I don't think there's any really Italian neighborhoods to speak of anymore. So Italian Americans in general live spread out among other (mostly white) ethnic groups. A lot of people from Brooklyn moved to suburban housing developments in Manalapan NJ area, I would think a few of them are probably connected.

I stand corrected..daughter said "Dad , I aint seen her in ages get w/ ur shit" LOL...oops.

North of the city in lower Westchester, there's a fair number of guys who own or owned big houses in Bronxville, Scarsdale, New Rochelle, including Barney Bellomo and Stephen Crea Jr., and there have been a couple of busts in New Rochelle for loan-sharking rings operating out of the local bars.

Manalapan, marlboro, freehold, matawan, old bridge.

Ducktown in AC anybody?

I'm confused, are you guys naming Italian communities or "mobbed up" communities. Because I hate to difer with some of you but there are mostly Italian communities listed previously, they aren't mobbed up. If they were there'd be a whole lot more mobsters now than in the 80s it would seem.

The only thing Italian in the Ducktown section of AC are the Italian owned and operated businesses.

There’s no Italians left actually living in Ducktown, none. It’s mostly all Spanish now with a few Bangledeshi/Indian/Pakistani and others who are foreign born mixed in. No Italians left except for the businesses and the people who work in the businesses.

In truth there are very few "Mobbed-Up" areas, if any.

There are many neighborhoods around the city and in the suburbs that still maintain a heavy ethnic Italian flavor, but I don't know that I'd call that "mobbed-up". Do a few wiseguys live in the various areas? For sure.

But the true mobbed-up areas like East Harlem, Morris Park, Bensonhurst, Bayridge, Corona, Astoria, etc., of yesteryear is largely gone.

It's a different world today. And I don't imagine any of that's coming back anytime soon. It is a bygone era of the "old days".... and most of its gone the way of the Model-T Ford, and the cowboys and Indians of the old west. Fun to watch on TV, and read about. But its passe'

That’s my point of view exactly nymafia, that’s why I questioned the towns mentioned above. Like I said before many times and maintain now this site is more a history lesson and less a current events blog. Which is fine by me, I just don’t pretend the good old days are anything more than that. Btw you can blame the kennedys for this but that’s another point

Out of curiosity, Where are you from?

Born and raised On Long Island where I lived for over 35 years, family in Valley Stream and Rosedale, past 20 years in New Jersey.

majicrat............ yes, the kennedys were the cause of a lot of damage to the mob, joe valachi did a lot more damage to the mob, than anyone wants to admit.

Wiseguys hated that Bobby Kennedy, more than his brother. John was all in all have complacent with the mob. But his brother Bobby became a ballbuster, and went out of his way to hurt guys.

This is after their father old man Joe Kennedy pled to his wiseguy friends to please help swing Illinois and a few other locations in his sons favor at the polling booths. This was said Mohave been pivotal to John Kennedy's taking the WH. The Kennedy boys were told to lay off by their dad afterwards. What did they do? The completely went the other way on Cosa Nostra, and made the Kennedy's #1 target after that. They started the Senate Hearings, the Strike Forces in key cities, the ramped up the Justice Dept., etc.etc...... What the FUCK they had in their stupid minds to even think they could get away with double-banking the bosses we'll never know!

You make a major handshake agreement, you accept all their help. You achieve your goal with their assistance and gain the presidency. Then you spit directly in their faces and renege on that deal? .... as if thats not already way bad enough, you then go out of your way and make a complete 360, and attack them with everything you got?

What there hell did you think was gonna happen? Did these 2 brothers really think the mob would just completely sit back and do nothing? Not seek any revenge on such an important and "do or die" result? At the very height of Cosa Nostra's power in this country you try and completely destroy them? It was a matter of self-survival.

John ended up getting clipped!.... and Bobby thereafter lost all his power, only too be later assassinated himself years later.

The funny part, and the sad part about it all is that it really didn't have to be that way....the rest is consigned to history.

Both those neighborhoods had a lot of Italians years back. Tony the Gawk lived on Hendrickson Avenue for years in VS.There were a few other guys lived there as well, and neighborhoods close by there.

The house Henry Hill lived in when it was was raided for drugs was in valley stream.

I know all about Valley Stream and Rosedale I ran around both places in the early 70s to 80. I don’t usually post personal info but I was asked by Dante where I was from I answered. Both those areas and MOST not all the other past hot bed locations are no longer hot beds of mobsters simply because the mob is not what it was. They still may have Italians but that doesn’t make them mob hotbeds. Oh and I’m in nj now for the past twenty years and very aware of what’s going on here. Very few if any hot beds to speak of. Italians yes, hit beds no. A few mobsters here and there. May be our definition of hot beds is the real difference. Lastly, don’t forget that the kennedys were also behind the immigration law of 1965 which effectively slowed and now today just about has eliminated the immigration of all Western Europeans. Thereby eliminating Italian immigrant communities, the tightness of it, and the farm system of recruits.

I have to largely agree with you. There are a lot of heavily Italian neighborhoods today, but not "mobbed-up" per se. I grew up in several NYC neighborhoods back in the 1960s-1970s that were considered hotbeds of all the families. Hotbeds! .... you couldn't drive through the area without seeing clusters of goodfellas on nearly every corner. a bunch of social clubs where they ran dice and steady card games daily. Bars, restaurants, little cafes where all the crews hung out.

Today? LOl... I drive into the area, park, and go see who I wanna go see. But I gotta search em out. There are a few spots where friends still hang. But if you're not in the know, then you wouldn't know!

And MOST connected guys actually live in the suburbs of LI, Westchester, and Jersey. Most of the fellas who are still residing within the 5-boros is because they are not earning. Don't get me wrong, there are still fellas who you'd consider to have plenty of wood who live in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, etc. But the vast majority (if they made money) got their wife and kids out of the shit.

Most of these areas that we came from, grew up in (and loved), are long gone. The demographics as we knew it are very different than yesteryear. Not to be prejudice or racists, but most people feel more comfortable with their own kind (people who knew them when, and are familiar with the same old Italian customs, etc). These areas today are mostly bullshit. Either all fucked up like its the United Nations, Yeppified, or a completely changed area. Many have a much higher crime rate, etc.

NO more cafes, Italian bakeries, and latticini's, no more old Italians sitting on the stoops waving hello, no more stickball in the street or handball against the brickwall, no more Italian Feast days and celebrations. Why would we stay?

These areas, and the folks who live in them, don't value our customs. And as far as the wiseguys go, the "street action" is not even around these areas anymore. Everything as we knew it is vastly reduced and different.

They told us it was "progress". Lol..... Ho Hum!.... so much for progress.

Nymafia exactly and well said. The above post is exactly how I grew up but only a decade later. Great memories.

Btw when were kids we’d go to Green Acres strip mall, and you could see all kinds of stuff going down if you knew what you were seeing. For some reason and I only can assume due to location it was a busy meeting location

Because the mall was virtually on the Queens/LI border, it attracted a lot of guys. The police even documented a young Baldo Amato and Ceaser Bonventre making a drug exchange in the parking lot one evening. Another time their was a pass-off of counterfeit money between guys.

It's funny that you say that, because there used to be a very good Chinese restaurant in that mall that I frequented a few times. Come to think of it, the two times I was eating there I bumped into wiseguys I knew from back in the neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Queens. They were there eating too.

In truth a lot of guys used to live in the towns close around there so thats another reason for guys going there, not so much mob business IMO... The food was just very good. Lol........ wiseguys typically love Chinese food.

Not only do the people in those neighborhoods today not have values the italians had, they dont seem to value much of anything. I hate to say it but its true. Almost all of those neighborhoods turned to garbage. It was never like that when the italians lived there. Many of those neighborhoods were low income but were very safe and despite poverty, kept up very well because the italians had pride in their neighborhoods.
The Italians seemed to have a “ no excuses no sense of entitlement” mentality.

Yes, agreed.

Even straight out neighborhoods that were considered "Italian ghettos" like East Harlem around Pleasant Avenue, First and Second Avenues were poor sections of town, yet the streets were extremely clean, everybody's stoop was swept, the neighborhood was chock full of thriving storefronts offering; Italian groceries, barbershops, cleaners, bars, cafes, restaurants, produce markets, fresh fish stores, candy stores, luncheonettes, florists, pharmacies, etc., etc.

All those type Italian areas whether it be Harlem, Mulberry street, Downtown Brooklyn, Bensonhurst, etc., had a lot of pride for their neighborhoods. And it made all the difference in the world growing up. I remember that I had a lot of respect and reverence for our neighbors, their property, and our area in general. Most others I know felt the exact same way.

Ya know when the same families, the same surnames, the same faces, remain in one area decade and decade you get to know each other. It becomes like one big extended family. And you watch out for each other.

In 99% of ALL inner city neighborhoods today most of your neighbors are strangers to you. You, or they, only moved to the area a few years earlier and most don't have intimate ties to the area. That generally can have a negative effect. But in the poor area generally has a devastating effect.

I have a sense most agree with me then, there may be Italian enclaves but very few mobbed up communities left esp. outside nyc, maybe Boston, s. Philly and Cicero, I’ll. The rest not in my opinion. I flatly disagree about ANY location mentioned in nj as “mobbed up”. Italian yes, mobbed up, no

Money avenue = Sunrise Highway