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Troy - Differen Shades of Gray
RPI , the nations oldest technical institution is located in Troy, a worn down industrial city of upstate New York. It is like the lone star of the city, though Troy is really not a college town. Historically an industrial town and once the seat of the American textile industry, it is now nothing more than a worn down industrial town.
Like most cities of its kind, Troy has its share of safety issues stemming from the low average income of the residents and also because of the design of the city, which allows for many sketchy areas. The local residents are fondly termed as 'Troylets' by the Rensselaer community and are not the nicest bunch of people to have as neighbors. The city is in general so unsafe that students are discouraged to walk around alone off campus, after nightfall. There are some cases of burglary and mugging even in the areas surrounding the campus. The general size of the city is pretty small and there is not much to do except ice skating and playing collegiate sports. The locals are also not very fond of RPI or its students mainly because they hardly contribute towards the economy of the city. There is a regular farmers market in the downtown area, every week and a monthly event called 'Troy night out', where stores are open till late.
However, Troy has its up sides as well . The closeness to Albany (the State Capital of New York) , means that there is at least one decently big city that one can go to if he or she gets really bored of the small town atmosphere. It also has a few really nice restaurants including a Barbecue place called Dinosaur Bar-b-q (whose portions are as large as the name suggests). The city also lacks nice places for shopping or groceries but there are Walmart's and Price Chopper's in the adjacent cities which are a 5 minute drive away from campus. There are some small stores inside the RPI campus as well.
Although the downtown area of Troy is called the 'historic downtown', there really isn't much to see either in downtown or the city in general. Most of the tourist attractions of the city are located inside RPI. One of them is a truly spectacular arc shaped building called the EMPAC (Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center), which houses the most acoustically perfect auditorium in the state. The city also is the birthplace of the iconic uncle Sam and has the nations oldest private women's high school. Surrounding Albany however offers a lot more things to see including some museums. Being a city in upstate New York also means that the suburban areas around the city are exquisitely beautiful. Not only are there some wonderful lakes for (for activities like fishing) in nearby Saratoga but the Adirondak Mountains are quite close by and have plenty of peaks which can be hiked. As an added bonus to students, the Institute is located on top of a hill and so the view of the city from the Library is spectacular at nights.
In the end, Troy is a city which some people like while most don't. A lot of people find the serene and peaceful nature of the city, very helpful for their education but its definitely not a city where a tourist should go to. The people who live here , live out of necessity or because they wanted to get a good engineering education from a very reputed institute. However, if one can make this city their home, they would probably get used to it and may even find it nice at some point.