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New Yorks Little Italy, Littler by the Year

#88

The New York Times

2/22/11
Sam Roberts
Vocabulary to Know Before You Read
teem
resonate
melodic
encroachment
tract
nostalgic
itinerary

venerable
feign
transgression
haven
behest
ebb
galvanize

faction
flank (v.)
quaint
ailing
initiative
authentic

In 1950, nearly half of the more than 10,000 New Yorkers living in the heart of Little
Italy identified as Italian-American. The narrow streets teemed with children and
resonated with melodic exchanges in Italian among the one in five residents born in
Italy and their second- and third-generation neighbors.
By 2000, the census found that the Italian-American population had dwindled to 6
percent. Only 44 were Italian-born, compared with 2,149 a half-century earlier.
A census survey released in December determined that the proportion of ItalianAmericans among the 8,600 residents in the same two-dozen-square-block area of
Lower Manhattan had shrunk to about 5 percent.
And, incredibly, the census could not find a single resident who had been born in Italy.
Little Italy is becoming Littler Italy. The encroachment that began decades ago as
Chinatown bulged north, SoHo expanded from the west, and other tracts were
rebranded more fashionably as NoLIta (for north of Little Italy) and NoHo seems almost
complete.
The Little Italy that was once the heart of Italian-American life in the city exists mostly
as a nostalgic memory or in the minds of tourists who still make it a must-see on their
New York itinerary.
The only streets that really feel like they belong to Little Italy, Mulberry and Grand, are
still crammed with venerable Italian restaurants and shops. But Chinese-language
advertisements for reflexology spas pepper the sidewalk, a poster announces the Lunar
New Year celebration, and a for rent sign hangs on a new seven-story condominium
building at 182 Mulberry.

The Gambino crime familys old Ravenite social club at 247 Mulberry is now a shoe and
handbag boutique. As recently as 2005, Vincent Gigante, the 77-year-old boss of the
Genovese crime family, roamed the neighborhood in a bathrobe and slippers feigning
mental illness to avoid prosecution. Last month, more than 100 reputed members of
mob families were charged with federal crimes; none lived in Little Italy.
Sambucas Caf, at 105 Mulberry Street, is listed by Yelp, the food-oriented Web site, as
being in Chinatown a particularly humiliating geographic transgression because it
is owned by the president of the Little Italy Merchants Association.
Last year, the National Park Service designated a Chinatown and Little Italy Historic
District with no geographic distinction between the neighborhoods. The two
neighborhoods have begun organizing a Marco Polo Day and an East Meets West
Christmas Parade.
City Hall will soon further erase the boundaries.
Following the lead of three local community boards, the City Planning Commission is
expected in March to approve the creation of a Chinatown Business Improvement
District, which would engulf all but about two square blocks of a haven that once
spanned almost 50 square blocks and had the largest concentration of Italian
immigrants in the United States.
Its really all Chinatown now, said John A. Zaccaro Sr., owner of the Little Italy real
estate company, founded by his father in 1935.
Even the Feast of San Gennaro, which still draws giant crowds to Mulberry Street, may
be abbreviated in size this year at the behest of inconvenienced NoLIta merchants.
The number of residents of Italian descent in the neighborhood has been declining since
the 1960s, as immigration from Italy ebbed and Italian-Americans prospered and
moved to other parts of the city and to the suburbs.
When the Italians made money they moved to Queens and New Jersey, they sold to the
Chinese, who are now selling to the Vietnamese and Malaysians, said Ernest Lepore,
46, who, with his brother and mother, owns Ferrara, an espresso and pastry shop his
family opened 119 years ago.
Still, about 30 Italian-American babies born in the neighborhood are baptized at the
Church of the Most Precious Blood on Baxter Street every year. And some residents
cling to a neighborhood that is rich in history and culture.
Natalie Diazs children are the fifth generation of a family that arrived on Ellis Island
from Naples in 1916. She still lives in the same gray five-story building on Mulberry
Street above Il Piccolo Bufalo where she grew up. Ms. Diaz, who is 34, runs a group for

parents of twins and triplets. Her husbands parents were Irish and Puerto Rican, and he
works as a manager at her familys restaurant in the neighborhood, La Mela.
Little by little, everyone wants a little more, more space, and moves away, Ms. Diaz
said. There are some families, mostly from my moms generation, who have held out.
To be honest, though, I feel a really strong sense of tradition. I owe it to my ancestors. I
feel that everything my family worked for from the time they got off the boat is here.
Of the 8,600 residents counted by the censuss American Community Survey in the
heart of Little Italy in 2009, nearly 4,400 were foreign-born. Of those, 89 percent were
born in Asia. In 2009, a Korean immigrant won a tenor competition sponsored by the
Little Italy Merchants Association. That same year, a Chinese immigrant, Margaret S.
Chin, was elected to represent the district in the City Council.
Ms. Chin played a key role in galvanizing diverse factions to create the business
improvement district, which reaches north from Chinatown with two arms that flank
Mulberry Street and arc toward it from the middle of two parallel streets, Baxter and
Mott.
We opted out of the district, said Ralph Tramontana, president of the Little Italy
merchants group and owner of Sambucas Caf. We didnt think there was a need for it,
because through the merchants association we already do what a business improvement
district does.
I told Chinatown businesses, said David Louie, who helped push for the district, You
should look at Little Italy and follow their example at 8:30 in the morning you can see
them scrubbing down the sidewalks.
Cleanliness, quaintness and low crime have broadened the neighborhoods appeal,
which has driven up rents. Rent-controlled apartments are still home to some ItalianAmericans, Mr. Zaccaro said, but market-rate residences cost vast sums more. An 800square-foot one-bedroom in a six-story renovated building at 145 Mulberry was
advertised recently for $4,200 a month. The owners of a two-bedroom co-op on Grand
Street are asking $1.5 million.
Paoluccis, a popular restaurant that opened on Mulberry in 1947, moved to Staten
Island after the owners rent was raised in 2005 to $20,000 a month from $3,500, he
said.
Still, other Little Italy landmarks have not only survived, but appear to be thriving
thanks mostly to tourists and to what the author Nicholas Pileggi described decades ago
as suburban Saturday Italians the prospering overweight sons of leaner immigrant
fathers.
Di Palos, an Italian specialty food store at 200 Grand Street, opened for business in

1903, a decade after the Alleva dairy at 188 Grand, which advertises itself as the nations
oldest Italian cheese store and which, like Ferrara, opened in 1892. Fifth-generation
family members work in all three stores, and all three also sell their products online.
In 1990, Lou Di Palo said, his ailing father handed the next generation the keys.
We decided were going to take our business and go backwards focus the way our
grandparents and great-grandparents ran their operation: family-oriented, hands-on
customer relations, he said. Were going to cut your piece of cheese and slice your
prosciutto. Were still a neighborhood store, but we took the initiative to make our
shop a destination.
It went from an immigrant store to an Italian-American store focused on authentic
products of Italy, Mr. Di Palo explained. We dont expect our customers to come on a
daily basis. A great customer well see once a week, a very good customer well see once a
month. People used to say to me, Youre still here! I said, As long as you keep coming,
Ill be here.
Questions:
1. Why is the Little Italy community becoming smaller? Use at least three details from
the article to support your answer.
2. What other ethnic groups are beginning to move into the Little Italy neighborhood?
How these different cultures mixing and changing as a result?
3. According to the article, why are some Italians moving out of the traditional Little
Italy neighborhood? Use details to support your answer.
4. Do you think its important that ethnic communities like Little Italy and Chinatown
be preserved? Why or why not? Use details from the article to support your answer.