More from the "No shit, sherlock" file

While class sizes in the city as a whole have dropped in recent years, they have risen in certain areas, particularly in Manhattan, in part because of a boom in residential development. Parents unable to get their children into public schools in those places have been vocal about the problem, but less attention has been paid to parents whose already-enrolled children face more crowding.

A report issued last month by the Manhattan borough president, Scott Stringer, showed that the construction approved by the city in the past eight years would bring up to 2,300 students to K-8 schools in Lower Manhattan, SoHo, Greenwich Village, the Flatiron district, Madison Square, Midtown and the Upper East Side. But the study found that the city, in the past eight years, had provided only 143 added seats in those areas.

Counting Classroom Seats in a Booming City