The 32nd edition of Communities in Bloom (CiB) was a successful one for the Festival City.
At a national symposium earlier this month in Montreal, Stratford reached the Five Blooms Gold level, the highest benchmark in the program.
Launched in 1995, Communities in Bloom is a competitive evaluation process where communities across Canada showcase what makes them special, while also getting feedback from judges on how they could improve certain areas.
CIB staff say communities receive a report following the judges visit, along with a bloom rating.
Five blooms are awarded either a bronze, silver or gold level.
“I would have to ask national how many other communities in Canada have reached this, I would say it would be a handful of communities. Very exciting that we achieved that status,” Stratford Communities in Bloom committee chair Brad Beatty told MyStratfordNow.
Beatty said the city would be judged under a new category called Healthier, Livable Cities.
“It’s a little bit more drilling down into more than our parks. When they look at parks, it’s how far does an individual need to travel to get to a park, does your community have parks that are spread out amongst your community or are they centralized, how many water cooling spaces does your community have?”
He said through that category, they ended up winning the Green Cities Award.
The award is given to those for improving the health and well-being of their cities through nature based solutions/green infrastructure.
“It’s not one person that pushes this initiative forward, it takes everybody at all levels that makes our city something that we should be proud of and at the same time I truly believe that we’re never too complacent to say we can’t do better.”
He said while the city should accept the recognition, it should also focus on what can be done to move the needle forward.
