For the past several months, I have  watched, from my apartment window, the development of the new Yankee Stadium and the reconstruction of our parks and the surrounding areas.  I have seen new “vacancy” signs popping up on apartment buildings, with the intention of attracting new prospects into the Highbridge area. I have seen newly- renovated homes, and new businesses, as well as a newly-constructed track and field park ( a little icon compared to the “super-sized” track we had all come to love through the years).

I cannot  help but question: where are the schools going to be in this area? 
Is this the new future of Highbridge—no place for children? And if so, where are the children going to attend school?  There are many elementary schools in the area, but not one  middle school. So where do these children go when elementary school is over?  Across town? Around town? Where? 

I have been reading in various papers that funding for education is at an all- time low. But hundreds of millions of dollars have been poured into construction of the new Yankee Stadium as well as a new courthouse. We are making way for Metro North reopenings, condominiums, a mini mall, and entertainment complexes.

But our trees and parkland have been destroyed and  dust permeates the air, clogging the respiratory systems of those suffering from asthma and even creating new asthma cases.

But that’s not important. Baseball Is: Batter Up! Who needs schools? Who needs parkland for our children? Who cares if our children are reading below average, or for that  matter, reading at all? Who cares if they can’t count?

Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Carrión, I want to be a spectator at that new groundbreaking for a Highbridge middle school, just like the ceremony I saw at the new Yankee Stadium site with the throngs of press, everyone posing with shovels in their hands. I want to see that same enthusiasm complete with pomp and circumstance-- marching bands, the whole kit and kaboodle-- for our children’s schools, and especially the middle schools, since we don’t  have any.

Remember the children in your new development plan for the Highbridge community. They, not the Yankees, are the biggest players in our future.