RPI allowing demolition by neglect inconsiderate
The perfume of a spring rain greeted me one recent morning, but a few blocks later I smelled something that stinks: crushed bricks and cement dust bloomed, even though most of the pile was covered in white plastic.
This is the funky dank of demolished buildings, in particular, four houses in Troy that RPI has owned for years. These useful buildings were ignored until they were deemed dangerous and marked this month with the condemning red X. The only resident of the grassy block — already liberated from pesky houses — is a large sign that says “Rensselaer,” marking the entrance to the university part of the city.
This tangle is not unique. The academic-industrial complex has lost moral ties and fiscal obligations to the places around them. Universities and colleges absorb and digest structures, building moats, and shirking responsibility for off-campus housing;. Nearby, over-pricing and under-policing crowds out people who want to rent or own.
I had good feelings about RPI when I moved to the Hillside neighborhood more than 20 years ago. I’d grown up attending the Catholic church on campus and wasn’t aware of a town/ gown divide. My illusions were quickly shattered. I heard stories of the institution telling freshmen to avoid downtown and advising new faculty to avoid Troy and live where public schools were good. Early in President Shirley Jackson’s time, RPI launched a public relations campaign to build “Communiversity,” but folks on the Hillside soon had to start our own “Be A Good Neighbor, RPI” campaign to try to save homes from demolition by neglect.
The houses in my neighborhood are not grand, just functional two- and three-family units. Now, four more of them are gone. Watching our pedestrian architecture vanish always stings but especially as downtown gets excited about another round of filming for “The Gilded Age.”
Up here on the less-thanglitzy hill, we worry what our mighty neighbor has in store for the other real estate it owns: two vacant houses on Peoples Avenue and the former Holy Cross Church. Likely, RPI owns more on the south side of campus, too. Whatever vision RPI has doesn’t need to include us, but I wish it did.
Amy Halloran
Troy