Whether you call it Back of Town or North Hamilton, the neighbourhoods north of Dundonald Street are among the Island’s cultural treasures.

Community activist Cleveland Simmons, who calls these streets home, is aiming for the area to get more of the attention it needs and deserves.

With the international attention of the 2017 America’s Cup expected to draw an abundance of visitors and capital to the Island, Mr Simmons said tourists needed to see part of the quintessential Bermuda.

“A while back I brought the Governor, George Fergusson, on a walk and talk tour of the area, along with the then Premier Craig Cannonier and Michael Dunkley, who was then and still is Minister of National Security,” Mr Simmons told The Royal Gazette.

“The idea was for them to hear first-hand from people in the area about some of the things that are needed in the community and what can be done to bring it to reality.”

On that occasion, the tour followed Angle Street along Princess and Court Streets, but fell short of covering Middletown.

“They were supposed to continue with it, and I am going to hold them to it,” said Mr Simmons, known to all as “Outa Sight” or just “Sight”, from his early days as a musician and promoter.

He pointed out that Ed Christopher, Hamilton’s town crier, had been a keen proponent of North Hamilton. He makes a point of walking tour groups through the area, with a running commentary of its history and talking points.

Mr Simmons suggested that Bermuda’s “powers that be” develop more such initiatives, to highlight an area rich in heritage but struggling economically.

“This is my office — I call it Fitz’s corner,” he said of the junction of Dundonald and Court Streets, named because he would meet his friend Fitzgerald Tucker there to get tips on the entertainment trade.

Mr Simmons, 72, associates the spot with entrepreneurship. He began his business by using the phone box there to connect with classic Bermudian entertainers like Charles Michael “Curtis” Clarke, Antonio “Jug” Dill.

But a short stroll of Court Street and its environs reveals several businesses that opened recently, only to close back down. North Hamilton was showing some promise before the economic recession, and Mr Simmons noted with approval the new surfacing and pavement on Princess Street. But the area’s small businesses need all the help they can get, he said, such as the new Court Street barbershop, Kool Cutz.

“Rent is the biggest killer,” he said. “Everybody is thinking they can come in and make it, but for a lot of them, the economy just isn’t enough.”

Handy’s Laundromat is a thriving enterprise, thanks to the resourcefulness of owner, Irvin Hendrickson, who has worked hard to expand and beautify his premises on Union Street.

“The area has come a long way,” Mr Hendrickson said. “People used to feel intimidated just coming this way.”

Mr Simmons praised the MarketPlace supermarket, which he said had reached out to many young men in the Middletown community to help some with employment.

“We need to get the powers that be to come down to this place and get more of our young men working,” he said.

Curving Avenue resident Barbara Millett, 78, runs her business, House and Car Upholstery, from a building that was once a nursing home for black Bermudians during the days of segregation.

The church across the drive used to be the Island’s first Seventh-day Adventist Church, she said.

“I have travelled through this neighbourhood all my life,” Ms Millett added. “The people here are friendly and the businesses here look out for each other. If we can’t do the job for someone, we will send them on to the next person who can.

“Being neighbourly is what it’s about. Though one thing I do notice is the young people that move in are not as quick to be neighbourly as those of us who have been here for some time, so we try to make sure that we speak to them so that they know we are not here to intimidate them.”

Mr Simmons, she said, “tells me his vision for the area — sometimes I say yea or nay, but mostly I just listen”.

Even so, Ms Millett said, her business is struggling:

“I don’t want to close, but I do not have the workers,” she said. “You see me working here right now but I am supposed to be on oxygen because of my lungs.

“I can’t do heavy upholstery work because there are no Bermudian upholsters. Trying to get someone from the neighbourhood to come and work and be able to pay them is difficult.

“To have a neighbourhood that is alive, we need to have more industry brought this way. This is an industry that needs to be taught in our schools. Teachers have agreed with me, but it has never been okayed.”

“That’s why we need to get the people into this area, especially the politicians,” Mr Simmons said. “We need to stop the politics. Everybody is at war with each other.

“What we need is to come together and make some common sense of it all. If we could tap into the intelligence of this country and stop the politicking, we could rectify the situation.”