The connection between vibrant, healthy neighborhoods and better quality schools is undeniable, particularly when we're talking about urban neighborhoods.

Many young couples enjoy city living and prefer older homes that are rich in character. But sending their children to city schools, quite frankly, scares the heck out of them.

Unless they can afford the tuitions at one of the area's private schools, off to Webster, Fairport, and Henrietta they go.

It's not just a Rochester phenomenon. It has been happening to urban neighborhoods across the country for the last 30 years.

Last night, about 100 residents of the Highland Park neighborhood and surrounding areas met to discuss education options for families with school-age children.

Patricia Braus, co-founder of the Rochester Education Foundation, said that she agonized over sending her children to city schools during the 1980's. That's when middle class, predominantly white families began leaving the city in a wholesale rejection of the school district.

"At every turning point, I was a nervous wreck," Braus said, in response to a story she had heard of how white students were routinely targeted and beaten up as part of some kind of initiation ritual. "Of course, it never happened and wasn't true," she said.

Many other parents spoke of their favorable experiences with city schools, too, though roughly half were referring to charter schools and Catholic schools.

School 12 on South Avenue and School 35 on Field Street were the two neighborhood schools that some parents praised.

But a subtext to the conversation about education was neighborhood preservation. Time and resources have gone into restoring some of the Southeastern neighborhoods. Without these efforts, it's possible that the so-called Crescent would be larger than it is.

Rochester is locked in a fight to revitalize itself," wrote Mayor Bob Duffy in a brochure that was available to parents at the meeting. Underperforming city schools, Duffy wrote, are contributing to the city's shrinking population and eroding property values.

The Highland Park Neighborhood Association's pre-emptive strike was meant to counter the often negative news that the public receives about the city's school district.

While it's a conversation we should be having, is it enough?