🚀 go-pugleaf

> Wm. Randolph Franklin,  wrf@ecse.rpi.edu, says

> There was also going to be an interstate running up thru Troy at the
> base of the hill between 6th and 8th.   The story is that they tore down
> a lot of buildings and destroyed the neighborhood, then decided that the
> hill was too unstable to continue.  Your taxes at work.

I lived on Hill St in Troy back then (mid-60's). It was a scenario mired
in local politics. The plans were at one time to run I787 across the menands
bridge and up through Troy to Hoosick St (Rte 7) instead of straight up
through Watervliet and then across a new bridge. It would have saved the
cost of building the new bridge but it also would have dislocated
larger numbers of houses taking that route. And that hill is terribly
unstable.
 
The state began purchasing some properties along the hillside route on
Hill St and Haverman's Ave. The homes purchased generally belonged to
people connected with the local political machine and they received
premium prices for those plots. Some others, enemies of the political
machine, were forced to sell at lower than market value. Very few homes
were actually bought, perhaps one in ten or twelve. Most homeowners along
the route never even got a notification that the plans were immanent or
whether their home was in the way of the proposed road. All the homes
effected were in the same voting district, the area from Hill St to Ferry
St, none in South Troy and none North of what is now the Italian Community
Ctr.
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Jack Berkery, Computer Scientist, GE Research, Schenectady NY
  berkery@crd.ge.com  "The Common Sense Coach"