Troy group exploring a downtown mural program
Proposal aims to add ‘vibrancy’ and boost traffic to businesses.
TROY — A downtown Troy support organization is proposing a murals program to emphasize the downtown’s “vibrancy” and increase foot traffic to benefit businesses.
A mural program is being developed by a design committee of the nonprofit Troy Main Street downtown advocacy organization.
The concept was shared March 24 with the Troy Planning Commission because the downtown area lies within the city historic district.
The commission supported the idea but would consider each mural proposed individually. Its members also suggested areas of the program the group should explore such as the impact of materials used in the murals on a building’s brick or other surface.
“We are really excited about murals and their ability to add to the vibrancy of our downtown, to highlight certain areas of our downtown that maybe don’t get highlighted as often. We think they are something that will increase our foot traffic, which is always something good for our businesses,” said Andrea Keller, Troy Main Street executive director.
Among ideas is painting murals in areas that are a little more hidden to encourage people to come downtown and explore. Social media would be among ways used to feature what is available. A selfie mural designed to
or even a team of people, to map broods in a traditional way.
“Case in point: last year, when Brood IX emerged, we discovered that four other cicada broods had emerged off-cycle,” Kritsky said. “And we might not have found that if we’d used the protocol we’d used in the past, where we would go down to where we knew the cicadas were and mapped them out.”
Kritsky said the app is something kids and parents can do together. Go to a park or a cemetery, or somewhere the app suggests that usually has periodical cicadas or older trees, and upload photos of the cicadas you find to the app, he suggests.
“I see this as an opportunity to get your kids interested in natural history and observation,” he said.
Don Cipollini, a biology professor at Wright State University, said he is planning several experiments around when the 17-year cicadas emerge.
Periodical cicadas lay their eggs in trees before they die. Once the eggs hatch, the nymphs will fall out of the branches and into the soil, where they feed on the roots of the tree.
While that generally doesn’t hurt older trees, younger trees and trees that bear fruit can be hurt by the egg-laying process.
Cipollini said he plans to study if birds, which eat cicadas, can be a visual deterrent for cicadas laying their eggs in small trees, by placing cardinal decoys in some trees in a plot of trees he already has for other research.
Cipollini also studies emerald ash borers, which are an invasive species killing ash trees in Ohio. Periodical cicadas are native to the area.
Cipollini said he wanted to see if the damage caused by periodical cicadas when they lay eggs in young ash trees affects the damage that emerald ash borers can do to young ash trees.
He said he also wants to see if he can study the fate of dead cicadas. Once the cicadas die, there are often billions of them decomposing on the ground. He wants to see to what extent that decomposition fertilizes young trees.
Cipollini said the interest kids can have in cicadas can help people get over their fear of bugs.
Cipollini said part of the reason he is now interested in cicadas is because he was about 7 years old the first time he saw periodical cicadas come out of the ground.
“It just hit right at the right time, right at this impressionable time for me, that I always remembered that I was fascinated by it,” he said.