Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Well to be honest little italy is kinda crummy for families
no fields for kids, small apartments
it really is only good for yuppies and hipsters, and immigrants who are planning on moving into a big house in the burbs anyways
None of the immigrant groups (italian, irish, etc) ever planned on staying in those nabes to begin with
Their dreams were to get rich and move away into a big McMansion
if they wanted to preserve their nabes then they would have stayed in Sicily
Unfortunately not all get rich enough to afford a big Mc Mansion. Personally if I ever got rich I'd opt for a brownstone. I don't care for McMansions ( lack of charm,cookie cutter and alot are built flimsy) but for everyone else to each their own.
If don't mean to be flippant, but why did your family leave? That's the answer to your question. Why should others have stayed crammed into an apartment in the city, while you or your family moved to Jersey?
Cultural pride and nostalgia are not the same thing. This is a city, not a museum. A city, like a culture, is made up of individual people. Those people make choices and with choice comes change. Immigrants came to this country because it offered a greater range of choices. No one moved here hoping they'd be metaphorically locked in ghetto for generations. They wanted to get away from all that.
my family is huge... part of my family originated on 14th street in Manhattan. then they went out to Pennsylvania. I'm the first generation to be born in new Jersey. i still have family in new york though. I don't really know them all that well. I used to have a lot of family in the Bronx.
Arthur Avenue is historically italian. those shops and stuff are all for tourists. from what I can tell most of the residents of Arthur Avenue are of Latino heritage.
There are a lot of Latinos in the area but there are also a lot of Albanians,who are one of the most recent immigrant groups to come to The Bronx.
They are very similar to Italians in many respects ,especially looks and culture.
They seem to have settled in Little Italy( Belmont) and Pelham Parkway and Morris Park... two other Italian areas. Some people claim that they migrated to those neighborhoods because they are so similar to the Italians.
They now actually own many of the businesses formerly owned by the Italians,including the pizza shops and restaurants which still serve Italian food.
my family is huge... part of my family originated on 14th street in Manhattan. then they went out to Pennsylvania. I'm the first generation to be born in new Jersey. i still have family in new york though. I don't really know them all that well. I used to have a lot of family in the Bronx.
Have you spent much time in Morris Park ? It is still one of the biggest(maybe the biggest) and most cohesive Italian neighborhoods left in the city.It is centered around Morris Park Avenue and Williamsbridge Road. Lots and lots of Italians are still there ,lots of Italian Groceries,bakeries,restaurants,butcher shops,etc.Masses still in Italian in some of the churches and they have their own big Columbus Day parade .
Albanians have moved in in the last 20 years but you can't tell they are Albanian until they start speaking .
That's funny because Albania is very close to Italy, and Albanians have migrated there in large numbers over the past few years. (I know this from my tile guy who is Albanian and worked in Italy for years before coming here.)
I think that genetically they are the same people,if you know what I mean.And their cultures are very similar.
In my neighborhood of The Bronx it is the most frequently heard foreign language on the streets.Most of the shop keepers appear to be Albanian.They also seem to own a lot of the apartment buildings.
yeah, I'm glad everyone understands that no negativity or racism was intended. the Italians arrived here over 100 years ago. we have fully assimilated into American culture and we live in the suburbs. we have no real communities anymore. well... the ones that are still considered "strong" are not even comparable to the definition of a strong Italian community like 50 years ago. maybe even as little as 30 years ago.
Agreed. Italian-Americans have mostly melded into the General American culture. They are fully assimilated. Some still cling to a vague notion of Italianness but when analyzed deeper there isn't much Italian or even Italian-American about it. Some people see this as a good thing some see it as a bad thing. It is what it is.
You also have to realize that many of these people once their families moved to the burbs were already on the second or more generation here in the U.S. They were mostly living a very NYC based Italian-American way of life. By moving to the burbs in a sense they lost a big part of their identity or what made them feel "Italian." I'm not knocking the choice, just pointing out that they did lose a big part of their ethnic identity in making this move.
Last edited by NooYowkur81; 03-07-2009 at 08:02 AM..
By the way,the Albanians are already another great American immigrant success story.
They have been coming here for less than 20 years and already own lots of businesses and real estate in the areas that they moved into.
There are a lot of Latinos in the area but there are also a lot of Albanians,who are one of the most recent immigrant groups to come to The Bronx.
They are very similar to Italians in many respects ,especially looks and culture.
They seem to have settled in Little Italy( Belmont) and Pelham Parkway and Morris Park... two other Italian areas. Some people claim that they migrated to those neighborhoods because they are so similar to the Italians.
They now actually own many of the businesses formerly owned by the Italians,including the pizza shops and restaurants which still serve Italian food.
The best Pizzeria around where I live is owned by Albanians, and I've definitely noticed they own quite a few in the BX.
As for Morris Park, it definitely still has a lot of Italians but I wouldn't call it an "Italian area." People might get the wrong impression, it's actually pretty diverse.
Italians and Albanians also Greeks have similar cultures. For whatever reason Italians and Greeks don't get along great, probably because of too many beefs through history and because both like to think their cultures are the best. But Italians and Albanians mostly get along fine.
Last edited by NooYowkur81; 03-07-2009 at 08:14 AM..
My tile guy sure is cute, so I'll go with the theory that Albanians and Italians share the same gene pool. (smiley face).
I predict that the immigrants coming here and succeeding in this part of the century will not lose their ethnic identities like my ancestors, who came over from the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the early 1900s. These people are able to travel home every year to visit family, think it's very important for their kids to become comfy in the home culture, unlike a hundred years ago when the notion of visiting the old country was about as likely as visiting another planet.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
