New York City Mapped by Ethnicity

gothamgazette.com ^ | 7/15/03

[firebrand]

It is sad how Italian-Americans are losing the village mentality. Why should you ever leave your village (neighborhood) when who knows who you'll meet outside? Strangers, probably. Stay home, where everybody knows you.

Same philosophy applies to restaurants.

I don't care what the Let's All Be American crowd on FR says. We have lost so much. No one can possibly know who didn't live it.

[Clemenza]

Yeah, its so sad how every few weeks, an Italian grocery or bakery seems to close here in Brooklyn or in the Bronx. The older folks in Bensonhurst seem to hang on despite their changing neighborhood, although their kids and grandkids went to college and New Jersey. A lot IS lost in the assimilation process, culinary (pizza in this city has declined from my youth for the obvious reason) and otherwise (the festas and neighborhood cohesiveness that once characterized places like Bensonhurst, Morris Park in the Bronx and the North Ward in Newark).

[ffusco]

I bet the Top Tomato, Genovese and Nino's Pizza are still there!

[ffusco]

The loss of ethnic Italian neighborhoods is the result of assimilation and Italians rapidly entering the middle class. Nassau county, LI is mostly Jewish, Irish and Italian. Heck, the Mayor and Governor of New York were both Italian in 2001.And lets not forget Tony Scalia!

[Clemenza]

Nassau county, LI is...

An overtaxed hellhole filled with annoying accents and increasingly Democratic voting habits.

When I was a kid going to school in Valley Stream ("Nassawr" County Lawnguyland), most of my classmates had vowels at the end of their names.

[nutmeg]

Within the city, there are still many Irish (both Irish American and direct from the Emerald Isle) in the Woodlawn and Riverdale sections of the Bronx, the Woodside section of Queens (which they share with Asians and Colombians) and the western end of the Rockaways. There is still a sizeable Irish and Irish-American presence in my neighborhood (Bay Ridge in SW Brooklyn, shown as "white" on the map), although it has been diluted as my neighborhood becomes the East Coast equivalent of Dearborn. :-(

Wow, your knowledge of NYC's many neighborhoods is pretty amazing, Clemenza!

Just curious: Do you have any idea what the house prices are like in the western end of the Rockaways? We recently took a drive around there - it seems nice. I imagine that could be a tough commute into NYC from there. I like the proximity to the ocean and to NYC, but not to JFK...

[firebrand]

You mean "The First Ward," or just "The Ward." Before they juggled the names around for who knows what purpose. Where my whole family, both sides, grew up, my father two doors down from Peter Rodino. Little could I or anyone else have imagined when my mother held a "tea" for Rodino before his first election that their chosen party would be divided on whether to be in favor of gay marriage.

[firebrand]

The whole point is, they didn't enter the middle class so rapidly. They weren't in such a hurry. Everything was for their children, as they knew they themselves didn't really have much of a chance for upward mobility. They made haste slowly.

[StarFan]

We have lost so much. No one can possibly know who didn't live it.

Amen. Attended a wake in the Arthur Avenue section of my beloved Bronx recently and thought I'd be disenchanted with it all. Instead I was pleasantly surprised to see little had changed within the four block radius -- outskirts was another matter. Quite rewarding to see some of the old timers still clinging to what was .. when neighbors looked out for one another; families never moved further than a mile from each other and no one felt the need to lock their doors. Who could forget Sundays, filled with the smell of gravy (not sauce)emanating from different apartments as I climbed the four flights home. A pity my son never 'lived it'.

[Clemenza]

Houses in Belle Harbor and Neponsit start at $450,000 and go up from there (especially in Neponsit, there are houses that now top a million). Rockaway Park which is a so-so area (sizeable homeless population) is a little cheaper. In Breezy Point, you may be able to get a condo/co-op cheaper, although I have no info there.

Commute is so-so, dependent on traffic. You would need a car as rail service to the Rockaways (via the "A" Train) is awful. The Belt Parkway is AWFUL during rush hours.

[Clemenza]

I go food shopping on Arthur Avenue at least once a month. NOTHING beats the sandwiches at Mike's Deli (in the marketplace), Biancardi's for sausage or Madonia for Cannoli. I do miss Cafe Napoli on 187th, however, which has been a bodega since around 1996. I also miss the live poultry place.

Of course, you stray more than a few blocks in any direction and it is as bad as the rest of the Fordham section.

[StarFan]

I also miss the live poultry place.

You resurrected lovely memories shopping there with my grandmother, although I didn't have the stomach to go in and watch the decapitation nor see the rabbits crammed in the crates waiting their fate. BTW, "Addeo" bread was DiMaggio's favorite and still is mine. Fortunate Joe (from Mike's Deli) opened an "Arthur Avenue Deli" in my town and brings loaves up daily.