The hard work from a number of non-for-profit organizations have earned headlines of late, sometimes networking with one another to tackle what years ago would have been a local problem, and has in turn, been spun into a global opportunity.
This week alone, our Living section showcases projects with an impact that stretch throughout the Capital District. In one aspect, there is the focus of the Universal Preservation Hall in Saratoga Springs, where a Victorian Aged church has been saved from the wrecking ball, and will soon be converted to a 900-seat entertainment venue, with the help of those who market Proctors Theatre in Schenectady.
The partnership between Proctors and UPH seems to be a natural fit. Proctors went through its own renovation efforts a few years back. The Electric City has seen a drastic metamorphosis the past five years that have surrounding communities taking notice. Proctors has had its hand with the revitalization effort in Schenectady, and a three years ago, UPH asked for help.
In another aspect, there’s the effort to garner fund money from Bloomberg Philanthropists — up to $1 million, to be exact, and the attention was spread throughout the nation as to who would receive some of that sum. It would correctly be assumed that the competition would be fierce, but herein lies another collaborative effort that involved Albany, Schenectady and Troy. In the end, the three cities won out. The grant money will help fund a project that hopes to attract real estate investors back to area properties that have fallen to urban blight.
Whether it is true or not, it seems that community leaders are more willing to reach over borders to seek out solutions to shared problems. Was it competition or self-pride that prevented this teamwork from happening in the past? In likelihood, there may have been political boundaries that slowed such cooperation down. But, today, the efforts to improve our neighborhoods are coming from neighbors in the form of non-for-profits, a grassroots effort to stimulate change from the ground up.
It’s great to see neighboring communities working together and identifying with each other, instead of by the city or zip code in which they reside. We are the Capital District. A place Phillip Morris described as a “suburb surrounded by cities, instead of a city surrounded by suburbs.” That way of thinking helps bridge all of us together, and through such as association, future challenges are likely to be overcome more frequently.
