sidbuilds

A FRESH VISION FOR TROY’S 43 MILES OF ALLEYS

The Rubin Community Fellows Program Funds the Alley Action Project 2009

 
Building on the success of the Alley Improvement Project 2006, the Rubin Community Fellows
program administered by Russell Sage College, has provided funding for a second, year-long
project involving hands-on workshops to provide neighborhoods and their residents, the tools to
improve their alley environments in both physical and cultural ways.
 
Demonstration projects involving alley address signage, alley murals and garbage container corrals
are included in this project.  A website will be developed in order to tell the stories as they
unfold, and chronicle each step in achieving the stated goals.
 
Sid Fleisher, project coordinator and resident of the Osgood Neighborhood, stated “Our primary
goal is to work with residents and neighborhood groups to inspire a sense of pride and ownership
of their alleys and streets.  We’ll develop demonstration projects that will show what is possible
and more importantly, how to do it.  These same projects can be accomplished in all our
neighborhoods.”
 
The first hands-on workshop, involving middle and high school students will be held June 20,
2009.  Armondo Soto, an artist living in the Osgood neighborhood, and architect and muralist,
Barbara Nelson, will lead the workshop.  The goal is to design a large wall mural for the alley side
of the Troy Area United Ministry building located in South Troy.  Once designed and approved
by the building owner, the mural will be transformed into a major paint-by-number work.  The
student designers and volunteer neighborhood residents will actually paint the full-scale mural.
 
Along with the Osgood Neighborhood Association and Osgood/South End Neighborhood Watch,
The Institute of Cultural Affairs, City of Troy Weed and Seed, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,
The Sage Colleges and Hudson Valley Community College have agreed to participate in the Alley
Action Project.
 
 
If you’d like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Sid Fleisher or
one of the other project developers, please call Pleasant DeSpain at 518-271-1650 or email
Pleasant at alley.action@yahoo.com
 

The location of this work is the rear of 392 Second Street in South Troy.  Please drive with care through the alley.