In Troy, a pocket of hope
Neighborhood planned a garden park, and wouldn’t let pandemic stop them
Hugging the corner of Second and Jackson streets, Lots of Hope is built on the remnants of three row house lots that became a parking lot until the Osgood/ South Troy Neighborhood Association transformed it into the city’s newest pocket park.
The neighborhood group successfully campaigned for Rensselaer County to OK construction of the South Troy Industrial
Road that will get big trucks off residential streets. And construction of Lots of Hope was underway.
“Tenacity and vigor,” said Chuck Conroy about the drive the neighborhood has shown since the association was founded about 20 years ago and was picking up energy when the coronavirus pandemic abruptly shut down the city and the state in March.
That’s when leaders of the 15 to 30 active neighborhood residents who met once a month at the Troy Area United Ministries on Second Street rallied to ride out the pandemic with the aim of emerging stronger. With the Capital Region in its first phase of reopening, they see a
vital future ahead.
“I was feeling we really needed to stay in touch with the community. The meetings were a place and time when people could get together and exchange ideas or talk about things. And now everyone was at home and not around and getting together,” said Sid Fleisher, a four-decade neighborhood resident and one of the group’s untitled leaders.
Fleisher designs and builds furniture and owns properties in Osgood/south Troy south of the city’s downtown business district. He spent 25 years running the design shop for the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute School of Architecture, so he has an eye for building things physically and in a community.
The email meeting announcement and brief report morphed into a monthly pandemic newsletter.
“I asked people to talk about themselves a little bit more and what they were interested in. I asked people to do 100 to 150 words,” Fleisher said.
That has opened opportunities for insights and letting neighbors get to know each other even more. The newsletter went out to the 250 people on the mailing list.
Emily Cooper-kelley said she enjoys the ability to walk out her front door and connect with her neighbors and the children playing in the street. It’s not a faceless urban streetscape but a viable community where people are making connections. The Osgood/south Troy Neighborhood Association is a means of fostering that.
Cooper-kelley said they are also trying to get more diversity in membership, to better ref lect the neighborhood’s makeup.
“The momentum I’ve seen in the last four years has been incredible,” Cooper-kelley said about the time she and her husband, Gavin, have been in the neighborhood. “They’re caring and passionate about making the neighborhood more livable.”
The neighborhood association grew out of what Kathy Sheehan, historian for Troy and Rensselaer County, described as the “muddy ground” that reflected the changing nature of the city’s neighborhoods a generation ago. Osgood draws its moniker from the original name for the Troy Fire Department firehouse at Canal Avenue and Third Street. That’s on the northern edge of the community.
“It’s a good neutral name. It was always a diverse neighborhood,” Sheehan said.
Osgood/south Troy covers the city from Canal Avenue along the Poesten Kill south down to Mill Street with the Hudson River to the west and Fourth Street on the east. This was the home of the rallying cry of “South Troy Against the World” when the neighborhood’s historic manufacturing areas were declining after World War II.
“We still think it inside,” Fleisher said. Now it’s more about getting things done than holding to the past.
The edge that comes from standing up to battle may have helped Osgood/south Troy. Fleisher said the city has been listening the last couple of years. The city has poured $1 million in federal Community Development Block Grant funds for 2019-20 including $156,000 for the pocket park.
Long before Lots of Hope was envisioned the corner was paved over with asphalt for a parking lot for the long-closed Ancient Order of Hibernians hall up the street. The city spent $66,000 to clear the thick asphalt then another $90,000 to create the park with its five trees, three benches, two handicapped accessible tables and benches, a basketball court, a bike rack, an area for a small stage, a spot for a shed and water. The trees and grass have recently been added. The neighborhood association has agreed to maintain the park.
“People are using it,” said Diane Bell, who pulls weeds. Children have been sitting to
“The momentum I’ve seen in the last four years has been incredible. They’re caring and passionate about making the neighborhood more livable.”
— Emily Cooper-kelley
draw at the tables and adults have paused to chat.
“The neighborhood is growing,” said Armando Soto, another member of the group. He said the park is becoming a center of activity for the community.
“We’re not stagnant. This group does not stagnate. The park is coming along,” Bell said. The challenge is getting the neighbors who compliment them on the park, she said, to get involved. That’s what they’re figuring out.
The two newsletters showed there’s interest, Bell said. “The second time Sid got deluged with contributions.”
As the state, city and neighborhood exit the coronavirus lockdown, these Osgood/south Troy residents see challenges and potential successes ahead.
“We’re going in absolutely the right direction. We have a good group of people looking to get others involved,” Conroy said.
When the state shut down, Conroy was talking to someone about getting into the former notorious now-closed Nature’s Pub barroom at First and Jackson streets and fixing it up for a viable use. “Bad timing,” he said. That’s changing, Fleisher said. “It could be a nice little bistro,” Fleisher said about the bar. “We’ve been talking about the idea of interesting more businesses to locate in the neighborhood.”