San Francisco vs Manhattan in Italian enclaves

[garyjohnyang]

Originally Posted by dalparadise

Historically, Little Italy is the easy choice. Today, North Beach retains more Italian heritage than Little Italy in my opinion.

I'd like to thank you for being one of the sole voices of reason in this thread. Your posts were very informative and insightful, but rather ruined by some of the less cohesive characters. Having been to the Little Italy in New York (which is surrounded by Chinatown nowadays) and the one in San Francisco (one which Chinatown is encroaching on nowadays), I really do think that North Beach is much less a shadow of its former self than Little Italy is. I remember just this past March visiting NYC as a tourist and being shocked at 1)The lack of authentic food in what is purported to be the largest Chinatown outside of Asia and 2)The Little Italy, a few blocks of which I saw, all which were inundated with tourists and people of non-Italian heritage. This isn't to say that North Beach and SF in general doesn't have an equal share of the aforementioned issues, but I felt that the area was underwhelming for its reputation. I do plan on revisiting New York sooner or later, though. Perhaps Ferrara's isn't the best place for Italian pastries. Does anyone have recommendations for great restaurants in either area? I've had a craving for Italian food for the past week

[Winnyard Bletch]

Circle Jerk complete. Namaste.

[NOLA101]

Originally Posted by garyjohnyang

I remember just this past March visiting NYC as a tourist and being shocked at 1)The lack of authentic food in what is purported to be the largest Chinatown outside of Asia and 2)The Little Italy, a few blocks of which I saw, all which were inundated with tourists and people of non-Italian heritage.

Then you should have done more research, because all your assumptions were incorrect.

Manhattan Chinatown is much smaller than the Queens and Brooklyn Chinatowns. Flushing Chinatown is the largest Chinese community outside of Asia.

And obviously "Manhattan's Little Italy was innundated with tourists and people of non-Italian heritage". You were seriously surprised that tourists dominate Manhattan? Little Italy in Manhattan hasn't been Italian in at least a half-century and sits in a very dense area of tourists and visitors. Even if it were 100% Italian instead of 0% Italian it would be "innundated with tourists and people of non-Italian heritage".

[garyjohnyang]

Originally Posted by NOLA101

Then you should have done more research, because all your assumptions were incorrect.

Manhattan Chinatown is much smaller than the Queens and Brooklyn Chinatowns. Flushing Chinatown is the largest Chinese community outside of Asia.

And obviously "Manhattan's Little Italy was inundated with tourists and people of non-Italian heritage". You were seriously surprised that tourists dominate Manhattan? Little Italy in Manhattan hasn't been Italian in at least a half-century and sits in a very dense area of tourists and visitors. Even if it were 100% Italian instead of 0% Italian it would be "innundated with tourists and people of non-Italian heritage".

Fair enough, but I meant it was much less Italian than purported. Of course I knew there would be tourists and people of non-Italian heritage in New York... I was one.But the demographics of Little Italy look no different from the neighboring areas. That was what surprised me. And I have yet to read an article claiming that Flushing is the largest Chinese community outside of Asia. If you have one, then, by all means, post it.
Moreover, if we're going by sheer estimates, Flushing's ethnic Chinese population is less than 40,000. I found the link here:
The changing Chinatowns: Move over Manhattan, Sunset Park now home to most Chinese in NYC - NY Daily News
That means that Sunset Park is the largest Chinatown in NY. It still comprises less than 40,000 people of Chinese descent.
Chinatown in San Francisco is expanding north into the city's "Little Italy". 2000 estimates had the population of the community at 100,574; walk around the streets and you can tell that SF Chinatown retains a much more exclusively Chinese culture than Flushing. It's almost entirely Chinese. Of course, I am still looking for data to support that conclusion (as few documents pertaining to the demographics of the area exist), but either way SF Chinatown is perceivably and agreeably more Chinese than any of its New York counterparts. None of this contributes information considered essential to this thread, but needs to be refuted.