Seventh Avenue Newark--Destroyed! (Kearny, Hoboken, Orange: condos, house, neighborhood)

[STrapani1105]

What the @!$%? I was going to go to "The Little Italy of Jersey" to discover my roots, only to find out from Wikipedia that the place has been almost completely destroyed. Then I went on Google Maps street view to see it for myself and their it was... tacky condos and piles of rubble. They built up these condos everywhere, it's just rows and rows of condos and an empty lot where Giordano's Bakery used to be. When the hell did this happen? From the looks of it, it must've have happened a while ago. How is a young guy like me supposed to discover the roots of his people in his home-state when their neighborhood, let alone their culture, has been totally destroyed!

I get the same smart-crack answer in every thread, "It's a city not a museum." But you know what, screw that. American culture and sub-cultures within America (in particular Italian-American culture and Italian culture within America) are being destroyed! This is crap!

[taurus430]

I know what you're talking about. I did the same. A few years back I took my kids to show them where I grew up in the West Ward of Newark, I didn't recognize it. My kids said "Dad, lets get out of here." It's so depressing to see a city destroyed in 20-30 years. Newark prospered at one time with the various nationalities that lived there.

I also worked on Orange St for Westinghouse. That square block building was torn down. An historic building that use to be a meat packing plant before Westinghouse. I use to walk up to the Italian Bakery on 7th Ave for bread at lunch hour.

[Tantalust]

Yeah, it's sad... my parents have told me about shopping down there ~60 years ago and how nice it was..

Have you seen the Sopranos episode where they revisit the old Newark neighborhood, that image left a strong impression on me..

[Marc Paolella]

This is silliness. Just be alive, be an excellent person, do good and exciting things, and have a good life.

It's not about edifices or roots or memory lanes.

Don't waste psychic energy wasting time worrying about something as unimportant as ethnic culture. If more people would forget ethnicity altogether, we would have far fewer problems. Ethnicity is a stupid concept in my opinion. It is of no rational value.

Except Italians cook better than all other ethnic groups. But other than that, don't worry about it.

-Marc

[taurus430]

Originally Posted by Marc Paolella

This is silliness. Just be alive, be an excellent person, do good and exciting things, and have a good life.

It's not about edifices or roots or memory lanes.

Don't waste psychic energy wasting time worrying about something as unimportant as ethnic culture. If more people would forget ethnicity altogether, we would have far fewer problems. Ethnicity is a stupid concept in my opinion. It is of no rational value.

Except Italians cook better than all other ethnic groups. But other than that, don't worry about it.

-Marc

It's not about ethnic culture so much, it's about a place we grew up. I believe as adults, we think back to our childhood days.

We use to walk from my house to Downtown Newark, nobody bothered you. Although it was heavy Italian, there were pockets of other nationalities, German, Irish, Jewish etc, and we all lived together as one big family. And of course the birthplace of the Italian Hot Dog, Pizza Bread.........and Me.....LOL.

Thanks Marc for looking at the positive.

[STrapani1105]

Originally Posted by Marc Paolella

This is silliness. Just be alive, be an excellent person, do good and exciting things, and have a good life.

It's not about edifices or roots or memory lanes.

Don't waste psychic energy wasting time worrying about something as unimportant as ethnic culture. If more people would forget ethnicity altogether, we would have far fewer problems. Ethnicity is a stupid concept in my opinion. It is of no rational value.

Except Italians cook better than all other ethnic groups. But other than that, don't worry about it.

-Marc

Silliness? That's the exact reason why culture is dying. Because people like you think that ethnic culture is unimportant. I'm not trying to personally attack you, I just don't like the idea that you're expressing where you say that ethnic culture is unimportant. I'm sorry, but I'm just horrified at what you said. Because my roots are what I am. I'm an American and I love America, but my ancestors came from Italy. If my ancestors didn't work as hard as they did, I wouldn't be here today. I feel that I owe everything to them, and I have to live up to my good name. I came from a long line of very hard working Italian-Americans. You have no idea how proud I am.

And I am just shocked to see how little you care. I just can't comprehend it. I'm not going to criticize you for it though, that would be wrong. It's just amazing how different people like you and I are. We value our ethnic heritage totally different. It's very important to me, when it's at the bottom of your list. Sorry, it's just a big wow.

And by the way, you said Italians cook better than every other ethnic group. I agree, but we take great pride in our cuisine. Our food is so special to us, but nowadays with attitudes developing like the one you have expressed in your post, it's just good food made by a bunch of sweaty Mexicans in a stainless steel kitchen. There is no passion behind the food anymore. It's almost meaningless...

This is why culture is so important to me. And when a city completely levels a neighborhood and builds cheap condos where the old shops, delis, bakeries, restaurants, etc. the culture is lost. Anyone can put up a lifeless dull row of condos, but the shops, the buildings, the people were what was unique to that section of Newark. It was the Little Italy of Jersey. And now it's gone...

Oh yeah, but at least you have a positive outlook on life, as you mentioned in the first part of your post. That I gotta give you props for. That was good, thank you.

[cyntmac]

Many other ethnic groups could say the same thing I think.
What an ego.

Most "little wherevers" are full of starbucks and chinese takeout these days.
Maybe the older family members can take you out for a bucks latte and you can listen as they swap old stories.

[johnfrisco]

Same thing has happened to Kearny and it's Scottish heritage.

[lammius]

The thing is, one's ethnic culture is something they carry within them. It's not fixed in one geographic place. The neighborhood in Newark the OP mentioned was an Italian neighborhood for one brief segment in time. Before it was an Italian neighborhood it was something else, maybe an Irish neighborhood (don't know, just using an example). Before that maybe it was farmland. Imagine the shock as each generation of former occupant returned to see the place changed. That will probably continue to happen generations into the future. Nothing is static, and everything is always changing.

[Newarkbomb]

The little Italy of Newark was like the penny in a dollar. It wasn't popular anymore in Newark after the 80s and so they just destroyed most of it so the city can have a better rep for people to move in the city.
I assume it's all gone by now, but it still was there none the less when i was growing up in Newark, though it was very little and very unpopular; I never really paid attention to it anymore since it wasn't a hot spot when i was a kid.

But that area of Newark is a nicer area of Newark, so i guess it wasn't all that bad, but they should of at least kept a chunk of Little Italy alive, but i guess no one had interest for it in Newark... It would probably be a better hit in Jersey city or Hoboken.