As a new resident to Sudbury from Woodstock, I have a few
suggestions to make the city a more pleasant place.
I'm impressed with the efforts that have been made to "green
up" the city and surrounding areas.
I worked with the Community in Blooms projects in Woodstock.
The community not only won the local competition but also
the  national title and came second in the international
competition. This had a lot to do with the city's crackdown on
derelict vehicles not being allowed on or near properties on
the  main streets.
"Good graffiti" under supervision of the store owners 
was allowed and "bad graffiti" had to be removed by property
owners. Some of the murals the kids did were amazing and it was
a tourist attraction as they depicted life in the city.
Another suggestion (for Sudbury) is better parking for
workers and shoppers downtown. (Woodstock almost lost all its
downtown businesses to the malls because of the parking.) As a
partially disabled person, I find the parking downtown terrible
and now only shop at the malls. This is sad as there seems to
be some really interesting stores I would like to explore if
not for the expensive parking.
My other concern is the fire hazard and smoke pollution when
neighbors have a fire at night that blankets the whole
neighborhood in smoke. This is very bad for the environment and
needs to be looked into.
If theses concerns are addressed, it would give Sudbury a
good chance to compete for the Communities in Bloom top places,
but it takes everyone to care. I'm doing my bit for my new city
and hope that everyone who reads this will take pride and do
their part as well.
Stephanie Adair
Sudbury