Strongest Italian presence: Baltimore, New Orleans or San Francisco? (state, largest, compared)
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3 cities outside the core Italian concentration of the Northeast that have Little Italy districts and are even said to have somewhat "northeastern" accents (at least compared to their surrounding regions), but don't seem to have any Italian residential concentrations anywhere today. Which has the strongest Italian or Italian American presence?
Chicago, unless I missed a specification as to why that would not be on the list.
Because Chicago has the 2nd largest Italian immigrant and Italian speaking population in the US and more Italian residential concentration than these cities as far as I know. I don't think any one of these cities have an equivalent to Norridge or Elmwood Park.
3 cities outside the core Italian concentration of the Northeast that have Little Italy districts and are even said to have somewhat "northeastern" accents (at least compared to their surrounding regions), but don't seem to have any Italian residential concentrations anywhere today. Which has the strongest Italian or Italian American presence?
That "northeastern" accent (tough guy-like) is probably a stereotypical Italian-American accent influenced heavily by New York and New Jersey. I don't see why someone not native to either of those states would have that accent.
You can thank pop culture for that stereotype of Italian-Americans.
For your enjoyment, or for anyone else who likes to hear that accent:
I'm talking about things like the "yat" accent in New Orleans. From the foreword to A Confederacy of Dunces:
"There is a New Orleans city accent . . . associated with downtown New Orleans, particularly with the German and IrishThird Ward, that is hard to distinguish from the accent of Hoboken, Jersey City, and Astoria, Long Island, where the Al Smithinflection, extinct in Manhattan, has taken refuge. The reason, as you might expect, is that the same stocks that brought the accent to Manhattan imposed it on New Orleans"
People in San Fransisco don't have a northeastern accent, and those in New Orleans who sound a bit New Yorkish sound like that because of their ethnic heritage....They sound nothing like non-ethnic northeastern people in upstate NY, New Hampshire or Pennsylvania. It also makes little sense to compare a city in the northeast and next door to Philadelphia and three hours from NYC, with distant San Fransisco and New Orleans, which are nowhere near an area with lots of Italians. Sure, there are Italians, but these places are anomalies within regions where there is nowhere near the numbers of Italians found in the northeast corridor. Not a fair comparison at all.
People in San Fransisco don't have a northeastern accent, and those in New Orleans who sound a bit New Yorkish sound like that because of their ethnic heritage....They sound nothing like non-ethnic northeastern people in upstate NY, New Hampshire or Pennsylvania. It also makes little sense to compare a city in the northeast and next door to Philadelphia and three hours from NYC, with distant San Fransisco and New Orleans, which are nowhere near an area with lots of Italians. Sure, there are Italians, but these places are anomalies within regions where there is nowhere near the numbers of Italians found in the northeast corridor. Not a fair comparison at all.
So you're saying Baltimore has that many more Italians..?
I do know that New Orleans was the 2nd largest port of immigration and has/had the largest population of Sicilians outside of Sicily.
New Orleans - 3.32%
Baltimore - 2.14%
San Francisco - 1.88%
Why exactly is New Orleans in last place?
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