plenty of Italians in rust belt towns.

it's just that the mafia is not our top career choice.

The # of Italians living in a specific area is not a reliable way to measure local mob presence.

If it were, then Philly, Buffalo and even Pittsburgh and Cleveland would be mob powerhouses.

But, as we all know, that's not the case.

I partly agree with you, but at the same time cities that have virtually no Italian population can certainly be ruled out. Anyway, the cities you mentioned really don't have the type of environment to support a Mafia family, they're all dried up with nothing going on. Except for Philly, which still has a significant mob presence, so you need to remove that one from your list.

How about Rockford, Illinois??

This particular network was still very active through the 1990s and later

I wonder if, what, and how, they have anything going nowadays

The reason why I put Philly is because it’s one of the most Italian metro in the country…yet their current crime family is quite tiny.

I too wondered about Rockford a while ago and (according to a poster whose name I forgot) said it’s a ghetto town now and there’s very little chance the outfit even bothers with it. Take it for what is worth.

I didn’t know they were still active in the late 90s.

The Five NYC crews, Upstate around Buffalo and surrounding territories, Northern New Jersey, Philadelphia, Boston & Providence (NE), all over Canada, Chicago & Detroit (both very limited), maybe maybe, maybe, maybe, a few other "pockets" of guys in other cities like Rockford, and that's about it.

It's half over. Maybe three-quarters over.

the american mafia may be half over but how powerful and influential is the remainder?