some nice buildings.

That same Empire left a similar mixed legacy in India, including an impressive rail network and the backbone of the sub-continent’s infrastructure.

The current commercial imperialism is certainly carving its own mark into the Indian streetscape - what will be telling is whether these new icons of foreign power crumble into dust or whether they last like the Taj Mahal and India’s own palaces and temples.

This is the content of a submission I have made to Kildare County Council regarding the development of the former Magee Barracks in Kildare Town. The submission is in response to the recent public display of the current proposals for the site. These proposals are available from Kildare County Council.

In response to the recent public display of the current development for Magee Barracks, I would like to send your team the attached feedback. I have divided my comments into a number of broad sections: overall thoughts on the plan; development timelines; local infrastructure; giving the development a personality; community facilities; and the distribution of site uses.

I would also like to express my disappointment that the Barracks site has remained undeveloped for so long. It is now 10 years since the army pulled out, and with the exception of a temporary conversion to a refugee center, the site has languished unused.  

The Government could have long ago designated the site as a hub for housing or commerce, but instead they delayed. Meanwhile, the biggest construction boom in the State’s history has been taking place, and I think it is disappointing and frustrating that the site was not developed when demand and the market were at their peak. Instead, we are now presented with an ambitious plan focussed on housing at a time when this sector is in decline.

I know this is outside your scope, but I do think it is worth saying nonetheless.

Feedback on the Public Display of the

Magee Barracks Development Plan 

Dr Tony O’Donnell MIEI

November 30, 2007

 
Overall Plan 

I appreciate the fact that the number of full market value units had to be increased in order to adequately fund the community facilities. However, this presupposes that all units can be sold, and that they can be sold at a return that will cover these costs. The current economic climate does not make this as inevitably successful as it would have been a few years ago.  

Recent media reports point to 45,000 housing units currently on the market in Dublin alone, as well as 10,000 vacant properties. Housing completions are also predicted to drop off in the coming years. Given this difficulty in selling or renting what is already built and available in the city, I would have concerns about a plan to sell so many units in the commuter belt.

In addition to this, the number of social and affordable units also makes this development an unconventional (although not unique) proposition to potential buyers.

This raises a number of questions:

• Have the project team performed any analysis of the ability to successfully market the full value houses?
• What happens if some of these houses cannot be sold? Will any unsold full-price units be transferred to social or affordable status?
• If there is a reallocation of units, has the team or the council any thoughts on what impact this might have on the character of the development?
• If the balance shifts away from full-price houses, what will happen to the shortfall in moneys for the community facilities?
• If development is phased, will progress through the phases depend on whether previous ones have been successfully sold?

Development Timelines

From talking to some of the project team, I understand that you are likely to develop the site in phases. Have you considered the order in which these phases might be attempted? I would suggest that you complete the main arterial roads even if they are not initially needed to service the adjoining sites. I am particularly thinking of the distributor roads leading from Ruanbeg and the Dublin Road into the site and on to the Melitta Road. I think this would help integrate the site into the local psyche. It would also provide traffic relief for the Square.

What priorities will the team recommend when it comes to phasing the development? Will you have phases which are entirely housing, community or commercial, or will you try to blend development with components of each in a given phase?  

I think the local community would like to see some community facilities coming on stream through the life of the project rather than having to wait until significant housing has been completed. This will help the community in general feel like owners of these facilities. If they are added in after the housing, it may give the appearance that they are facilities for the new residents.

Local Infrastructure 

Rail

There are a number of chokepoints in the town at the moment. The train station is a good example as it is considerably beyond capacity for commuters. Almost every development in the town markets our rail service as a reason for people to move to Kildare. If you plan to do the same, then I hope you are lobbying Irish Rail to ensure that they can deliver services that meet the capacity requirements of the town. As an active member of the local rail group, I would also suggest that you put pressure on for additional parking at the station in advance of any development. I am sure the Kildare Rail Users Group (krugroup@gmail.com) would be willing to lend their voice to this.

Controlling Access on the Melitta Road

The distributor road exiting at the Melitta Road is bound to attract significant volumes of traffic. Do the team or the Council have any thoughts on how to manage this? It should be borne in mind that lights have recently been installed close to the planned exit. The potential redevelopment of the enterprise center might also produce a further focus for traffic exiting onto the Melitta Road. 

Schools

While land has been zoned for education use, this does not necessarily mean a school is part of the plan. I understand that you are currently in consultation with the Department of Education about the provision of a primary school on the site. Bringing the delivery of the school into the tendering process for the other aspects of the development would presumably produce savings, so I hope the Department prove receptive.

I also think that the community would support you with this, so perhaps you might be able to strengthen your case by working with the community and elected representatives to advance your case. 

Giving the Development a Personality

In the town at present, there are no large housing developments which double up as access routes for the rest of the community. I would hope that in time the Barracks is not seen as a housing estate with a road through it, but rather a distinctive quarter of the town that is integrated into the community. I think this could be encouraged in a number of ways.

Firstly I would suggest that physical borders are avoided where green areas interface with existing areas, for example at the Beech Grove border. This would give the impression that there is a seamless passage into the quarter. I would also hope that a number of types and styles of design are used in order to avoid the appearance of a monolithic development.  

I would also suggest that different areas are given names which are grounded in the traditions and history of the town and locality, and are not the standard bland names used in so many modern estates. I would also suggest that you open up a discussion with the community about naming the distributor roads. It would be nice if they weren’t simply referred to by a purely functional name.

Community Facilities 

As the original development plan was revised in order to produce more income for the development of community facilities, will the community have to wait for some or all of the housing to be completed before the delivery of the community facilities?

I would also have a concern that the community facility has moved from the Dublin Road end of the development to a location deep within a housing zone. This raises a number of worries for me.

Firstly, the previous plan meant that it would be straightforward to develop and access the community facility without any other development taking place; the new scenario would suggest that the facility will have to wait until the development reaches that area of the site before work begins. Is there any specific reason for moving the facility away from a perimeter area?

Secondly, placing it in the middle of a housing zone might place restrictions on operating hours and types of activity. For example, we have a number of drama groups and the second oldest drama festival in the country. If the facility included a performance space, do the team envisage any problems with neighbouring residents when they are faced with performances that run until 11 at night? Might the location unfairly prejudice the types of activity that the facility can support?

Distribution of Uses

I hope that there is some distribution of retail or commercial space through the housing areas, especially in the higher density areas. I understand from my conversations with team members that you are unlikely to have large areas of solely housing, so I would certainly encourage you in following this philosophy.