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There are shiny new apartments, parks, offices, transportation and some of the city's best schools in Downtown Manhattan, but there are problems nonetheless.

“Right now, if you move downtown, you may not even know where your child will be able to go to school, because all of the schools will be full,” said Eric Greenleaf of New York University’s Stern School of Business.

That's because Downtown Manhattan has attracted families, and those families are having lots of kids. The number of births has gone from 389 in 2002 to 970 in 2009. It’s a dramatic and steady growth that's taxed the neighborhood's schools.

It made headlines in January after Greenleaf tried to explain the problem to Cathie Black, who was the schools chancellor at the time.

“These are kids who are already born. This isn't a projection of what may happen,” said Greenleaf.

“Can we just have some birth control for awhile? It would really help us all out,” said Black.

Parents say it's actually a serious problem, and the only solution is to open more schools.

The city has already built two new elementary schools. One opened in Battery Park City last year and another opened on Spruce Street this week. Plans are in the works for a third, in the old Peck Slip Post Office. The building won't be ready until 2014, but the school will open next fall, with a kindergarten class housed in the DOE headquarters.

Greenleaf's projections suggest that still won't be enough. Many additional kindergarten seats will be needed each year based on the number of children already born.

Among the solutions on the table are redrawing school zones and busing students to other neighborhoods.

“It's pretty hard to send a five-year-old kindergarten student traveling even to 23rd Street,” said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

Chancellor Dennis Walcott said he's working with the parents and looking for new school sites but doesn't agree with all their projections.

“We may not be in total alignment as far as what the parents see as need for growth and what we see as the need for growth,” said Walcott.
Greenleaf disagrees.

“Tens of billions of dollars have been invested downtown since 9/11. If the new schools aren't built, all of that will go to waste,” said Greenleaf.

Ironically, all of that is what's led to this problem in the first place.