Replace derelict Yankee Stadium with rebuilt track and field

MY LETTER TO MOST ALL NYC COUNCIL MEMBERS

Replace derelict Yankee Stadium with rebuilt track and field.

I grew up in sight of the old Yankee Stadium (I snuck -- or rather dashed -- into the second-half of the early '60s Giant-Packer NFL championship). The new stadium was build over a track and football field that was utilized by 39 Bronx schools (don't worry; not rehashing).

The previous stadium is still there which reminds me of my brother's and my 1960s East Village slum lord not removing the old fridge when he put in a new one to raise the rent.

It just occurred to my "big brain" that if the old Yankee Stadium block was big enough to contain a football field plus 50,000 spectators there must be enough room on that same block for a track and football field and a bleachers for a few hundred people like the old field had -- with room even to replace softball and baseball fields that were all on the old block (I played softball there in the New York Post paperboy league).

Have half a mind to go back to the Bronx and start a stink to do it (what else to do at age 66? :-]).

The scene is what happens when middle class outrage disappears along with the middle class and their majority votes -- the fault solely and wholly if you ask me of a CRAZILY distorted American labor market (federal minimum wage now 75 cents below 1956 -- 250% average income increase later).

Over the hill (other side of Grand Concourse) NY's mayor replaced the brand new criminal court house (at least new when I was going there weekly with kids in the late '70s) and the court you used to see in the background of the old stadium's outfield -- probably the most beautiful building in the Bronx (don't laugh) -- with a new 400 million dollar Taj Mahal courthouse (after crime dropped more than half). More of the same; let the middle class disappear and any kind of purposelessness goes unchecked.

Our mayor's legacy in the Bronx seems to be leaving behind three more derelict structures right in its civic and geographic center of gravity -- nice!