discuss the new City of Hamilton Plan, which is due to be made public next month.

Mr. Mapp's ambition as Mayor is to spark the revitalisation of North Hamilton, more traditionally know as Back of Town.

The continued transition of Pembroke Marsh from a dump into a park should aid that development, making the whole area more attractive to businesses and residents.

Much of the best traditional Bermuda architecture is centred there and needs to be preserved, as does the residential aspect.

At the same time, it is important that the area be made more habitable, with parks, greenery and amenities such as decent garbage collection, roads and street cleaning put in place.

The same could be said for the City of Hamilton as a whole.

This Plan cannot be a simple series of zonings.

It needs to take into account traffic, communications, infrastructure and the future needs of the whole Island.

These are some of the areas planners and the community need to look into: Traffic and parking: There is too much of the former and not enough of the latter. The City needs to consider building another multi-storey car park, possibly on Reid Street Extension. The Transport Ministry could also set limitations on which cars -- many of them with only one person on board -- can enter the city in rush hour. And businesses should be encouraged to introduce flexi-time and car pooling.

The Corporation should also bite the bullet and cut Reid Street between Burnaby Hill and Queen Street off to traffic. This would make the city more habitable and would be a boon to retailers.

Front Street and the Docks: Anyone who enjoyed the outdoor theatre on the waterside of Front Street when the Tall Ships were here (or during the Christmas Boat Parade) will accept the logic of making the waterfront an area for pedestrians, al fresco diners and stallholders at least during the summer.

Whether this can reasonably be done with the cruise ships alongside remains to be seen. Equally, there has always been debate about using the eastern end of the docks for container shipping. Some (although not the Corporation which needs the revenue) would like to see the docks moved altogether, thus freeing up the space for other development and removing container trucks from town. On the other hand, Hamilton's existence is due to its excellent harbour, and moving the docks would be akin to tearing its heart out. This is an area which needs more debate and discussion.

Expanding the City: The ACE Ltd. and XL Capital developments lie outside the city limits, as does the Waterfront development. But all three will use the Corporation's resources and should be ratepayers.

Living in town: Once upon a time, much of Hamilton was residential, before cars and prosperity enabled people to move further afield, with the result that Bermuda is now one vast suburb with a city which closes at 5 p.m. Why not offer tax cuts and rate cuts to developers who include a residential component in new buildings (along with basement parking) to bring people -- especially young professionals -- back to the city? Living in green: Office buildings and parking lots are usually unattractive and depressing when they are not broken up with breathing spaces like parks and trees. Why not turn Hamilton into a green city, by giving some existing parking lots an extra level and turning other parking lots into parks?