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For those of you who like to spend your idle time lampooning the City of Troy for its crime rate: wait just a second!

According to the City’s Facebook, crime in Troy was down 2.5% in 2009.  Violent crime was down 11%, including a 19% drop in aggravated assault and 10.5% drop in rapes.

Mayor Tutunjian was quoted in the press release: “I think our response is pro-active and look forward to continued success in our efforts to make Troy as safe as possible.”  Troy has outlined a plan of action which includes partnering with other local law enforcement agencies, prioritizing arrests for illegal firearms, analyzing crime statistics, and establishing a tip line.

I applaud these efforts, and I hope that it will renew some confidence in RPI students that Troy is a safe city.  Any large city has crime, and the City of Troy is doing great work to reduce its crime rate.  This report should garner renewed interest in going downtown to visit stores and eat good food.

The way I see it:  the best way to reduce crime is to get economic development in Troy.  The fastest way to develop the city: make it into a college town whose students visit local businesses regularly.  There’s a 6,000 student population sitting on top of the hill that could benefit city businesses enormously.  The next question: how do we do that?

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RPI recently submitted the plans for Dr. Jackson’s new house to the city in order to try and gain a zoning exception that would allow the planned 9,000 square foot structure to be built. The current zoning in the area limits structures to 25 ft tall, while the plans have the new presidential home somewhere between 41 and 44 feet tall.

The Zoning Board of Appeals denied the request. “I wonder how RPI, which is known for its engineers, why someone couldn’t present a proposal that fits inside the city limits” ZBA Chairman Jay Vandenburgh said (with what we can only imagine as a bit of snark.) This isn’t the death knell for the house, but there is no word on whether RPI will change the plans, or try some politicking in order to get the zoning variance.

More at the Times Union here.

An earlier TU story drew attention to the discrepancy between the desired height and zoned height cap. Guess who was quoted? This blog.

And as always, if you’d like to join the Facebook group (or become a fan in this case) to show your support for the latest criticism-du-jour of RPI, that can be found here.

photo from here

Share Uncategorized Dr. Jackson, Times Union, Troy

According to a story from the Times Union, Troy Fire Department Chief Thomas Garrett recommends that the VCC be closed because it is in violation of the building code.  It has a road which is 10 feet wide (with 5-foot pavers on either side, making it 20 feet wide though grass can grow over the pavers).  Garrett says that RPI has “deliberately violated the New York state building code,” according to the TU.

Claude Rounds, the VP for Administration, says that the work was done to be more friendly to the environment.

Okay, now here’s the crazy part:

Garrett ordered firefighters not to enter the building in the event of a blaze, but would fight a fire from outside. Garrett also wrote to the state Office of Fire Prevention and Control to shut the facility. [Times Union]

That’s a problem.  This seems like it’s doing more harm to students than help, and that’s not what firefighters should be doing.  We’re no experts on fire safety, so perhaps we are misinterpreting this.  However, there better be a very good reason to order that firefighters aren’t allowed to help the students, faculty, and staff who use the VCC on a regular basis.

The tone taken by the Fire Department reveals what seems to be a general animosity toward RPI.  Garrett said, ” What college campus would jeopardize the safety of their students?  It’s totally unbelievable,” and “RPI wants to do whatever they want.  We all have rules we’ve got to follow”  [Troy Record].  The two organizations have a history — last year the Fire Department wanted to impose a fee on students.  This type of language cannot solve problems.  This attitude toward negativity will not help anyone and will certainly not make students’ lives safer.

Share Uncategorized Claude Rounds, Fire Department, Safety, Troy

The weekend looks something like this.

After a brief hiatus, we have returned with what’s going on this weekend!

Friday November 6

It’s been kinda cold lately, so why not head down to Rev Hall and check out The Fiery Furnances tonight at 7:30. Tickets are $15. Opening acts are Cryptacize and Dent May.

EMPAC and associated cool stuff pt. 1: Is a talk and workshop by Mark Downie of the Openended Group. From what we hear the talk is going to be pretty cool and the software open-source programming environment called FIELD and weekend long workshop on it is supposed to be pretty life changing (if you’re into creating digital art).

FREE HOCKEY!!!! for students who wear black to the Men’s Hockey game tonight. We’re playing Yale (the defending champions) so be sure to bring extra spirit.

Cars and Ski Equipment are on display at the Empire State Plaza. Auto Show and Ski and Snowboard Expo respectively. Both are until 9pm tonight, and then continue for the rest of the weekend.

Do it for the children! Tonight the Rensselaer Christian Association is sponsoring a concert in the McNeil Room with proceeds going towards Love146, an organization that fights child sex slavery around the world. Performing are The Peace from New York City, as well as the Rusty Pipes, Sheer Idiocy, the Campus Serenaders among others. Recommended donation is $2, and there are raffle tickets for some pretty awesome prizes too.

Read more…

Share Uncategorized music, to do, Troy

The new and very pretty Pfeil Hardware.

If you’re like me, you were upset to see Trojan Hardware go out of business… recently there has been nowhere to go downtown if you needed a broom or a hammer or some paint for you dorm (oops! don’t tell ResLife!).

Our prayers have been answered in Pfeil Hardware.  It’s open now, it looks like this will be a really great store.   You can find it at 3rd and State.  We found out about this through a post on All Over Albany which linked to the Times Union, which has some great pictures!

We’re very excited to see that there are new businesses coming to downtown Troy.  Once they get the food co-op going, it will be possible to live downtown without ever leaving to go grocery shopping or buy that screwdriver you always wanted.

photo: alloveralbany.com

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Plenty to do this weekend! Take advantage of free events and roaming Alumni.  If you see anybody that looks lost, you should probably help them.

Don’t forget your school spirit!

Friday October 2

Get a job! at the career fair.  It begins at 10 AM in the Armory.  More information is available at careerfair.rpi.edu.

If you’re into esoteric physics lectures, check out “Toward the ultimate laws of nature: dark matter, supersymmetry, the LHC, and string theory,” a lecture by Gordon Kane of the University of Michigan at 3:30 PM in Sage 3303.

This isn’t on campus, but Starbucks’ Via Taste Challenge begins at 5 PM, and they’re offering free coffee.

Join Hillel celebrate Sukkot with Shabbat dinner at 6:30 in the Shelnutt Gallery.  Free.

Women’s hockey opens their season at 7 PM in the Houston Field House as they battle the Wayne State Warriors.  Free.

UPAC is showing The Taking of Pelham 123 at 7, 9:30, and midnight.  $2.50. DCC 308.

Get your Fifteen Minutes of Fame at the Ground Zero Open Mic Night at 8 PM in the basement of Nugent Hall.  Free.

Dirty Paris, Timbre Coup, and Deja play at Revolution Hall downtown starting at 8 PM.  $10.

Read more…

Share Uncategorized career fair, ECAV, EMPAC, ground zero, hockey, homecoming, physics, Rev Hall, to do, Troy

Troy is beautiful, especially when it's sunny!

It’s not always so sunny in Troy… but we were curious about how the Capital District compares to other places in the United States.  We were hoping that we would find some comforting data that we could be worse off, but as it turns out, according to city-data.com, Albany ranks 88th on the list of least amount of sunshine for all cities in the Nation over 50,000.  But, it turns out that we have sunshine for 52.7% of the time!  Unfortunately, the months with the lowest sunshine are those when it is most cold.  Check out the graph below!

Read more…

Share Uncategorized Albany, Troy, weather

According to a blogger for the Times Union (I found out through AOA), Tosca and Illium Cafe have both closed due to tax reasons.   They won’t be open “for the foreseeable future.”  RPI, we’ll have to settle for Spillin’ the Beans, the Daily Grind, Flavour Cafe, River Street Cafe, Marmora Cafe, Cafe Deli-licious, Mocha Blend Espresso Bar, Cafe Mezza Luna, Francesca’s, Jazzman’s, and Java++ (I apologize if I forgot any or if any of those have closed, too).

Share Uncategorized Illium, taxes, Times Union, Tosca, Troy

Friday, 9/18

I’ve heard it made people cry… “Up” is playing at UPAC Cinema tonight at the usual times: 7, 9:30, and midnight.  Tickets are $2.50

If you want to laugh, Sheer Idiocy is performing at 8 PM in Mother’s in the Union.  They’re the improv comedy group, and it’s usually a pretty good time.  FREE.

Get your 15 minutes of fame at Ground Zero.  They’re having their “BiWeakly Open Mike,” which I assume is a biweekly open mic.  Free.  In the basement of Nugent Hall (use the entrance closer to Bouton Road).

Read more…

Share Uncategorized Albany, music, to do, Troy

The thinker-in-chief is due to visit Troy next monday!

Well this is big news. It seems that on Monday, the capital district will be getting a special visit from a certain “commander-in-chief”. The big O (that’s Obama, not Oprah) will be in Troy at HVCC around 11am to give a speech on the “emerging economic and high tech jobs in the region’s economy“. HVCC’s opening of a solar energy training center at the Luther Forest Technology Campus will certainly be mentioned. Secret Service agents have been spotted at Albany International scoping out the site for the presidential visit. It would have been awesome if Dr. Jackson could have pulled some strings and gotten him here for a bit. She is on PCAST after all. No word on whether or not the appearance will be open to the public. We’ll be sure to keep you posted!

More here, and Times Union here and here.

Share Uncategorized economy, hvcc, Obama, politics, Troy