Dellacroce don't feel bad I am half Italian and the other half portuguesse so I can't figure what the hell I am.

yeah from what I know if you were born here to Italian-born parents you are 1st generation, the first to be born on American soil. Or so I've been told.

A first generation Italian (or whatever nationality) is someone who immigrated here. So the first to be born on American soil is a second generation Italian.

Coming back to a forum based on internet crushes is kinda cute

Their is a small neighborhood in the north Bronx called Edenwald, (part of Wakefield). It's a legit black middle class neighborhood. I used to deliver mail there. There are nice lawns, single family homes, gardens, clean. No iron bars on the windows. No crappy mcmansions either. I'm white, and I would live there. It's centered right around Pitman Avenue off White Plains Road.

I agree, Flushing. I think you and I have discussed that area in the past, so I'm not sure if I mentioned it. But my wife owns and operates two laundromats up that way, so I'm up there a lot. Lots of private homes and working class people, and the neighborhood is predominantly Black.

And that's all you can ask for out of your neighbors: that they work (or at least make the effort to work in this job market). Because I don't want lazy, unemployed white trash living next door to me anymore than I want lazy, unemployed Black people living next door to me. Call me crazy.

Yeah I think we have discussed this before when I was asking which mob guys ran Wakefield. I have always been curious about that.

but really only a few Italian people left in the area.

im guessing they havnt had a rat in 10+ yrs the recruiting pool in nj is huge im sure they filled there ranks right back up. they got the whole state, the familys been around just as long as the others and they always got the zips like the one in the pizza trial, who wanted to kill rotondo wife and kids. there was only 30 in the 1960tys but the got the ok to make almost 75. so what vinny ocean flipped there still a lot that didn't. know one thinks they didn't make a dozen guys in the last 5 yrs.

Oh, okay. I don't remember whether I replied or not, so forgive me if I'm being repetitive. But as far as I can recall, Mikey Salerno ran that area for the Luccheses for many, many years. He owned a lot of property along White Plains Road between 237th and 241st. His cafe was there, so was his after hours and a couple of candy stores. He also had a body shop up on Macquestion Parkway, on the Mount Vernon side of the border.

But after he got whacked (around 1990), that's when the neighborhood really started to change. So most of those spots became retail outlets for the Haitian and Jamaican community that eventually displaced the Italians in the area. And an old timer named Mike (sorry, I'm not providing his last name, even though he's dead) ran a couple of numbers spots for the Westside in that area as well (from around Nereid down to Baychester).


Well, I wouldn't have called it a strictly Italian neighborhood back then anyway. Certainly not like Pelham Bay or Belmont. But there were lots of Italians around there back in the '60s and '70s. When I went to Mount Saint Michael (1973-1977), all of the private homes from Carpenter to Baychester seemed to have a Virgin Mary on the front lawns . Today . . . not so much. It's a predominantly Black area today. But like I said, it's working class with lots of nice, decent people .