Welcome to Miss Troy’s Musings on All Things Troy!

Before I ever moved to Troy, New York, this city called to me.

It was 1997 and I was living in Saratoga Springs and working in Albany. I’d grown tired of the long commute up and down the Northway, especially on snowy days, when it could take me two miserable hours (rise and clean the snow off my car at 7 a.m., slip and slide down the Northway for an hour and a half of stop-and-go traffic, grab a coffee to shake off the sleep!) to get to work.

I started looking at apartment ads in the local papers. One of my friends, who used to report on the Troy beat for the Troy Record, told me Troy was my city.

In the beginning, I had no idea that I would become captivated by Troy's history, architecture, community spirit, and the possibilities I saw for its future. It simply seemed like a fun place to land for a while.

“A Neat Place To Live”
“A lot of young people live there,” my reporter friend said. “Troy's a very creative city. You can find a great apartment that’s cheap, and it’ll be easy to make friends.”

I had driven through Troy once with other friends and thought to myself, “This looks like a neat place to live.” I remember admiring the grand brownstones surrounding Washington Park, the brick rowhouses near the canal, the old-world charm of this humble little city.

Fast-forward 13 years. I’m still here, and still living less than two blocks from Washington Park, as I have since I first found an apartment on Liberty Street years ago. Now I own my own home, which was a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Who Is Miss Troy?
In the years since I first moved to Troy, I’ve been fortunate enough to work on lots of community projects here, from the launch of Troy’s Little Italy District, to the opening of Arts Center of the Capital Region in the downtown, to the recent Troygle campaign to bring Google ultra-high-speed broadband to Troy.

Somewhere along the way, I earned the nickname “Miss Troy” due to my passion and enthusiasm for our little riverfront city.

I wear my title proudly, and do what I can to promote all things Troy. The latest effort I’m proud to be involved with is Troygle!

What is Troygle?
If you are not yet familiar with Troygle, check out our fun little five-minute video promoting Troy in the hopes of enticing Google to bring their ultra-high-speed broadband services here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhlNs8VoRf0

Troygle is of course a play on “Troy” and “Google,” and it is a collective community effort to turn Troy into a true technology mecca. We believe that Troy would be an ideal test site for Google to test their ultra-high-speed broadband services.

Working on the Troygle efforts has been so inspiring because it is a true collaboration between government, businesses, colleges, citizens and nonprofits. Troygle helped us create a vision for a “Unified Troy,” working together on a common cause that everyone can unite behind.

Troy is Now 5th in the Country!
Troy has recently climbed into 5th place in the country in the “Unofficial Google Fiber” poll, and with your help we can still make it into the top 3!

This poll is designed to give cities a chance to vote to be Google’s top choice. While it’s not officially affiliated with Google, it is still a chance to show our Troy spirit! (And we figure that someone behind the scenes at Google is also likely checking it out!).

HOW CAN YOU HELP?
You can help by clicking here and voting once a day between now and June 7th when the poll closes:
http://www.googlefiber.com/fiber-optics/

It literally takes less than one minute to vote! Simply scroll down to “Troy, NY,” click on Troy, then click “VOTE”!

Please keep voting once daily and please help us spread the word by posting the voting link as your Facebook status update, emailing it or tweeting it to friends, neighbors and colleagues.

By the way, your friends don’t have to be FROM Troy to vote – get everyone you know on board to help us keep climbing in the polls!

For more information about Troygle, you can visit our Website:
http://www.troygle.org/

I’ll be keeping you posted on more Troygle updates in the coming days, and sharing more stories from the life of “Miss Troy.”

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to reading your comments on all things Troy!

- Lisa Powell Graham a.k.a. “Miss Troy”