LITTLE ITALY NEWS OCTOBER 2010 EDITION

www.littleitalytroy.org

troylittleitaly@gmail.com

www.celebratesafecommunities.org

Join Your Neighbors and Celebrate

October 23rd Project

We are looking for volunteers to help plant shrubs and flowers
along the market fence. If anyone has a Roto Tiller we could
use, it would be appreciated. Circle K organization from RPI
has offered to help along with a group of adults and youngsters from the neighborhoods. Claire Davis of the Osgood
neighborhood has offered to donate flowers and Rose of
Sharon bushes which we could use help in transplanting.
Colleen Goldston our interim Community Police Officer has
been gathering complaints about alleys and overgrown properties in the neighborhood. This is the day to make a difference. We need people with trucks, rakes, brooms, weed eaters
and a lot of energy. For more info call Marion @ 266-1406 or
e-mail sctroywatch@gmail.com

Info on Garbage Pick-up

There is a specific contact at DPW
to assist us with garbage concerns. David Dean (former TPD
officer) is now working at DPW to
deal with resident concerns. He
has kindly shared his cell phone
and email info. Please feel free to
contact him with concerns
at: Dave Dean 858-1895
tpdpio@gmail.com

Landlord Training
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
5:30 - 9:30 PM
TRIP HOMEOWNERSHIP CENTER

415 River Street, 2nd Floor, Troy

(North of the Green Island Bridge)
Registration Required @
www.triponline.org or call
690-0020 x 221
Seating Limited
Light Dinner Will Be Available

Apartments for Rent

In Little Italy
Beautiful Victorian
Apartment

Franklin Place has a

New Look
Another great addition to our
neighborhood. House by
House, Block by Block,
Thanks Carl!!!

Close to everything in Troy--RPI,

Washington Park, downtown restaurants and buses. A sunny and
spacious 1 bedroom with thick
wall to wall carpet includes a
small deck overlooking a pretty
garden. The quiet second floor
apartment opens to a sunny central
living/dining room with built-in
storage cabinets and hall closet.
Full kitchen with dishwasher and
gas range and good storage cabinets. Sunny full bathroom with
ceramic tile floor. Nice high ceilings and original parquet hardwood floors. $725 plus your utilities. Cat okay. Perfect for a single
professional. 146 2nd Street. 1
year lease. Please call
518.279.1842.

245 2nd Street

2nd Fl apt. in Victorian brick row
house. 1 BR, Dbl parlors, nice K,
great light, work/storage space.
Smoke free house. No dogs. $650
(incl heat) + Security. References.
Call Bernice at 273-1692.

Washington Place
3rd Floor. Spacious 2 bdm, Living
room, dining room, hardwood
floors, family room, $1,100 with
heat and hot water included. Cat
OK. Security and references. Call
Marion 518-266-1406.

Basement apartment
1 small bdm, large living room,
yard, cat ok, $475.00 all utilities
included. Ideal for I person. Call
Marion 518-266-1406.

76 Hill Street
Beautiful, spacious and newly renovated apartments in Little Italy.
Quiet, private and fenced back yard.
Large 3 BR 1st floor apartment
with huge newly updated kitchen.
2 spacious 2 BR apartments with
large living area.
2 rear apartments, 2 BR or 1+ BR
with extra space
Security deposit and one year lease
required. No pets please and non
smokers preferred. Call Peggy at
(518) 852-8502.

Thanks from Troy Little Italy

Many thanks from Troy Little Italy to all who assisted at our second International Festival held at the historic Hill Street Market Place on
Saturday, September 25, 2010. Groups participating were the Ladies Auxiliary of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Italian Community
Center, the Franco-American Federation, the AGAPE Church, Christ Church Troy, the American-Italian Heritage Association, the Troy
Irish Genealogical Society and volunteers representing the local Russian, Ukrainian and German communities. Our thanks to Francoise
Quimet who demonstrated making a wagon wheel rag rug, Professor/Cavalier Philip DiNovo, founder and president of the American-Italian
Heritage Association who spoke on his organization and museum, the dancers from the Campbell School of Dance, and members of the
AGAPE church choir as well as our DJ, Mike Caraoke Cazz Cazzato.
Youngsters enjoyed the Bouncy Bounce provided by the AGAPE church. Carol Roberts (Troy Public Library), and Andrea Daly, Agnes
Zink, Doreen Thompson, Olivia Tripodi, Patricia Sehl and Moses Lugo entertained the youngsters with games, arts and crafts. Sage Brothers Painting Company donated several gallons of paint used by volunteers Andrea and Tim Daley for the south wall of the festival site area.
Lucy Larner and members of Circle K from RPI assisted in setting up tables and chairs and the poster display on neighborhood history.
Thanks to the City of Troy (both the administration and the council) and Community Policewoman Colleen Goldston for their continued
support of our efforts at the MarketPlace site. Andrea Daley and Jane Otto created and distributed posters, and planned the advertising and
publicity campaign which attracted several hundred people to our festival. We rented our tents from Dennis Honsingers A-1 Party Rentals.
Good food and desserts were provided by the ICC, the AGAPE church, Caribbean First Choice, the women of the AOH auxiliary, Paul and
Alice Rose Marano, Jerry Favata, and Gelateria Lisa. Many thanks to all who attended and to our ever faithful volunteers, Andrea Daley,
Jane Otto, Joe Popson, Jerry Favata, Dorcas and Ken Rose, Frank LaPosta Visco, Rocky DeFazio, Claire Davis, Lisa and Terry Jordan,
Mickie Farrington, Gina Corina and Katie and Bob Mosca. We hope to see you all at our Christmas in Little Italy event in December.

Marion Field and Mike Esposito for Troy Little Italy

South Central/Little Italy

in the News
The Record articles:
September 9, 2010, pp1,4. Rehab
project gets a reward: enthusiasm
for area inspired business owners
by Cecilia Martinez, photos by J.S.
Carras. Lisa and Terry Jordan
awarded 2009 Little Italy Best
Rehab for restoration of Hill Street
properties including Gelateria
Lisa, the popular gelato shop they
own and operate.
September 24, 2010, p5. Mike
McMahons photographs Councilman Ken Zalewski and County
Executive Kathy Jimino posing in
front of the German exhibit at the
Bavarian cutout to be used at the
International Festival.
September 26, 2010, p1. Many
countries, one city: Troy MarketPlace hosts cultural fest by Cecilia
Martinez, photos by Mike McMahon. The second annual International Festival featured ethnic
foods, information, and culture
and arts and crafts of other countries and poster exhibit on
neighborhood history. A short
video is available on The Record
blog.
September 26, 2010, p10. Potters,

restaurateurs collaborate to combat

hunger in Troy, by Cecilia Martinez. The Sixth Annual Empty
Bowls event, first co-sponsored by
Troys Little Italy, once again returns to the Italian Community
Center. More than a dozen Troy
restaurants, dozens of potters, and
several organizations collaborate
each year in the event which helps
to sustain food pantries in Troy.
September 29, 2010, p6.
Tutunjian taps Christopher for
EDC position by Cecilia Martinez
with photo by J. S. Carras. Little
Italy resident Vic Christopher is
selected by Mayor Harry Tutunjian to be Economic Development
Coordinator.
October 2, 2010, p6.
Little Italy Farmers Market, several photos by Mike McMahon.
October 4, 2010, p1.
Feeding the hungry with empty
bowls by Katie Nowak, photos by
J. S. Carras; also video. Empty
Bowls event draws huge crowd to
the ICC for a major fundraiser to
benefit Troy food pantries.
Channel 10 News,
September 23, 2010. Mike
Esposito interviewed at the press
conference regarding Troy Little
Italys International Festival.

FYI
Notice is hereby given that the
Planning Board of the City of
Troy, New York will conduct a
public hearing On Thursday October 14, 2010 at 6:00 P.M. in the
2nd Floor Conference Room A of
City Hall in order to hear and decide on proposals for development
as follows:
New Business
PB2010-055 SEQRA and Review
of a Master Plan for the Chasan
and Proctors buildings. Project
location is 70 76 Fourth Street
and 82 90 Fourth Street. Applicant is Columbia Development,
302 Washington Ave, Albany, NY
12203.

Celebrate Columbus Day

President Franklin D. Roosevelt
declared October 12th, the day
Italian navigator Christopher
Columbus (Cristoforo Colombo)
landed in the New World in 1492,
a National Holiday in 1937.
October is Italian Heritage and
Culture Month proclaimed by the
President in recognition of the
contributions, successes and
achievements of Italian Americans. The Capital District has a
long tradition of Italian heritage
and Italian American families
living in the area.

Thursday Evening Bocce

The last game of the season for a
group of LaSalle 1968 graduates.
League members Frank Merola, Paul
Montarello, Michael Riley, Anthony
Magnetto, Tom Testo, Kevin Gebert,
and Michael Esposito are joined by
their guests Heather and Vic
Christopher for a end of the year celebration. They had plenty of food on
hand, Italian bread and cold cuts, delicious provolone cheese, and they
ended with, (of course ) Italian
Pastries.
A good time was had by all

At Liberty
The Saga of an Italo-American
Family in Troy's Little Italy
by *Frank LaPosta Visco*
*The Nineteen-Forties, Part 12*
It was my birthday, New Year's
Eve, 1949. My age had finally
reached double digits, and I was
full of myself. I had responsibilities downstairs at my Grandmother
Campobasso's store, and although
I had an allowance for the work
I did, it wasn't as much as my
friends Little Louie and Saucer
Eyes got for doing the same
things!
It wasn't that Grandma was a
miser or anything like that, but it
was her way of showing me the
value of money. For example
she had customers who bought
the paper from her every day, but
couldn't always get to the store.
So, Gram, who always called
me Big Boy, would have me
deliver the paper to their homes,
some as far away as Canal Street,
the dividing line between Little
Italy and the Irish section of town.
If I had delivered the papers as a
regular paperboy, I would have
made twice as much money, plus
tips. But Gram was splitting her
profit with me, so there was less to
go around.
I did other chores around the
store, too. I was always a kid who
liked to stay up late, so when the
store closed at 11, I would go
down in the cellar and bring up
cases of warm beer and soda and
restock the coolers, so there
would be a full complement of
cold drinks for sale the next day.
My perk for doing that wasn't
money, but full access to the goodies before I went upstairs to bed.
I'd sit in a booth with a comic
book, a bottle of Nehi grape soda
and a Devil Dog. Later, when
Gram had one of the first television sets installed up in a corner of
the store, I'd forego the comic
book and watch Broadway

Open House and the original Tonight Show. That's where I got my
love of the visual medium and
paid attention to all the commercials. Little did I know that somebody I would be writing and producing them!
Since I was used to staying up
late, and my birthday was on a
Saturday night, and the New Year
began the next day on Sunday, I
stayed up and listened as Guy
Lombardo's orchestra played on
the radio.
The fifties would see lots of
changes in the world at large, and
in my world. It would be the decade of nuclear testing, cold war
and the Korean conflict. Closer
to home, it would be the decade
when I got my first two wheeler, a
shiny chrome Shelby with streamers on the handlebars, push-button
horn and even a battery-powered
headlight. I would fly through the
streets, expanding my world from
the local movie theater to all of
Troy. I even ventured north to
Lansingburgh and beyond, to
Pleasantdale, and caught the
eyes of girls I'd only imagined
before girls with blonde curls,
like my cousin Coke's German
wife, and freckled girls with flaming hair the color of
Rhonda Fleming's.
By the end of the decade, I'd be
graduating from high school and
facing a future of technological
wonders, unimaginable back in
those days of rabbit ears and test
patterns. There's more to tell about
the Caserta and Campobasso families, and the changes that affected
every family in Little Italy, and I'll
be sharing those stories in the future.
*A note from the author: For the
next several months, At Liberty will be making room in this
newsletter for other important information. For one thing, Mike
Esposito, who wrote last year's
wonderful book about Troy's
Little Italy, is gathering group

photos and stories for a new book

about the families of the neighborhood. I hope you'll help him and
share your memories and photographs with him. You'll find details about how to do that
in these newsletters.*
The stories of At Liberty will
continue soon. Meanwhile, thank
you for interest and attention, and
if you'd like to know what real life
has been like for a native of Troy's
Little Italy who left to make his
fortune in the wonderful world of
advertising, I invite you to catch
up with my memoirs in my blog at
*www.ad-missions.blogspot.com*
<http://www.admissions.blogspot.com/>
* I hope you've enjoyed this narrative so far. It will be back soon.*
Troy

Boys & Girls Club

Slices Up a Tasty EventPizzapalooza!
On October 26, 2010 Troy Boys
& Girls Club is hosting their third
annual special event; Pizzapalooza
at Franklin Terrace Ballroom in
Troy from 6-9 pm. Sponsored by
County Waste and The Record
Newspaper, Pizzapalooza is a
gourmet pizza tasting event and
competition which challenges local culinary teams to make the best
pies in the region! Guests attending the event sample the pizzas
entered into the competition, bid
on live and silent auction items
and ultimately, vote for their
Peoples Choice favorite! Pizzapalooza will challenge teams to
think outside the pizza box and
create pies that are as creative as
their imagination will allow.

Thursday, November 11th. Progress on the project including

the announcement of a date and
time for a rededication of the
memorial will be reported in the
November Little Italy Newsletter. In the meantime anyone
interested in more information
should contact Sam Chiappone
at 272-6819.

Honoring 11th Ward Veterans

Sixth five years ago residents of
what was then Troys 11th ward
acquired a Third Street lot and
purchased a memorial stone to
commemorate neighbors who
were serving in World War II.
There are 286 names inscribed on
the stone. For those of you new to
the area or too young to remember, the 11th ward was one of
eighteen political subdivisions of
the city. Its boundaries extended
from Adams to Ida Street and from
the Hudson River to Prospect
Park. It is now a part of Troys 5th
Council District. The memorial
site is just south of Adams Street,
a small patch of green space along
a busy main thoroughfare through
the neighborhood where passersby
can easily observe this place of
honor and recognition to those
who served. The site was formerly
a railroad platform station for the
popular Troy-Albany Belt Line.
The railroad right of way and surrounding land is now the site of
Capraras Auto Body Shop.
Since Bob Caprara opened his
auto body shop adjacent to the
memorial the maintenance of the
site area has been cared for by the

Caprara family. Recently, Jonathan Carroll, a student at Averill

Park High School submitted a petition for his plan to upgrade the
11th Ward veterans memorial as
an Eagle Scout project. The City
of Troy has already approved
plans for Jonathans project which
gained early support from the
Capraras and Ida Street resident
Sam Chiappone, Jr. The project is
close to the heart of Chiappone.
The name of his dad, Sam Chiappone, Sr., is inscribed on the memorial. Sam Sr. was awarded a
Purple Heart for injuries received
at the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest
on the German-Belgian border in
1944. Jonathan and Sam enlisted
additional community support.
Grethen-Cahrenger Monuments
cleaned the stone recently. Fence
Works has agreed to donate materials for a new fence. TAP Electric
will install wiring and a timer to
have the flag lighted from dusk to
dawn. Pfeil Hardware will provide
various supplies, and Community
Gardens will provide plantings for
the site. Bob Caprara will provide
the electric power from his adjacent Third Street business. Work
on the project is progressing with
the expectation that it may be
completed by Veterans Day,

Thank You
Terry and I would like to sincerely
thank everyone involved in the
presentation of the plaque and the
lovely ceremony celebrating our
rehabilitation of Liberty Place.
This was a very thoughtful gift.
We look forward to celebrating
with future recipients as Little
Italy revitalizes and blossoms.
Terry and Lisa
GELATERIA LISA and 5,6,7 Hill
Street

October Meetings
10/20 Neighborhood Watch
6 PM
Troy Little Italy
6:30 PM
233 Fourth Street, Troy, N.Y.

ITALIAN COMMUNITY CENTER FESTA

SEPTEMBER 2010