Troy NY Uses Boston On Website

The City of Troy has it's share of problems and as a former resident of said city I can say that there is a reason I'm a former resident. There are those who however love Troy and that's their choice. No matter how you feel about Troy, nothing says we're embarrassed to be Troy like using a photo of a different city on your official website.  

If you browse to the City of Troy website you'll notice a nice row of buildings close to one another. You'd assume it's in Troy - someplace - with all of their historic buildings. Sadly it has been revealed that it is in fact a photo of Boston. According to the Times Union:

But the image that graces the city's official website, letterhead and business cards?

That's a photo of Boston.

The photograph has been used by Troy since its current website design was developed in 2003. The image stretches across the top of the page and shows a street of tightly squeezed houses, with undulating bay windows and a flowering magnolia tree.

Oopsiedoodle. This leads me to a question - is Troy so embarrassed to be Troy that they can't even put up a photo of their own city on their official website?

What's worse is that this isn't just speculation - the photographer who snapped the image has confirmed that its in fact his:

Boston-based photographer Steve Dunwell recognized the photo immediately when directed to the Troy website.

"That's my picture," said Dunwell, who estimated the photo was taken in 1990.

Dunwell was surprised to see his photo used as an image of Troy, but noted the Internet age makes it easy for a photographer's work to be widely misused. He also wondered if Troy ever paid Getty Images to use the image.

How sad and embarrassing on many levels. I'm sure they could have found a shot of *something* nice in Troy! Perhaps the sign saying "now leaving Troy."

How does the mayor feel? "We never questioned where it was from," Tutunjian said.

Indeed.