IMPROVING GATEWAYS INTO TROY.(CAPITAL REGION)

Byline: TIM O'BRIEN Staff writer

Driving into the city over one of six bridges that cross the Hudson River, one does not see Troy at its best.

The discolored Menands Bridge gives you views of tankers on either side of the river, one of them a winking one owned by King Fuels. The first view upon arrival is a clutter of billboards and a concrete wall that is cracked in places.

A left off the Green Island Bridge leads to a blank electronic billboard that has nothing to say about the city, its waterfront or the largely intact Victorian architecture that makes walking around downtown so pleasant. The first sight off the Waterford Bridge is a supermarket …