---

At last there seems to be a rosy future for the Hamilton waterfront.

Here’s a piece of real estate that has remained pretty much unchanged for 150 years — just a long row of docks and dock buildings.

This stopped making sense a very long time ago.

The Hamilton waterfront is no longer a ‘working’ waterfront, except for the container port — for which a better home can be found elsewhere.

So one of the most valuable and potentially attractive strips of public land in Bermuda is used for car and bike parking and storing containers. Water views are blocked by cargo sheds or the flat steel sides of ships.

The waterfront should be for people to enjoy. It should add life to the city. It should be a place for entertainment, a place to stroll by the edge of the sea, or a place to sit in the shade and relax.

The Corporation of Hamilton’s preliminary plan does all these things well.

It removes the container port — an important priority — and re-arranges the cruise liner docking system to provide better views of the harbours for those of us left on land.

The price is staggering, but it will surely be a good investment.

There will be short-term and direct financial benefits, from rents and things like that.

More significantly, though, will be the long-term and indirect benefits that come from making the city more attractive to Bermudians and visitors.

The plans deserve widespread and positive debate and discussion.

There will be plenty of different ideas thrown into the mix, loads of criticism and conflicting points of view. There will be no perfect solution; everything is a compromise.

To that end, I urge the Corporation — and all others who weigh in on this project — to put all of Bermuda ahead of their own interests.

n We must remember what we’re trying to accomplish, and for whom.

n We must be careful not to damage the very things we are trying to enhance.

We must be careful, as we set about trying to increase our enjoyment of the harbour, that we don’t make it smaller and less attractive.

We should not, for example, yield to the temptation to build a big peninsula right through the middle of the harbour for luxury housing and hotels.

This is presumably an attractive way for the Corporation of Hamilton to help finance the whole expensive project.

But building out into the harbour divides it into unimpressive chunks, reduces the amount of water available for boaters to enjoy, and risks reducing the enjoyment for those who aren’t staying in the luxury houses or hotel rooms.

It is hard to see how that actually benefits Bermuda, Bermudians, tourism, international business, or the appearance or enjoyment of the harbour itself.

If a hotel and upscale housing need to be part of the mix, put them somewhere else (on the old container docks, for example) where they don’t damage the shape or appearance of the harbour.

I hope the Corporation also considers how badly it really wants a major cruise ship dock to be part of its waterfront, and whether they risk losing more than they gain. My first thought (I’m embarrassed to admit) was that there was a delightful justice in the idea of a cruise ship placed diagonally across Albuoy’s Point, large enough to hold one of the newer, larger ‘Panamax’ ships.

Bermudians have had water views blocked by the seven-storey ship-like sides of the Bank of Bermuda’s headquarters at Albuoy’s Point.

So it was fun to imagine the bank’s executives having their views blocked by the massive seven-storey sides of a cruise ship.

Unfortunately, that risks crowding in our tiny harbour even more, diminishing views in the same way the peninsula of luxury homes and a hotel would do.

The same kind of question needs to be asked: Are we gaining more than we are losing? Is the price worth it? Is it best for all of Bermuda, in the long-term?

Finally, we should try to avoid turning Hamilton Harbour into an exact replica of all those harbour revival projects stretching down the U.S. East Coast, from Boston through Baltimore clear down to Miami.

These waterfront projects are great, and they work. But after a while all those rows of fluttering meaningless flags and the jazzy curves of permanent canvas awnings on steel supports start looking the same.

A development for all

We need to develop something that is special, that is Bermudian and that is ours. And that is something Bermuda — and the Corporation of Hamilton — need to remember as we push this huge improvement forward.

Hamilton belongs to all Bermudians. The new Hamilton waterfront should be viewed as an extraordinarily important public project that establishes the tone and feel of our capital, and makes a lasting cultural statement on how we are and what we want to be. It must be supported as such, with public money.

The Corporation of Hamilton should not be forced to try to do this on its own, balancing its books by maximizing commercial potential, jamming in cruise ships and selling luxury homes in the middle of the harbour.

The Corporation has taken a courageous and important step forward that will benefit all of Bermuda.

I just hope we can be a little bit braver still, improve the waterfront even more, by keeping our focus steadily upon the long-term interest of all Bermudians.

---