Stadium demolition permit approved

That photo — that heartbreaking shot inside of the House that Ruth Built — is the latest from Tom Kaminski in Chopper 88. The WCBS AM man in the sky flew over Yankee Stadium this week and snapped some shots of the crews hard at work. The stadium is slowly emptying out, and in a few months, it will start to come down.

Meanwhile, New York 1 featured a story yesterday about the wait in the South Bronx for the parks. I’ve covered this angle of the new stadium extensively, and the New York 1 story focuses on community resentment. The destruction of the stadium will be complete by the summer, and the replacement parks will open in 2011. Although neighborhood activists are still upset, this timeline has been in place for the last 18 months. Still, the South Bronx will have suffered through five years without adequate parkland, and the Yanks will be starting their third season in the new stadium when the parks finally open.

Finally, the destruction of the building is an official fait accompli. Two weeks ago, the Department of Buildings approved the full demolition certificate for the old stadium. If bureaucratic paperwork is your thing, take a peak at the filings. We’ll have more on the old and new stadium as we continue to wrap up the 2009 season over the next few weeks.