High Court Nominee Not From 'Shadow of Yankee Stadium'

The route from Yankee Stadium (A) to Bronxdale Houses (B)

I'm sure that all sons and daughters of the Bronx, such as myself, are delighted to hear that Bronx native Sonia Sotomayor has been nominated for the Supreme Court. What's not so delightful is how news reports continue to screw up exactly where she lived in the Bronx--in an example of the media's ignorance of the borough.

Evidently, all the outside world knows about the Bronx is that it has got Yankee Stadium in it, so therefore if she grew up in a housing project in the Bronx it would have to have been "in the shadow of Yankee stadium."

This "Yankee shadow" business has spread through the media like wildfire. A New York Times blog reported that she grew up "near Yankee Stadium in the South Bronx." Even a Bronx news blog placed her in the path of what must be an extremely long shadow cast by the stadium.

Geez, don't any of these people have a map? She grew up in Bronxdale Houses, which is way over in Soundview, across the borough from Yankee Stadium. If Judge Sotomayor wanted to travel there when she was a kid, it would have taken her ten minutes to traverse the 6.1 miles (via the fastest route, the Bruckner Expressway) in zero traffic, and there is of course never zero traffic on the Bruckner Expressway.

Only a Daily News columnist has raised the issue, so far to no effect.

© 2009 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.