THE growth of the insurance industry on the island is perhaps nowhere more visible than in the City of Hamilton, where parking spaces can be more difficult to come by than $100 bills, development seems never ending and dirt ever increasing. The man challenged with positioning the city for the future is Sutherland Madeiros. Elected as Mayor of Hamilton approximately six months ago, he recently sat down with Mid-Ocean News reporter Heather Wood to discuss the workings of the city.

Q: I’d guess one of the biggest issues the Corporation faces involves the limited parking in Hamilton. How do you intend to deal with that problem?

A:>Car parking is at a premium, particularly car parking spaces in Hamilton.

But I think if you went over to Bulls Head right now you’d see plenty of car parking spaces over there and it’s probably only a five minute walk. Bermudians are spoiled.

Having said that, with the increase in traffic we do have plans to increase our parking in Hamilton. I believe that Cavendish car park probably will be the first one that we will do in conjunction with a building that’s being put in that corner (by a) company known as RTBLF. And so it makes a lot of sense for us to build a multi-storey car park at the same time they’re doing the building. And that would take care of the eastern part of Hamilton.

Q: Weren’t there plans for a car park at the hotel proposed for Par-la-Ville Par

A: We are waiting anxiously with respect to the development of the Par-la-Ville hotel. Because if that goes ahead — there’s a chance that it might not and a very good chance that it will — then we will know where we’re going to be standing as far as car parking spaces in Hamilton. At the completion of the hotel we will have at least two levels of car parking there — more than we have now. And whilst the building is going on, we believe that the overflow can be accommodated at Bulls Head. We also had a study done (looking at putting) two or three levels of underground parking at City Hall car park.

Having said that, we also have the challenge of having larger cars in Bermuda and our car parking bays weren’t designed for them they were designed for cars that were regulation size not too long ago. If you have three Honda CRVs parked next to each other, the person in the middle can’t get in or out on either side. (In order to accommodate that change in size) we’re going to lose car parking spaces.

We’re resisting trying to make them bigger right now because that will only compound the problems that we currently have but we do have plans with all of our car parks to provide more car parking and I suspect at that time that the rates for parking in the city will in fact go up although we’ll try to keep the ones on the perimeter at a lower level to try to encourage people to use Bulls Head car park and perhaps, Cavendish.

Q: So is the aim then to stop people from parking on the street?

A: Ideally it would be nice to not have them on the streets but we’ve got to provide something for them so we will. If the Par-la-Ville hotel is built we’ll have extra parking there which will be underground — which Bermudians like — and we’ll probably have car parking underground at City Hall at some point.

That would obviously be in the centre of Hamilton — which people will like. So in the summertime when you get into your car it won’t be as boiling hot because it will have been out of the sun. It’s my intention, although not everyone agrees with me, I think we should have a regular green park on the top of the City Hall car park. We could have one as beautiful as Par-la-Ville.

So we are tackling the issue. We’ve had two studies done. I guess a lot of it in this part of Hamilton hinges on the Par-la-Ville hotel but (with the Cavendish car park) we’re aggressively looking at how much space we can provide there.

Q: You mentioned plans would be made based on the hotel proposed for the Par-la-Vill car park. Hotel negotiations in Bermuda can stretch on for years with no result. How long are you prepared to wait?

A: The deliberations on the hotel, if it goes or does not go, it will (be decided) in a matter of months. And then we can start planning more. It’s like a domino effect. You don’t want to start doing anything at City Hall car park if you end up losing Par-la-Ville at the same time. We’d be very unpopular if we did that. So if the contract is signed for the hotel then we can move a lot more aggressively.

Q: What’s happening with the plans for the new waterfront?

A: We have dusted the plans off. When Mayor Bluck was elected mayor in April of last year, I believe it was, he had a lot of challenges and thought that was not one of the most important things that we had to be dealing with at the present time. But we do have to deal with a transportation hub to accommodate the ferries from Dockyard to Hamilton.

Q: Is the Corporation working toward the development of a new City of Hamilton Plan?

A: It is being looked at. These things actually take a long time to get through. An updated plan will have to be put before the public and then it has to go to the (Environment) Minister, the Planning Department, it’s a long process. Unfortunately the 2001 Plan was almost outdated — in terms of higher buildings — when it was produced. Hamilton moves so quickly in terms of demand for bigger buildings. SDOs (Special Development Orders) have been given and whilst there has been some criticism of (Environment Minister Neletha Butterfield) for giving SDOs, I commend her for the foresight that she had in seeing that there was a requirement for taller buildings in Hamilton and has agreed to (allow them). Without her giving those SDOs I think we’d be stuck in a time warp.

Q: You don’t think there’s the risk of turning Hamilton into a metropolis like Malta or Hong Kong?

A: You can’t stop progress. There is a demand for more space now. And in the foreseeable future there’s going to be a demand for more office space. We either spread out or we go up or we don’t do anything at all. Those are the three choices and I think the lesser of the evils is to go up. I think if it’s managed properly it won’t be an eyesore. People are going to have to get used to the idea that at some point in time there are going to be tall buildings. Because we had a lot more available space years ago than we have now, we tended not to build up. But if you look at most of the buildings in Hamilton they can’t go much higher more than a few stories anyway because they (weren’t built with) steel structures, they were pretty much just made with Bermuda stone.

Q: Wouldn’t you agree there’s the possibility that we change our skyline to accommodate the reinsurance industry and it then turns its back on us and we’re left with nothing but a bunch of empty towers?

A: You can’t be afraid to cross the street because you might get hit by a car. In the foreseeable future, there’s still a big demand for office space and the insurance gurus tell me that there’s continued demand for offices in Hamilton in the reinsurance intry.

Q: Any goals you’d personally like to see met on your watch?

A: I’d like to see the man on the street take pride in keeping the city clean.

We have spent tens of thousands of dollars — early mornings, weekends now — steam cleaning the sidewalks trying to keep it clean and I walk out and watch people throwing cigarettes all over the place. That’s a very personal thing for me. We have ordinances which require people not to put their garbage out until 4.30 in the afternoon.

At 8 o’clock in the morning they’re putting their garbage out — that’s going to be there all day. I’ve realised we can’t do it ourselves. I thought it would be a lot easier to get the city cleaned up, but we cannot do it without the co-operation of everyone else.

Q: Won’t it be really difficult to get smokers to change their throwaway habits?

A: It’s not impossible. We’re going to do our part. We have on order now some cigarette butt dispensers. If you walk down Washington Lane you’ll see a blue one there. We’re going to put them throughout the city and we’re going to try and get some businesses to buy into the programme and pay for some of these cigarette dispensers outside of their buildings.

We will do a public relations campaign and let people know that it is unacceptable to throw cigarette butts down and we will do what we can to provide receptacles. The ultimate would be starting to prosecute people. At the end of the day, if that’s what we have to do to make the city clean than that’s what we have to do.

Q: What other improvements are in works?

A: We’re going to put in a newer sewage line from Dundonald Street all the way down to Front Street. It’s going to go along Dundonald and then down Court Street. That’s a big project we have. We have our sewer outfall. It’s fine right now but in the event that we have a severe hurricane, it could be ruptured and create sewage on the South Shore that we’d need to deal with.

Our garage and yard is antiquated and the buildings need to be upgraded in terms of offices and garage space so we’re going to be building a new building in our yard. When I was running for mayor I said I’d treat North Hamilton equally as I would Front Street and we’re going to be doing some paving there. We’re putting up new lights shortly.

And in addition to that Jubilee Park, which is on North Street — a lot of people don’t know where it is but we have a park which is not very wide, it may be 50 feet wide, but it’s very long. It runs from Angle Street all the way down to North Street — and is a vacant piece of land that belongs to the Corporation, we’re going to turn that into a green park this year. There’s an activities park across the way and this will have trees and plants and flowers and eventually some benches there for people to enjoy.

Q: Any plans for City Hall?

A: We’ve run out of space at City Hall and we need to do something about it. It’s my belief that we should build onto the back of City Hall and provide some additional space for the Bermuda National Gallery and some additional office space for the Corporation of Hamilton. There are some people who believe that we should just ask the gallery to move out and take over that space. As long as I’m Mayor that won’t happen. At least I have the power of veto.

I think the writing on the wall in front of City Hall says City Hall and Arts Centre — and that’s important. I think it’s important to have a national gallery. I think it’s important that we have the Bermuda Society of Arts and I think we can build on that rather than try to ree that.

Q: How likely is it that we will see cars banned from Reid Street?

A: We have plans for that but I don’t believe we can close Reid Street as long as Par-la-Ville hotel is being built because that will create extra parking problems to those we already have.

Q: I’d imagine the demands of mayor have grown alongside the city in recent years. Are the demands as you expected?

A: I’ve certainly gotten involved. There’s a lot going on. There’s a lot of things we need to do. We just advertised for a senior HR (Human Resources) person. There’s a lot of things we need to do in terms of staffing and creating a more organised atmosphere.

Before I was elected I said I would like to see all of the members of the Corporation and staff drug tested. This is one of the things we’d be able to do with a senior HR person because we just don’t have the staff to administer that sort of thing on a (regular) basis. I said I’d be the first one to take the test. At least to set an example — I wish our politicians would do the same thing.

Q: Policing in the city was once a problem. Has the situation improved?

A: We’re seeing a little more police presence than we have in the past but I still don’t think it’s what the public wants or what the Corporation wants. I know the Police Commissioner has his challenges so we’re trying to work with him but we still want more policing.

There are incidents that happen that are not even reported in the (media). The other day there was a raucous punch-up in Par-la-Ville Park. I don’t think the police even got there but I know someone who saw it. So we need to have more police around the city. It’s important that people feel safe.