How hard is it to really beautify our city, make it more vibrant and a place where Bermudians and Bermuda residents want to live?

Over the years, there has been lots of talk. City plans have been published with great fanfare, with the most recent City of Hamilton Plan being passed, tabled and debated a few months ago. I have written about this already.

Since the City of Hamilton Plan was debated and passed in Parliament, what has happened? On the face of it, not much. In fact, what should have happened was an immediate action by the Government to support initiatives identified in the said plan to beautify the City of Hamilton — in particular, creating a small park at the site of the old police station at the corner of Reid Street and Parliament Street.

I would take it a step farther and name it the Ottiwell Simmons Memorial Park. In the event that the arbitration centre ever breaks ground, then the new centre could still be named after Bermuda’s most influential union leader.

A well-designed park with a small path, cedar trees and benches could be used regularly by the public service workers, many of whom work within two blocks of the site. A wrought-iron fence around the park, much like at the Cabinet Building, could be constructed. I think this would be a fitting tribute. Yes, the Corporation of Hamilton would need to maintain the site, but given its sterling work at Victoria Park and Queen Elizabeth II Park, that should be no problem.

What we have seen instead on the site in question is a planning application on a retroactive basis for a fence around the unused site. This is unacceptable.

Have a look for yourself.

With that in mind, it may be well worth considering making it a planning requirement that empty lots must be converted to green space upon demolition if no approved plans with a building permit are issued within a certain period after demolition.

Take, for example, the empty lot on Burnaby Street. Imagine this being a small green space with trees and lunch benches? Or how about the huge empty lot at the corner of Reid Street and Court Street? Imagine that as a large green space with public artwork? Or a memorial garden on Court Street next to Jamaican Grill for the many victims of gun violence in our community? All new parks could be locked at night, much like any other public space.

Now, naysayers will say this idea would simply create more space for our homeless population to occupy during the day. Or that it would increase nefarious activity, from drug use to drug dealing. That is certainly a possibility, but this is where the many-times floated idea of City Rangers comes into play. Such uniformed rangers could enforce city ordinances, parking laws and antisocial behaviour under the Summary Offences Act and other lower-level offences. They could be given limited powers of detention, much like British Police community support officers. Perhaps consideration could instead be given to having the BPS appoint a number of special constables, like Royal Bermuda Regiment soldiers or other interested community-minded people? This is squarely within the power of the Government to make it happen.

The City of Hamilton has massive potential for building higher, especially for housing, and this has been recognised by Parliament. So let’s explore how to incentivise new builds in the City of Hamilton. Perhaps there can be a model like the Tourism Incentive Act and we can introduce a Hamilton Housing Incentive Act. This could include waiver of customs duty on all materials for housing projects over a certain height, waiver of CoH taxes and land taxes for a definitive period of time, and other incentives — such as total relief on all green energy initiatives for such builds, with a requirement that the building is largely self-sustainable.

We could also consider a requirement that such builds are mixed-housing development with units for singles, seniors and small families at different levels of income. For example, a penthouse unit could help subsidise one-bedroom units on lower floors. This is becoming more commonplace in many jurisdictions, so that you have a community rather than just lower or high-income housing.

Taking it further, there could be a requirement for several lease-to-buy units. There could be units reserved strictly for Bermudians who would rent to other Bermudians at a capped rate so that two parties obtain benefit — one being an investment and another getting a guaranteed, locked-in tenancy.

The fact is, there is so much scope to do things differently in the City of Hamilton and, for that matter, across the island. However, there is a real desire to save our few remaining green spaces, so doing whatever we can to create more than 2,000 new households as identified by the Chamber of Commerce and to alleviate the problem of 1,100-plus people that are homeless or facing homelessness per Home research, will require some different thinking while still bringing overall benefits to Hamilton and the community at large.

With full collaboration between the CoH and the Bermuda Government, such changes can happen — and quickly.

• Michael Fahy is the Shadow Minister of Municipalities, Housing and Home Affairs, and the MP for Pembroke South West (Constituency 20)