Vexed Bermoothes

Some quick thoughts on the Corporation of Hamilton’s new ‘n improved waterfront presentation last night:

• It is essentially the same proposal as they gave in 2006 with – landfilling 8 acres of Hamilton Harbour, and adding 500,000 square feet of new buildings on the land as well as two parks.
• More than 1000 underground car parking spaces?!
• This time they were pretty reticent about costs – except for the usual vague hopefulness about public/private partnerships picking up some of the tab.  No handouts.
• Although it was a flashy presentation, I characterise the audience reaction as dismayed over the lack of understanding of Hamilton’s history and needs, lack of input from locals, and eye-popping costs.
• Given the large amount of vacant real estate in town, and the current challenging outlook for Bermuda, many people were scratching their heads over what the hundreds of thousands of square feet of new office and retail space would be used for.
• Several prominent local developers, land planners, and business owners stood up to express concern over the scale of the project and whether it really matched our needs.
• The organisers said they want to move ahead as they felt the last proposal had won widespread local support.  Sorry guys, I attended the presentations in 2006 – they met the same surprised and negative reaction as last night.

Yes, we can do much to improve the Hamilton Waterfront.  People would love to bring more life to the City.  But this plan overstretches.  This wasn’t a public consultation.  It was an attempt to sell us an outsider’s concept to turn Hamilton into somewhere else.  The Corporation should speak to Bermudians about what we actually want and need.

This project seeks to replace Hamilton rather than enhance Hamilton.  A reader points out that it would transform the Corporation of Hamilton from being a service organisation for Hamilton’s residents and landowners to being the largest developer in Bermuda.  Sweeping changes would need to be made to the Corporation of Hamilton’s structure and practices before you could even consider that.

The scale of this proposal virtually guarantees that Government will try to take over the Corporation of Hamilton.