What was Little italy like pre 90s.....?

According to some articles, there were very few tourists and lots more social clubs, and everybody knew everybody etc.....

Anybody here been to the san gennaro festival? How does it compare to back in the 70s and 80s.

As a unknown face, would you have felt safe going for a late night drink in say mulberry st.

Very trendy place to live nowadays, i would guess an apartment there would cost a fortune.

I'll be happy to answer all of your questions. But first, how old are you and where are you from?

I only ask because you've been asking some very naive questions since you signed up. And that's okay. It's just that we've had problems with people trolling here lately.

And welcome to the board, Vito .

Why would i be trolling asking a few questions about little italy? I aint never been to new york..and im 25...

What would you rather i posted, questions such as What cologne do mobsters wear, Tall mobsters,
How many shooters does the mob have etc etc....

Those type of questions were all posted recently and are silly! However people still answer them! lol

My questions are legit compared to the majority of recent posts!

Okay, fair enough. But you'd be surprised at some of the knuckleheads that we've had here over the years .


There have always been tourists in Little Italy. Just not as many as, say, the past 25 years. Restaurants like Angelo's and Vincent's that have been in existence for a hundred years have always catered to the tourist trade.


All my life, and I'm almost 55. But it's nothing like it used to be. It literally took up thirty square blocks when I was growing up. Today it just runs on Mulberry, from Canal to about Kenmare.


Of course. It was always a "safe" neighborhood, even before the gentrification.


A one bedroom in SoHo will run you roughly $2500 a month today.

At the 2010 census there wasn't a single Italian born resident living in the 10013 zip code. You're much more likely to run into a gay couple than a wiseguy on Mulberry Street today .

Thanks for the info!.

My pleasure, pal. And again, I'm sorry if I insulted you. Like I said in the pm, I guess I'm getting paranoid because of all the trolls and troublemakers we've had here lately .

Pizzaboy your getting like casso and scarfo , u will be whacking people next , ha ha . Hope your ok buddy and your family r well

We're fine, Dom. Thanks .

My son just got home from college for the summer, so it's nice. Until he starts asking for money, that is

Honestly fucking pathetic & disgraceful what is happening to This country, especially in big cultural metropolises like NY, Chi, Boston, SF. Shameful.

.

Times change, demographics change.

No one laments the passing of "Old New York" more than I do. But you have to roll with the punches. What can you do?

You sound like a pedophile mate lol

Special places like Little Italy disappear all the time...and its depressing.

We in SF have our own area of the city called North Beach. Lots of history in this Italian neighborhood. Joe DiMaggio grew up here. My grandfather played ball with him as kids. DiMaggio married Marilyn Monroe at Saints Peter and Paul church.

Believe it or not we had our fare share of wise guys out here. Joe "The Animal" Barboza was shot down on the San Francisco streets in 1976. Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno spent time here.

These days, like most old Italian neighborhoods, restaurants cater to the tourists and the folks who live in the area are well to do or young hipsters. My Nonno learned to speak English in Washington square park, my grandparents wedding cake was made at Victoria Pastry 63 years ago. History.

It has happen everywhere but in Chicago its depressing as HELL.

I've been to NYC but never to little Italy so it was interesting for me to hear all about how it has changed so much. Buffalo is the same. Once the west side was nearly all Italian and now loaded with Puerto Ricans, Indians, Blacks and I think Arabs. Gone are the Italian stores (Mostly) bakeries and Pizzerias.

Well, it's funny because the outer borough Italian neighborhoods were replaced by the other poor, yet newer ethnic groups (Albanians and Latinos in the Bronx, Russians and Middle Easterners in Brooklyn and Queens, etc.). And the same holds true for East Harlem (in Manhattan), which is nearly 90 percent Latino today. Yet the downtown Little Italy (Mulberry Street, also in Manhattan) has only gotten richer due to gentrification.

Now don't get me wrong, there are still loads of poor Chinese in Chinatown, and Chinatown has taken over a lot of Little Italy. But the northern part of Little Italy, from Grand Street, all the way up to around Bleecker Street, has only gotten wealthier. The rents down there are insane. Like I posted earlier in the thread, a one bedroom walk-up will run you at least $2500 a month. And there aren't even many hipsters in SoHo yet. Just a lot of Yuppies and foreign born business people.

pizza,

I think it's a matter of tax base and allocation of city and state resources.

Current residents of new Little Italy are going to be singles or couples with no children.(young professionals, hipsters,gay couples)

Residents of the area of upper Manhattan you mentioned and outer boroughs are going to be old school(in the American sense) families with a lot of children and extended families.

The state is taking more in and spending less in new Little Italy....public school class sizes are probably very low in that area for example.
Average income levels have something to do with the trends that neighborhoods take but I think things such as household size play big factor.

Yes, Gets. That plays a very large part in it. It was clearly done by design. It was no accident. The City and State governments knew exactly what they were doing.

Pizza,

nah, I'm not saying it's a plot by the govt.

oh and by the way..I REFUSE to use any of the foolish new acronyms for neighborhoods in NewYork

the only Dumbo I know is a cartoon elephant

What about NoLita?

Sounds like an underage hooker .

Pizza,
I am also very new but not a troll - I am from Memphis and have been to NYC several times and love checking out famous LCN landmarks (Sparks was the very first place I went when I dropped my bags at the hotel). I am somewhat familiar with the general geography of the LES and love walking the streets there every time I visit. My question is this: what woukd a very naive tourist exploring the neighborhood have encountered had they gotten anywhere near the Ravenite in the 80s? I know they would never make it in, but can you speculate what may have been the method of 'deterrence'?

Welcome aboard, Sal .


You would have been politely chased away. The first time. Really no other way to put it .

And the thing about the Ravenite is, even though it was in Little Italy, and on Mulberry Street, it was just a bit north of the touristy restaurants, up by Prince Street. So if you wandered over there, and you weren't a local, you really stood out.

Sal, don't let Pizzaboy fool you... he's a great guy. He would have let you in The Ravenite and bought you a drink!
Welcome to the BB.

Thank you very much for the warm welcome. The history of LCN has fascinated me since I was 8 yrs old (41 now) and this board is so full of very cool threads. I noticed in the Rare pics section that a lot of those photos on the first few pages are not available (at least from what I can tell). Just in the past month I have bought several vintage pics and would love to be exposed to some I have not seen. Here is one I may buy very soon that I just found today.

http://pixels.com/products/group-of-mobsters-in-the-1920s-left-everett-art-print.html

And you have to post more, Mark. You used to be the Welcome Wagon here. I don't have time to be welcoming guys from down south .

Just kidding, Sal. Me and Mark? We go back .

Any mobster with a nick name "Fatty" is okay in my book!

They used to call Joe Bonanno Fatty McButterPants. Then he went on Atkins. Lived to be almost 100.

I been "away" for a while but I'm back now.

I'll step back up so you can work on your tan, Pizzaboy!
Sal, me and PB were separated at birth... he stayed in The neighborhood and I got sent to Chicago suburbs!