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Location: The Greatest city on Earth: City of Atlanta Proper
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I can think of about a dozen or more cities that would be well suited to be put up against NYC in a battle of Italian-American culture. San Francisco is not one of them.
I can think of about a dozen or more cities that would be well suited to be put up against NYC in a battle of Italian-American culture. San Francisco is not one of them.
I felt Little Italy was more intimate and quaint overall and a little more interesting to walk around. Feels slightly more Italian I suppose than North Beach, which isn't saying much.
North Beach is a decent neighborhood but it kinds of a magnet for white, fratty, douchebags in SF kind of like the Marina neighborhood is. North Beach Fest feels like one giant, frat bar crawl.
This is fairly accurate. I still maintain that the most authentic Italian enclave I've been to recently in the U.S. is Federal Hill in Providence and even that has seen a good chunk of its Italian heritage move out to the 'burbs.
North Beach in San Francisco is a great neighborhood. However, I don't think it compares to the Italian enclaves in cities like Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Boston or even Providence as far as the lasting Italian influence goes. It's definitely an enclave, but I don't consider it to have nearly the concentration of Italian people, stores, restaurants, activities and events that the other cities I mentioned do.
Where are the Italian enclaves in Chicago? I lived there, didn't see any; for that matter, didn't meet too many Italians at all, at least compared to the east coast cities and Cleveland.
I can think of about a dozen or more cities that would be well suited to be put up against NYC in a battle of Italian-American culture. San Francisco is not one of them.
Cool story, not really what the thread is about though. See: OP's questions.
Where are the Italian enclaves in Chicago? I lived there, didn't see any; for that matter, didn't meet too many Italians at all, at least compared to the east coast cities and Cleveland.
Taylor Street on the Near West Side bears a resemblance to many of the streets in "Little Italy" neighborhoods on the East Coast, but there's a lot of Italian American history all throughout Chicago and I think it's more apparent to even a casual observer than in San San Francisco. Granted, like Little Italy in New York or Boston's North End, gentrification and new waves of immigrants from elsewhere have penetrated the historic urban Italian enclaves and generations of Italian Americans have assimilated and spread out all over the city and into the 'burbs. Still, it's hard to deny that Italian immigrants have significant roots in Chicago.
Location: The Greatest city on Earth: City of Atlanta Proper
8,485 posts, read 14,993,141 times
Reputation: 7333
Quote:
Originally Posted by RadicalAtheist
Cool story, not really what the thread is about though. See: OP's questions.
I did and it doesn't change a single thing about what I wrote. While there are parallels between both neighborhoods (you can find parallels between anything really) in that they once were the epicenter of Italian-American culture in their cities and have since transitioned in to something else, that's about it.
Even if Little Italy is no longer strickly mostly Italian, it is the cultural birth place of Italian-American culture in New York City and Italian-American culture is one of the major cornerstones of the larger New York culture to the point that NYC would not be NYC without it. The same cannot be said for San Francisco, but it is true of dozens of other cities not named San Francisco, bro.
Taylor Street on the Near West Side bears a resemblance to many of the streets in "Little Italy" neighborhoods on the East Coast, but there's a lot of Italian American history all throughout Chicago and I think it's more apparent to even a casual observer than in San San Francisco. Granted, like Little Italy in New York or Boston's North End, gentrification and new waves of immigrants from elsewhere have penetrated the historic urban Italian enclaves and generations of Italian Americans have assimilated and spread out all over the city and into the 'burbs. Still, it's hard to deny that Italian immigrants have significant roots in Chicago.
Sure, Italians all over the east and great lakes region and San Francisco. Best Little Italy in the midwest: Cleveland. Italian roots in Chicago not as deep as east coast, of course. and of course, San Francisco
I did and it doesn't change a single thing about what I wrote. While there are parallels between both neighborhoods (you can find parallels between anything really) in that they once were the epicenter of Italian-American culture in their cities and have since transitioned in to something else, that's about it.
Even if Little Italy is no longer strickly mostly Italian, it is the cultural birth place of Italian-American culture in New York City and Italian-American culture is one of the major cornerstones of the larger New York culture to the point that NYC would not be NYC without it. The same cannot be said for San Francisco, but it is true of dozens of other cities not named San Francisco, bro.
So your answer to the OP's questions regarding the two neighborhoods in these two cities is that there are dozens of others neighborhoods in dozens of other cities that are more suited for a thread about North Beach & Little Italy? Interesting, perhaps instead you should post in those other existing thread comparisons?
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