School Site Next To Freeway Decried As Hazardous

"Some Wooster Square neighbors aren't convinced that a new school next to a triple-highway intersection can be a safe place for kids to breathe the air -- even if, as planned, the windows stay shut and sealed.

Those concerns arose at a neighborhood meeting Monday night about the proposed new home of the Metropolitan Business Academy, a magnet high school that will move into a brand new building at the corner of White and Academy Streets. The discussion focused on air quality and health concerns for the students as well as for the citizens who live in the neighborhood.

"This is in no way, shape or form a site where you want to put a school," said Martin Mador, a researcher at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the legislative and political chairman of the Connecticut Sierra Club."