Shops in downtown Troy will stay open late this weekend for a special Black Friday Troy Night Out, designed to encourage holiday shoppers to patronize locally-owned businesses instead of lining up outside major retailers this year. As part of the monthly event, shops will stay open Friday, Nov. 26 until 9 p.m., with many offering sales and specials for the shoppers.

In particular, 'TightKnit', the independent craft and artisan show held weekly near the Troy Waterfront Farmer's Market, will return to to TNO this week at the Frear Building at 3 Third Street.

For more information, check out the full release below. For a complete listing of all TNO activities and a map, visit www.troynightout.org.


Troy Night Out – Black Friday comes Downtown
Troy, New York, November 24, 2010 – Big box stores open early in the morning the day after Thanksgiving. Troy Night Out is encouraging you to sleep in! As part of the monthly event in Downtown Troy, shops will all stay open late this Friday, November 26th – ‘till 9:00pm – and there will be plenty to see and do, along with sales and specials for the shoppers.

“Downtown Troy is home to many small, local, independent retailers” said Elizabeth Young, Interim Director of the Downtown Troy BID, and founder of Troy Night Out. “Shopping local keeps more needed dollars here in our local economy. We are challenging folks to ‘Shop 12180’ – doing as much of their holiday shopping as possible within our local zip code.”

During Troy Night Out, from 5:00pm to 9:00pm the streets of historic Downtown Troy are alive with art openings, exhibits and receptions, live musical and theatrical performances, retail shop open houses and wonderful restaurants and cafes offering special events and discounts.

Of special note this month is the return of ‘TightKnit’, an independent craft and artisan show, featuring a wide variety of vendors selling gifts, jewelry, art, and much more, all made by hand. The event takes place at the Frear Building, 3 Third Street, Troy.

A full list of the over 50 events taking place this Friday can be found on our website www.troynightout.org. For additional information, contact Elizabeth Young at 518-727-9786.

Troy resident Richard Herrick sent out an e-mail today calling on the city and the community to come up with a new name for the Downtown Troy Business Improvement District and the Troy Downtown Collaborative.

From the looks of the e-mail, Herrick sent it without consulting BID director Elizabeth Young, saying that he hopes she will "take the e-mail and run with it."

In the e-mail, Herrick writes that the terms "BID" and "Collaborative" are boring, and that a new name should be created that would represent the vibrancy of downtown and to match the city's new logo (above).

There have been no public e-mail responses to Herrick's call to action -- from Young, the city or any other Troy resident -- with suggestions for a new name or even opinions on whether the name needs to be changed at all.

What do you think? Does the Downtown BID need a new name? If so, what should it be?

Below is the e-mail sent by Herrick in its entirety.

Perhaps I'm jumping the gun and trying to be positive about Troy and I hope that Elizabeth Young takes this e-mail and runs with it.

Now that the Troy BID has being established lets build on this success and have a contest to create a new name and BID identity that reflects the focus of the new BID’s mission. The BID’s new role in recruiting, retaining and developing businesses downtown is to say the least exciting but don’t ya think that BID and Collaborative are kinda boring names?

The Troy Downtown Collaborative and the Troy BID names will not go away because that's their legal name. What I am suggesting is that Downtown start looking for a new name to basically express everything great that's happening in downtown Troy. The new Troy logo is colorful and alive and really represents everything that we are and what we do for downtown Troy.

We have great talent in Troy, great experienced marketing and communications firms and great long time downtown businesses that can develop a new name using the City’s new logo.

Mayor Tutunjian I’m sure will join in this challenge and I hope that an effort to create new name and identity can emerge for the BID and Collaborative that can be more meaningful to Troy residents.

Again, lets create a new name to reflect Downtown’s greatness and on-going comeback.

The challenge is here so let the contest begin.

GO DOWNTOWN!!!!!!

After months of delays and setbacks, the official public hearing regarding the proposed downtown Business Improvement District will be held at City Hall tonight at 7 p.m.

Residents will be able to come and share there views on why they believe there should or should not be a BID in the city of Troy.

Once the meeting is held, a 30-day public comment period will begin where residents can submit their formal opposition to the BID's creation to the City Clerk's office.

If more than 50 percent of proposed district members oppose the BID, it cannot be created. However, not voting counts in favor of establishing the district.

The public hearing for a proposed downtown Business Improvement District, which was scheduled for Thursday night, has been canceled, according to City Council President Clem Campana.

Campana said Tuesday that a new date would have to be set for the hearing because the council did not vote on a resolution during a regular or special meeting to establish the formal meeting time.

The start of the hearing would have begun a 30-day public comment period where members of the proposed district can submit their official objections to its creation to the City Clerk. The district cannot be created if 51 percent of its prospective members vote against it, but a failure to vote will actually count as a vote in favor of the BID.

Read more about this situation here.

The City Council chose to eliminate a resolution from their meeting agenda Thursday night that would have postponed a public hearing on the proposed downtown Business Improvement District from Dec. 18 until Jan. 22, but the topic continued to be the major talking point of the night.

Several major Troy developers including John Hedley, Sam Judge, David Bryce, and Jeff Pfeil showed up along with other board members from the Troy Downtown Collaborative to show their support for the BID and thank the council for not delaying the public hearing.

If the hearing had been delayed, the 30 day period for property owners to vote against the BIDs establishment also would have been delayed. As it currently stands, that period will begin after Dec. 18.

Local restaurant owner Michael LoPorto and Tony Iannacito, the owner of Tony of Italy on Fourth Street, spoke in opposition to the BID's creation because they did not want property owners to pay an increased 5 percent property tax and felt its cost for administration was too high.

More details and comments can now be found here on The Record's Web site.