TROY, N.Y. -- You don't have to be Christopher Columbus to locate Little Italy in Troy. The banners lining the streets, along with flower pots, garbage cans and even neighborhood watch groups are examples of improvements made with federal block grant money secured by the city.
Troy Little Italy chairperson Marion Field said, "People are becoming more aware of the neighborhood. They're taking better care of their properties. We've had some inquires from new businesses that would like to open up in the area."
All sparked, she said, by the $50,000 Little Italy has gotten from HUD during the last two years. Troy has more than $2 million to allocate among almost 50 organizations and initiatives to help low and moderate income people, but with the deadline approaching, the city council hadn't passed the allocations, which caused quite an uproar, sparking Mayor Tutunjian to call the members lazy.
The political power struggle continues in Troy where Mayor Harry Tutunjian continues to spar with the city council over a number of projects. Ken Jubie has the story.
“They've had this for almost two months and have taken no action at all. I've had to make the unprecedented move for the first time in my four and a half years as mayor to bring them to the table to act on this legislation,” Mayor Tutunjian said.
And while the council passed it Tuesday night, allocating for everything from street paving and code enforcement to aid for the homeless and even $10,000 for Little Italy, some council members say the mayor is out of line.
“I'm disappointed by that. This is the first time in my memory that a mayor chose to politicize something like the block grant money,” said City Council President Pro-Tem Bill Dunne.
“We were calling a meeting regardless, and this was going to be done on time from the get go. And we checked with HUD. We were not delinquent in any filing processes, we were not in danger of losing any funding,” said City Council President Clem Campana.
Both sides say despite the timing differences, seeing a deal done and money secured to help people in need, at least in terms of the end result, is music to their ears. And for people like Marion Field, that's amoré.