Posted on 03/30/2014 12:06:33 PM PDT by Olog-hai
A piece of New York City history is bidding arrivederci.
Rising rents and changing demographics have driven Little Italy to the verge of extinction. Once a teeming neighborhood stretching 50 square blocks, it now barely covers three blocks of Mulberry Street—and even that strip is under threat.
“You can’t rebuild Little Italy,” said Robert Ianniello Jr., owner of the famed Umbertos Clam House. “If we go away, it will never be here again. You can’t build an Olive Garden and say it’s Little Italy.” …
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Arthur Avenue is fun and good but it is not the same size as what was formerly Little Italy.
And Hispanics have been preparing and hand carving the pastrami at Katzes for years.
“Can’t even get decent food - right after I got here, I ordered some spaghetti with marinara sauce, and I got egg noodles and ketchup.” - Goodfellas
It honestly makes me wonder how Cajuns and coonasses keep their cultures ongoing and alive. I guess nobody else wants to go live in the swamps and near the bayous in the backwoods. It seems even a good many of the few who go to college, come back.
Dominick’s is still good. Still no menus. Still no credit cards. Though a few years ago, the owner was followed home after closing up the place and was robbed at home. Teitel Brothers and Randazzo’s are still there too and just as good as ever.
It’s an immigrant neighborhood - the Italians and Eastern European Jews took over the Lower East Side after the Irish, and now the Italians and Jews have gotten better off and moved away and the neighborhood is either Asian (mostly Chinese and Vietnamese).
Of course, there’s also a lot of prosperous younger New Yorkers of a variety of backgrounds, and there are some very fancy mixed-use buildings replacing the tenements and even the old housing projects.
I don't think so. Crazy Joe Gallo was gunned down at Umberto's and Galante got his at Joe and Mary's, in Brooklyn.
No Ferrara's?
No Angelos?
Maybe I'll just stay home...
“We’ll always have Harlem :-)”
Even Harlem is returning to its gentrified self of a century ago. Getting hard to find ethnic anywhere. And, really, that’s a good thing (except for the eateries).
It’s a shame. Particularly will miss the Ristorante S.P.Q.R. Love the San Gennaro festival and the church. Seems that few successful things can last forever in their original form. America has too many lawyers.
I still go there several times a year to buy cheeses, fish and one of my favorites - imported panettone.
The Chinatown in Philly still has many authentic Chinese residents, restaurants and stores. Philly’s Italian section is still hanging on, too; but for almost 20 years now has had to survive by including Asian and Hispanic grocers in the mix. The absentee landlord thing is what’s killing New York. But I have to say, lately the Little Italy restaurants could not hold a candle to the Philly Italian Market restaurants for authentic Neapolitan or Sicilian cuisine.
Even if they did Little Italy would still go away. People off the boat use to live in the same area so most could live without having to learn the language and culture of their new home. (Sorry guys just the facts!)
By the time they reach the third generation they have assimilated and moved away. They can speak the language and have adopted the culture. They have no further need to stay.
The need having vanished, the institution dies.
I've been hearing that many Chinese shops and restaurants are actually owned by the Patels, a branch of the Convenience Store Patels and the Motel Patels......................
“And Hispanics have been preparing and hand carving the pastrami at Katzes for years.”
Still good food no matter who prepares or serves it.
George Will 's articles occasionally give me heartburn, but he coined a classic phrase when talking about our early immigration. He said those Europeans were "psychologically guillotined" when they came here, and had no option other than to assimilate in order to be successful.
LONG ago, when I was in my teens, I asked my dad, who came over from Germany in the '20s, to teach me German. I got "whopped upside my haid" and was told, "You're in America, you don't need it." I told that to an Italian friend of mine in school and he said that his dad said the same to him.
Fast forward 60 years and I am a volunteer reading tutor in a Nevada Middle School, bringing kids a couple of grades behind up to speed. I correctly surmised that most would be Hispanic, due to their influx, but was wrong on why they were lagging. It seems that their fathers wouldn't let them speak OR READ English at home. "Spanish is your heritage." they were told (info via the teachers).
There's the difference. These people are not guillotined, as you say, they get constant reinforcement from the Motherland. They don't assimilate, they colonize.
I agree.
You rais-a da rents and ba-bing, weeze all moved to Joisey. What? You tink weeze all stooopid, Paisan?
_____________—
No...no stupido. Joisey. Center of waste treatmen and gahrbage.
As SO CAL person here I second that LOL!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.