Which makes it nearly 3.2 miles round-trip, if these alleged Yankee Stadium walkers actually live INSIDE High Bridge Park, which is where you measured from. I still doubt many people would want to walk that far, gobble a bunch of hot dogs and beers, then walk back on a pleasant afternoon, much less on a hot, humid one. And are there bike racks at Yankee Stadium?

I could easily imagine Yankee fans from Washington Heights walking, biking and skating to games over the High Bridge. Not so sure about the trip back.

But this extraordinary public resource has been shunned by its nearest neighbors for a very long time, and it shows. At 181st Street, where cars pour onto the Washington (not the George) Bridge to the Bronx, the entrances to High Bridge Park might as well have “Keep Out” signs posted. That’s how derelict the place looks. But if you persevere, you encounter–besides encampments of the homeless–the shell of an amazing public space. (Stand under the massive stone arches of the Washington Bridge and fail to be awed–I dare you.)

Volunteers are laboring heroically but can do only so much to reverse decades of neglect that may take decades to undo at the current pace. But if the bridge and, as a result, the park were used by more people, a much broader constituency might develop–one that could organize and demand the level of funding this project truly deserves.