Government need to consider bold changes to the Island's capital if it is to meet the challenges of the future and remain a vibrant and commercially successful city.

The Corporation of Hamilton will face huge challenges in 2001 and beyond.

These challenges reach far beyond the members of the Corporation's political tenure. Some challenges that are common to all cities are: How to balance the immediate needs of residents and businesses; How to make relevant and improve the commercial trade of the city; How to create new revenue centres, so that the tax base grows; How to make the city more interesting aesthetically, socially, economically and culturally; How to make the city virtually crime free for residents, businesses and visitors; How to bring people back into the city as residents by investing in high quality residential apartments; How to continue the maintenance and beautification of the city's parks and streets; How to cope with traffic problems; How to assist with the development of facilities to accommodate various arts and entertainment; and How to physically improve on some of the buildings and the areas that need attention.

We, in addition, with our limited space (Hamilton is approximately one square mile), have our own unique and daunting challenges as well as opportunities to make our city responsive to global changes. I believe there is the capacity to surmount any challenges if there is a shared vision, will and leadership.

The Corporation needs to gently remind the Government and people of Bermuda that Hamilton is the most significant economic, social and cultural centre in Bermuda. Hamilton is synonymous with Bermuda.

The Corporation must be willing to spend political capital to make Hamilton an exciting and vibrant city. They must be ahead of the curve and of their constituents, who are everyone who lives and works in Hamilton -- including their critics. The strategies needed to improve today's quality of life in the city, and to invest in the future may not be politically popular with some.

The City of Hamilton as the transportation, financial, commercial, governmental and emerging residential hub of our country has to be accommodating enough to carry Bermuda forward the next century.

The Corporation needs to execute aggressive strategies in the city to cope with the global changes that are affecting tourism, commerce and entertainment. The Corporation needs to develop a dynamic plan for the city by taking into consideration not only the physical aspects of the city but the economic, social and cultural concerns as well.

This plan should then be taken to Government for the primary purpose of persuading the Government that the Corporation is in need of financial and legislative help to implement this plan. The Corporation will have to convince the public and the Government through an aggressive media campaign that these dynamic changes in the city will benefit the whole of Bermuda and it will increase the Government as well as the Corporation's revenue.

In my view, the plan should, inter alia, include strategies for: Transportation Hamilton is the transportation hub of our country. But Hamilton has limited space and it must be managed judiciously. It is, therefore, imperative that we must be bold, yet imaginative, creative and revolutionary in accommodating both public and private transport so that we keep congestion to a minimum and prevent the heart of the city from being completely taken over by motorised traffic.

Transportation goes directly to the central Government's primary responsibilities for the economic and social well-being of all of its residents and visitors. Any transportation plan should be of concern to the central government, therefore, they should be persuaded to buy into it. To encourage the use of public transportation, the cost of parking in the city should be a financial disincentive and should be raised to approximately $15 to $20 per day for all day parking to realistically meet the cost of land and building and (around $1 per hour for roadside parking to discourage excessive street parking that gives the impression of congestion and devalues the amenities of the city.

The present bus terminal is inadequate. It is not undercover and its location exacerbates traffic congestion. We should, therefore, consider raising Victoria Park slightly above the level of Victoria Street and putting the bus terminal underneath the park. The entrance and exit could be on the northern and western ends of the new terminal almost as it was. it should be user friendly with a promenade down Washington Street to Victoria Park and a pedestrian crossing at Victoria Street.

Retail Business Retail businesses that are very marginal should consider entering into foreign partnerships. Moreover marginal and/or failing businesses that own the property that they are occupying should seriously consider becoming good landlords for overseas businesses catering to designer labels. As a consequence, the retail business would be taken up another notch with extremely attractive merchandise with competitive prices that could compete with the shopping experiences in most other tourist destinations. In addition, Bermudians would hold on to the real estate by becoming good landlords. A good example of this is Astwood Dickinson's relationship with Colombian Emerald and many other successful businesses that are represented here by Bermudians but follow the marketing and managerial style of their overseas affiliates.

City Hotels Two or three high quality city hotels would be tremendous economic assets for Hamilton. Not only will they raise the Corporation's revenue, they will be a shot in the arm for retail businesses, restaurants, social and cultural activities and they will improve the overall ambience of Hamilton. These hotels will only be a walk away from the shopping, restaurants, entertainment and casinos as they are in most cities.

Cruise Ships I have advanced the argument previously that if our market share of hotel visitors was significantly improved, then we should consider phasing out cruise ship passengers over time in the same proportion as our increase in the economic value of hotel visitors. It is generally known that the hotel visitor is a far greater economic asset than the cruise ship visitor. In any case, the reduction should be based purely on economic value with respect to the number of hotel guests as compared to cruise ship passengers.

Cruise ships have become the overwhelming choice for holidaymakers over hotels because of the almost guaranteed safety, courteous and attentive staff, entertainment with many options of shows, casinos and all-you-can-eat dining.

Moreover when the cruise ships dock in Bermuda, the passengers continue to enjoy all the amenities provided by the cruise ship including all meals and lodging and some passengers do not even venture onto dry land. Therefore, it is a lot less costly than airfare and hotel accommodations. I will let you arrive at your own conclusions.

Hamilton Docks While maintaining and increasing the City of Hamilton's revenue, we should, over time, gradually move the cargo ships from Hamilton, the car park from Number One Shed and relocate the cruise ships. The docks then can be turned into a waterfront promenade stretching from Number 8 Dock to Albouys Point.

This enhanced waterfront area would include an entertainment centre together with a casino. We should consider moving the cargo docks to an appropriate area. The new docks could be in the vicinity of Tynes Bay, Devonshire (I recently saw how this was done in Barbados) or at the docking facility at the former Baselands in St. David's. Trucks would therefore not have to pass through the heart of Hamilton. This would alleviate some of the congestion in Hamilton.

In the relocation of cruise ships a camber could be built out from Number One Shed to Whites Island. With the freeing up of this area, Hamilton Harbour can become a substantial yachting basin with the entrance to the south of White's Island, especially if Government encourages it by the reduction of the tax on boats and proportionally makes up the revenue by corresponding increases in the annual licensing and mooring fees. I anticipate that local residents who keep their boats overseas would bring their boats to Bermuda and more people would use Bermuda as an international boating haven. Because of the increase in the number of boats, there should not be any loss in revenue to either the Corporation or to the Government. Hamilton Harbour would become an all-year round established yachting and boating haven, creating another source of revenue.

North Hamilton From Dundonald Street to North Street The development of North Hamilton needs a large infusion of capital that, in my view, is not available locally. Serious consideration should be given to drawing up of a comprehensive plan for North Hamilton with special emphasis on housing and make it a "special developmental zone'' in which 60/40 will be removed so that foreign capital can be used to develop this area. This obviously cannot be done without the full participation of the central government.

Casino Municipalities around the world are finding it impossible to pay for the demands of the public for general maintenance and improvements of their infrastructure, recreational and cultural services as well as new projects, which are imperative if they are to respond to global changes out of their normal taxing policies. That is why the most progressive cities are turning to casinos to supplement general taxation.

Cities that operate casinos have proven that they are a tremendous benefit to the overall development of the city. A number of projects could not have been achieved without the revenue from casinos. Moreover, casinos have become a recreational and/or an entertainment feature in most tourist destinations. I, therefore, strongly believe that a state-of-the-art casino should be developed and owned by the Corporation of Hamilton and the Corporation should use the funds for the overall development of Hamilton.

The Municipality of Hamilton has formidable challenges that can only be realistically met if there is a source of funding. Based on what appears to be the Government's present and future commitments for capital, there does not appear that there is any likelihood that the central Government could financially assist the Corporation of Hamilton to achieve some of the aforementioned projects.

Obviously there is a shortage of capital for Government as well as the Corporation's projects and more taxation or more borrowing cannot make up the shortfall without putting the economy in severe jeopardy. I therefore, support casinos because cities around the world are finding it a good source of revenue and the community good that the funds are used for, in my view, outweighs any ill effects that casinos may cause.

Hamilton needs to reinvent itself and create its own uniqueness and attractiveness. I have heard some people argue that it should be the "Monte Carlo'' of this region of the world. We should aim to attract fewer people with greater spending, which will put less strain on our infrastructure, environment and social well-being.

Tourism We must clearly recognise the magnitude of the crisis we face. We must clearly identify the basic issues that we need to tackle to make our tourism successful again. There are some difficult choices that we need to make to reclaim our market share of the tourism industry.

Then we have to work together to make appropriate choices, based solely on the revival of our tourism and to develop the appropriate solutions, which might be different than those we have used in the past.

We must not waste a lot of energy and time apportioning blame because globalisation and the New World Economy are presenting each of us with new and challenging situations daily. Globalisation sends us a powerful and dramatic message that Bermuda must adjust to the global realities or we will suffer some hard times especially now with the initiatives of the Bush Administration.

It is obvious, if we do not give our customers, international business and tourists what they want, they will go elsewhere where it is available.

Therefore, we will become less and less attractive to them and be in for hard times.

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