“This is my first time coming on a Saturday and it happens to be after the… it’s really not after – we’re still in the pandemic, but I guess after mass vaccination, so I’m actually quite surprised to see how many people are here,” said Eric Johnson, 32, of Harlem  ”

 Johnson said he isn’t scared to be around a large group of people since he is vaccinated.

 “We’ve been risking it all for a while,” said Johnson. “I mean, you know, I’m not scared. I was vaccinated back in April. Nothing’s happened since then. I ride the trains. This is a little different for me though, I’ve never been in this type of crowd for quite some time, but I am hoping for the best. I think we’ll be alright.”

 Anna Delgado, 62, from Queens said she was a regular at the San Gennaro Feast. She also felt safe in the large group due to the vaccination rates in Little Italy. 

“Some people, they are aware of the pandemic,” said Delgago. “They use masks, but I think around 70 percent of the people over here, they already had the vaccination. That’s very good for New York.”

According to the CDC, 85.54 percent of Hudson Square, Little Italy, SoHo, and Tribeca are vaccinated. This is higher than Manhattan’s vaccination rate of 79.09 percent and New York City’s vaccination rate of 69.45 percent. The case and death rate for these neighborhoods are also lower than Manhattan’s as well as New York City’s.

 With hundreds of people unmasked in such close quarters, the feast does have the potential to  be a super spreader event as fully vaccinated people are still getting infected with Covid.  The vaccine card and mask mandates  are not required for outdoor events.

But the crowds who walked around eating cannolis and smoked sausages were not afraid and neither were the vendors hawking the food.

 “It doesn’t matter because we’re all outside, “ said Angelique Aquilino, 36, a pastry stand owner.  “We can do whatever we want to do, and everybody’s happy.”

Not every vendor was comfortable with the crowds.

Josephine Caso, sister of the owner of Cafe Napoli, checking her reflection in a window at the Feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy. Photo by Maggie Geiler

“I tell you I’m a little leery,” said Josephine Caso, 85, sister of the owner of Café Napoli. “Thank God that everybody’s healthy, [my family and I] all got our shots, we’re happy to be back.”

 Caso and her family handed out cannoli’s, almond-filled pastries, and zeppole to customers waiting in long lines, some for up to 45 minutes. With much of Little Italy’s income being dependent on tourism, the tight-knit community was hit hard by the pandemic, causing most restaurants to lay off staff members and some to deal with closing.

 “Forget it, forget it, it was a disaster,” said Caso “I’ll tell you the truth, I was scared. We had the place closed for a year and a half, nobody walked the streets. It was very hard.”

Business owners hoped the feast would be the boost neighborhood businesses would need.

“With the whole festival going on, hopefully it boosts everything back up, said Manuel Siguencia,37, the manager  at Il Cortilo restaurant. “All of Little Italy is packed… it’s so awesome.”

And the 11-day festival was exceeding their expectations.

 “We were afraid that it wouldn’t be like this coming back,” said Aquilino. “It’s like nothing ever happened. Like we just fell asleep and woke up and we’re back where we were. Everyone is back. This neighborhood needed this.”

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Our second episode focuses on Haven Green, an affordable housing development for older adults who have experienced homelessness proposed for the current site of the Elizabeth Street Garden. How can communities
balance the need for housing with the need for green space when both are at a premium? How does New York City’s urban land use review processensure, or not, that the city takes many perspectives into account? Do wealthy neighborhoods like Soho have the duty to welcome new development and share their amenities with lower-income households?

Additional Reading:

• Neighborhood Defenders (Katherine Levine Einstein)
• The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children (Raj Chetty, Nathanial Hendren, Lawrence F. Katz, Opportunity Atlas)
• Strategies to Boost Housing Production in the New York City Metropolitan Area (Citizens Budget Commission)

The post Soho -Elizabeth Street Garden appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

Little Italy’s 93rd annual San Gennero Feast on Mulberry Street  is keeping up with the times and changing diets of New Yorkers and tourists.

“Most gelato is not gluten-free, but ours is,” said Burcian Isik, 44, the owner of stand called Gelato. “We try to stay up to date with the popular healthier food options and offer new flavors every year.”

Gelato is primarily gluten-free pastries, desserts like gelato, Italian cookies and cannoli. They recently switched over.

 “Our new strategy helps bring us more business every year,” Isik said. “We have noticed the growth of veganism and just stricter diets overall. We started using milk instead of cream.

She said the stand is now selling its first first vegan option, sorbet.

Vegetarian options are a staple of the Mulberry Street Bar best known for serving pizza with various types of cheese.

“Because we have many types of cheese, we have several vegetarian options,” Valerie Martinez, their chef said. “But we do not have any gluten free pizzas. We do not have options for customers with special dietary restrictions.” 

That means business walks away.

“We have lost many potential customers,” Martinez said. “We have  six to ten  people come to us everyday with specific dietary restrictions such as gluten. It is only the fifth day of the festival and we have lost at least 25 customers. Our competitors offer some type of gluten free dish and we need to do the same for our customers.”

Meat alternatives are also becoming popular among vendors

“I came here every year for 18 years and around four year ago, younger people began to ask about vegetarian options,” said Nick Cancio, the owner of a gyro stand. “I decided to offer veggie ball gyros and they sell almost as much as the philly. I heard of the “impossible burger” and I want to offer something like that next year.”

Tyrieka Williams, 34, grew up on Mulberry Street and said the growing diversity of food every year helps keep the festival thriving.

“Fifteen years ago there was really only two options, sausages and cannoli,” she said. “The only vegetables I saw were cooked with the meat. Now I see corn on the cob, grilled peaches and gluten free pizzas. It might not seem like much but new options like this keep this old festival booming. I used to see the same faces here, but now I see so many different types of people from different backgrounds.” 

Tara Puccio a New York University graduate student, was selling sausages and pizza at the festival.  She said she is proud to see the more diverse food options.

“We came out with gluten free pizza and are looking into Kosher and Halal meat for our potential Jewish and Muslim customers,” she said.

“My Italian culture is beautiful,” she said. “I am so happy to see our food do what food is made for, bringing people and culture together.”

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Ernie Pipoli, owner of Italian food vendor Pip’s Pit at the 93rd Annual Feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy, is worried about his family business. Pipoli can’t find anyone in his family to learn the recipes.

“Now my own brother doesn’t want to take it over from me,”Pipoli said yesterday. “Kids these days don’t want to work hard and this is hard work.” 

Pipoli grew up on Houston Street and learned the business at a young age. 

“Years ago, growing up around here, I worked for my uncle, that’s the way it was,” he said.  “I was with my family and my friend Danny, who makes zeppoles, worked with his family.”

The generations of families that have been the foundation of the neighborhood is thinning. At one time it was the largest Italian neighborhood in the city and now only a few blocks remain.  Many of the Italian families that lived in  Little Italy have moved away. High rents have also been factor.

Ernie Pipoli’s cousin, Vita Pipoli, works at the festival for Pip’s Pit. She said she doesn’t know any young person that will continue the family business. 

“This festival is a big undertaking and it’s 10 days, besides setting up and all,” said Vita Pipoli. “It’s a lot. You need to be committed to this.” 

She said that there aren’t many young people who will take over their parents’ traditions anymore. 

“They have jobs of their own,” she said. “Many of the Italian vendors, whose children have outside interests and outside jobs, find it difficult. A lot of these vendors do this because it’s their means of making a living, not everybody does that. This is not easy work.” 

To Flavio Rodriguez, this festival is hard work as well. He doesn’t believe that his children will help with his homemade cigar business. 

“I want them to learn it, but I don’t want them to do this for a living. It’s tough work,” he said. 

Flavio Rodriguez uses tobacco leaves, and a natural glue, to create his homemade cigars. He has been producing them for 24 years. Photo by Sydney Fishman

Rodriguez, of Long Island, has been a vendor at the Feast of San Gennaro for 15 years. He immigrated to New York from the Dominican Republic with his father and has been making cigars since he was 16 years old. 

He wants to continue his business, but he knows it will be difficult for his children to make a living making cigars. He doesn’t make much money from the festival.

“I grew up in the Dominican Republic and my family has tobacco farms in the D.R.,” he said. “You know Fuente Cigars? It’s a huge cigar company. They used to teach us how to make cigars. We worked on the farm and sold the tobacco to those big companies. Then I moved up here with my father and I am still making cigars.”

Rodriguez likes his job, but he wants his kids to pursue what they want to do instead. To him, making cigars is a way to keep his culture alive. It’s a legacy he wants to continue. 

“I will carry on the tradition,” said Rodriguez. “My kids can do whatever they want. But I want them to go to college, and get a career. For me, I have to do it. Sometimes we lose money, but this is like advertising for our family,” he said. 

Then he glued together tobacco leaves, filled them, rolled them into cigars and sold them to the crowd. 

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The red, white and green clad streets of Little Italy yesterday afternoon were empty. Hundreds of vendor tents lined the walkways, selling everything from pizza and cannolis to Italian flags and clothing, But customers were scarce.

Despite crowds being thin, expectations among the vendors were up with over a million visitors expected during the 89th year of the Feast of San Gennaro.

The annual feast is meant to keep the spirit and faith of the Italian immigrants alive, and to pay tribute to the patron saint of Naples, San Gennaro. Thousands of Italians emigrated from Naples, Italy, to the lower Manhattan neighborhood of Little Italy over a century ago in search of a better life. But the descendants of the immigrants have long moved to Brooklyn, Staten Island and beyond. Only a few Italian stores and restaurants which stand as reminders of the bustling Italian neighborhood it once was

Vendor Rose Lansang, of Bayonne, NJ said she knew why business was slow. The feast started right after Labor Day and had other holidays stacked behind it.

“[The visitors] just came back from their holiday, then the Jewish holiday was approaching, so you know, their minds were set on school opening, not on the feast,” she said.

Lansang and her daughter, Dorothy Lansang, are the owners of Street Fair Cosmetics based in New Jersey. They have had a stand in the festival for over 25 years.

The duo’s beauty stand on the corner of Mott and Hester Street sold discounted cosmetics, including body lotions, bath products, makeup kits, and hundreds of nail polish colors just waiting to be bought.

Liza Nagelkirk, 26, of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was hoping to see bigger crowds.
This was her first year working the festival as the event manager of Gelso & Grand restaurant, and her spot was at the wooden high-top window bar serving food and alcohol to passersby.

Liza Nagelkirk, the manager of Gelso & Grand, awaits the influx of customers the sunny weekend weather is predicted to bring. Photo by Leann Garofolo

“We started off with it being rainy, and so that was difficult for people,” Nagelkirk said of the thin crowds. “I think a lot of people put it off because they knew this weekend coming up was going to be nice, and they’re like, we’ll just go. I think it’s going to be swamped this weekend”

Fabrizio Facchetti, 21, an Italian immigrant who lives in the Bronx, worked out
of a makeshift café stand in front of the Christmas in New York Store, which also happened to be his second job. He compared scooping gelato and preparing cappuccino to his days as a pastry chef in Milan. He was hopeful the crowds would come.

“Everybody, maybe they are working,” Facchetti said. “Most of [the customers right now] are tourists from all parts of the world, like Italy, Asia, South America. But tonight is going to be busy, trust me.”

Camille Welsh, of Naples, Italy, has assisted her family in working at the stand for their restaurant, the Mulberry Street Bar, for 72 years. Welsh grew so accustomed to Little Italy that she moved to Mulberry Street to live permanently, just a short distance from her family bar, which also boasted Thursday karaoke nights and weekly comedy shows.

Welsh’s familiarity with the festival helps her understand the occasional lull in business.

“Now it’s the middle of the day,” she said. “People are still at work, lunch time is really over, dinner didn’t start yet. It comes in spurts.”

A few idle visitors walked by to check out the various homemade pizzas lining the picnic table style stand for the family’s bar. They walked away empty-handed.

“You never know how crowded it is going to be,” she continued. “So, it’s like anything else. It’s like the weather. You don’t know if the sun is going to come or the rain. So, whatever happens, happens.”

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Over 100 years ago, Little Italy was a neighborhood spread out for over a dozen blocks, stuffed to the brim with Italian immigrant families who lived and worked there to achieve the American dream. But today its size has shrunk from a heaping plate of spaghetti to a mere forkful. The neighborhood stretches only about four blocks, which are filled with tourist shops and restaurants pushing “the best homemade” cannolis and meatballs around.

What was once a home to thousands of Italian immigrants in New York has become what many call a tourist trap. But though the neighborhood has changed, there are some Italian-Americans who refuse to give up their businesses, homes and the true essence of Little Italy. Many believe that those who remain in the neighborhood are what keep its nostalgia alive.

“Little Italy, ain’t only a place, it’s a mind set,” said Ernest Tramontana, a lifetime Little Italy resident.

Hasia Diner, professor and academic chair of Hebrew and Judiac Studies at NYU, said that Italians immigrants moving out of the neighborhood was a positive thing for them because it meant they were making it.

“Little Italy was really the victim of its own success, in as much as the children and for sure the grandchildren of the people who lived there wanted to live in places with yards, if not the actual suburbs,” Diner said.

Vinny Vella, a 3rd generation Italian-American, sat at the little patio outside La Bella Café, at a marble topped table scattered about with lottery scratch tickets, laughing and joking with friends while watching passersby on Mulberry Street.

“Every week we do this,” he said. “We play and then decide who gets what,” he said pointing at the scratch tickets with a hearty laugh, waving his hand adorned with a gold ring on his pinky and chain on his wrist. On the crisp fall afternoon, Vella was dressed to the nines; his black knee-length peat coat and grey grizzly hair toped off the look.

Vinny Vella, 63, is a 3rd generation Italian-American who's lives in Little Italy. He loves New York and the neighborhood because of the hustle and bustle. Photo by Nicole Guzzardi

Vella, 63, is an actor who has lived in Little Italy most his life, and prefers to keep it that way. Though he said the area has changed dramatically since he was young, he can’t seem to bring himself to leave. For Vella, Little Italy still possesses charm and romance.

“I’m still here because I was born here,” he said. “I live here, I lived her all my life, it’s home, where am I gonna go?”

Between 1810 and 1980, over 5.3 million Italians immigrated to the U.S., many fleeing poverty and overpopulation, with over 2 million between 1900 and 1910, according to census information. Many of these Italians settled in Little Italy neighborhoods all over the country, the most famous being in New York.

“For the Italians of New York, Little Italy became the place to go to,” Diner said. “It came to stand for a symbol of authenticity.”

Historically, Little Italy in Lower Manhattan ran north to Bleecker Street and south to Canal Street. It stretched west to Lafayette and east to Bowery Street. Today, the neighborhood has shrunk to a few blocks on a single street. Businesses were once stretched out among the large neighborhood. Now what’s left of the neighborhood lies mainly on Mulberry Street from Broome to Canal streets.

Meanwhile Chinatown, Little Italy’s touching neighborhood, continues to grow in size and numbers, engulfing areas of Little Italy as Asian immigrants continue to flow into the United States. Stores once owned and run by Italians have been sold to Chinese management.

Diner said Chinese immigration was big in the 1960s and still continues to be today.

Vella has his own theory on why the neighborhood changed. Back in the 1940s and 50s when many Italians immigrated to New York, they bought up a lot of buildings for a little money, he said. But as time went on and rent increased, many were forced to sell, or wanted to take the money and make a new life.

“All of a sudden someone comes around in the 70s and 80s and says they’ll give you two million dollars for the building, and they take they money,” he said. “They neva had that kinda money before.”

Many Italians left Little Italy, moving to other parts of New York, like Staten Island and Long Island, he said.

Vella’s father, Louie, started his own fish market on Mott Street in Little Italy, and ran the business for years before selling. Louie was born in New York, but was taken back to Italy with his parents, who were born in Italy, when he was nine months old. He grew up in Italy and came back to New York at 17. He started working as an ice man, saved money, bought a pushcart to sell fish from and eventually opened his own market.

Louie ran the market 41 years before selling. Vella said his father didn’t sell because he needed the money, but because he had to retire. Louie didn’t want to sell the business to anyone but an Italian, Vella said.

“I said ‘Pa, there’s no Italians gonna buy this store. It’s all Chinese right now, you have no choice,’ ” he said.

Eventually he couldn’t keep it up anymore, Vella said, and his father sold the business to a Chinese family, who still runs the market today.

Over the years Vella has watched the neighborhood change.

“There are more tourists now then there were before. Canal Street was the borderline. There was Italians on one side of the street and Chinese on the other,” Vella said.

While there is no doubt the neighborhood is not the size it once was, others believed it hasn’t really changed all that much.

Tramontana, an Italian-American who was raised and still resides in Little Italy, said there are still plenty of Italians living in the area. Tramontana, 30, is president of Sons of Little Italy in New York, an organization dedicated to promoting tradition and culture. He believes the changes the neighborhood has seen are just a natural part of immigration itself.

“This was a Dutch-Irish neighborhood,” he said. “The Dutch-Irish moved to the outer boroughs; it became an Italian neighborhood, the Italians moved to the outer boroughs. It’s the American way.”

Tramontana himself said he too will eventually move from the neighborhood, because when he has a family, he wants to give them a different life, the yard.

Among the Italians who still own space and run businesses in the neighborhood are Italian-American brothers Frank and Nick Angileri. The Angileri brothers have run La Bella Café on Mulberry Street for 41 years. The brothers were both born in Sicily, Italy, and Franky moved to New York by himself at age 17. A few years later his brother Nick came to live in Little Italy as well.

Frank Angilieri, 68, owns La Bella Ferrera Cafe on Mulberry Street in Little Italy. He was raised in Italy and came to New York at age 17. He opened this business with his brother Nick Angilieri 41 years ago. Photo by Nicole Guzzardi

Franky Angileri, 68, thinks the neighborhood changed partly because the younger generation of Italians went to school, became educated and moved out of the neighborhood for more comfort and space. With fewer Italians, the neighborhood began to change, he said.

“Many years ago, Italian people used to control the neighborhood and make sure no other nationalities came; they wanted to keep it Italian. Unfortunately, those kinda people aren’t around anymore,” Angileri said.

“They sold out,” Tramontana said. “They didn’t sell to their own kind. The Chinese came through with shopping bags full of money.”

Tramontana said that organizations in Little Italy have to step up promotion and public relations to bring the “bridge and tunnel” people back to the neighborhood.

“That’s the future of Little Italy, having your locals come back,” he said.

There is no way of knowing how long Little Italy will withstand the economic challenges and overflow of other neighborhoods, but some Italians will stay to keep its essence alive.

“When they stop making a good lasagna, I’m outta here,” Vella said.

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Bad weather is a boom for business at 200 Supplies Corp. in Little Italy. (photo by Meredith Hoffman)

On most days, Little Italy visitors might race past the pipes and toilet “flappers” of the plumbing and electrical store 200 Supplies Corp. and head straight to Café Roma 2 for a mouthwatering raspberry tart. But in New York’s rattling freeze, the café is dead, the street unbearably cold and the plumbing shop a neighborhood hot spot.

The staff of 200 Supplies Corp. need not pray today to the

The Chinese Guan Yu statue bring luck the plumbing and electrical supplies store. (photo by Meredith Hoffman)

Dominick Caputo, a plumber from Piping Hot Plumbing Company, said this January’s weather is the worst in 10 years, and remembered traipsing around the city taking emergency calls.

“I stayed ‘til 1 a.m. at this apartment,” he said. “The people hadn’t had heat for two days.”

After nearly “a lifetime in the business,” he said appliances are now more poorly made, so “something breaks in a week, in a month.”

Another plumber, Lawrence Dowd, bought pipes for a building on 28th Street whose dysfunctional boiler caused tenants to “threaten the owner” and to complain they’d caught pneumonia.

“The most important thing I do? Keeping people hot,” he said, huddling beneath his floppy fur hat. After shopping at 200 Supplies Corp. for years, he considered the store essential to work.

But if more snow falls today— AccuWeather.com predicts at least 7 more inches by nightfall —the shop may close for a day, which could leave plumbers searching for another store.

Eric Chen, 35, who has commuted to the store from Staten Island for 10 years, said if “there’s a lot of snow,” he won’t come to work tomorrow. He called the store “home” and the other staff his “brothers,” but he said dangerous road conditions might prevent him from driving into the city.

During the snowstorm this past month, Chen closed the shop for a day. When he returned, he found the automatic gate frozen shut, so he pried it open by himself. As soon as the shop reopened, the plumbers returned.

But when Brian Lo, 34, a salesman at 200 Supplies Corp. he learned of the imminent snow, he quickly spoke of his long bus commute from Queens.

“I don’t think I’m coming to work tomorrow,” he said.

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Customers enjoy pastries and gelato at Ferrara, a pasticceria and espresso bar in Little Italy. Despite the neighborhood's identity crisis and shrinking size, Ferrara has managed to keep customers coming in for 118 years. Photo by Jessica Bell

Adeline Lepore-Sessa sat behind a paper-covered desk on the third floor of Ferrara, the pasticceria and espresso bar her family has owned for 118 years.

As she chatted about the history of her beloved family business, her phone rang and she signed off on her employees’ paperwork.

“The job is the job,” she said in her thick Brooklyn accent, referencing the lack of glamor involved in owning a business.

Despite a changing neighborhood and what some see as a growing lack of faith in the authenticity of Little Italy, Ferrara is still thriving in its role as a long-lasting, family-owned business.

Lepore-Sessa’s great-uncle and great-grandfather opened Ferrara in 1892 on the corner of Grand and Mulberry Streets. At that time, New York was inundated with Italian immigrants coming to the United States to find work and fulfill their American dreams.

After she started a family of her own, Lepore-Sessa, 46, came back to work permanently for the company 19 years ago.

“You know, it’s an ego thing. At first you want to try to make it on your own, but then you realize you want to work with the family,” she said.

Lepore-Sessa’s great-uncle Antonio Ferrara opened the café so Italians could have a place to get authentic Italian espresso. Ferrara officially became known as America’s first espresso bar, a slogan the company still uses today.

“We’ve been incorporated longer than New York,” Lepore-Sessa said.

Lepore-Sessa, a self-proclaimed daddy’s girl, can’t remember a time when she wasn’t coming into the shop with her father.

Her grandparents lived in Little Italy, but Lepore-Sessa and her three siblings grew up in the Dyker Heights and Bay Ridge areas of Brooklyn. Still, her constant visits to Ferrara made it feel like a second home — and a job.

“Well, I mean, it depends on what you mean by work,” she said with a laugh. “I would consider it work long before my father did. I was behind the counter from 8 years old.”

Just as Lepore-Sessa did in high school and college, many of Ferrara’s employees’ children work there in the summers, starting out serving gelato and moving up to serving pastries and working the cash register.

“We really are all like family around here,” said Enza Gambino, 39, a manager who has worked at Ferrara for 10 years.

During the peak of the recession in 2008, Lepore-Sessa said it was that sense of family that determined how they ran their business.

“You know, when times are tough, people have to decide — it’s either dinner or dessert. And, I mean, you have to eat,” she said of the change in business. “But we made it a point to not fire anyone. This is our family here.”

Lepore-Sessa also attributes a familial devotion to the business and its employees as the reason Ferrara has been able to thrive in a changing Little Italy.

Modern-day Little Italy is not what it once was. Now the community spans east to west from Elizabeth Street to Baxter Street, and north to south between Spring and Canal Streets, with the main action happening on Mulberry Street.

Even though the neighborhood has become much smaller, several businesses remained.

“When I was a kid, Little Italy was blocks long and blocks wide. It was a big neighborhood, and it was all Italian,” Lepore-Sessa said. “Tenants, business owners — everyone spoke Italian.”

Lepore-Sessa blames the expansion of SoHo and Chinatown for the shrinking of Little Italy.

“You have a younger, yuppier crowd moving in with the boutiques in SoHo, and Chinatown coming up from the south,” she said.

But Joseph V. Scelsa, president and founder of the Italian American Museum, says the reason SoHo and Chinatown were able to expand was because Italian-Americans wanted to leave.

“They moved out to the suburbs; it’s the American dream,” Scelsa said. “At the time, Little Italy was considered a ghetto. It’s not anymore, but then it was, and they wanted to leave. It was a goal.”

The majority of Italian-Americans started leaving Little Italy in the 1960s and 70s, but it wouldn’t have been noticeable until at least the 1980s, according to Scelsa.

“Now it’s not a neighborhood anymore. Some people call it a theme park,” Scelsa said. “There are probably less than 200 Italians living in Little Italy right now, and they are all in their 60s, 70s, 80s. In about 10 years there won’t be any Italians left living in Little Italy.”

For Lepore-Sessa, however, this doesn’t seem like the end of an era. Her café is surrounded by other authentic Italian, family-owned businesses. Across the street is Alleva, the first cheese shop in America, and right next door is E. Rossi & Co., a souvenir shop. Both establishments are more than 100 years old.

Despite an overwhelming number of tourists who pass through Ferrara on a daily basis, Gambino says the store still has a group of regulars — mostly people who work in Little Italy rather than live there.

Like many Italian-Americans, Lepore-Sessa moved away from the city to Manalapan, N.J.

“Me and my husband, we wanted our kids to have that suburban lifestyle,” she said.

Still, in her eyes, what remains of Little Italy is Italian tradition. She notes that all the business owners are still Italian-American and she doesn’t think that will change, especially at Ferrara.

Her son works at a desk just a few feet away from her own and will be the fifth generation to someday own and operate the family business.

“We’re Italian — it’s all about family for us,” she said.

The post Big business in Little Italy appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

Vincent Cirelli sits at his stand, Vinny's Nut House, in Little Italy. The neighborhood is rapidly shrinking, residents say. Photo by Elizabeth Vulaj

Vincent Cirelli likes familiarity. He is 59 and has had the same moustache since he was 16.

“When I was young, on Christmas Eve, my grandmother wanted to give me $500 to take it off,” Cirelli said. “And I told her no. I never took it off once.”

Cirelli was born in the heart of Little Italy and has been running his business, Vinny’s Nut House, a stand that sells candy apples, terroni and roasted nuts, for more than 35 years. He is the last of a dying breed in a neighborhood that he said has been taken over by “yuppies” and “the Chinese.”

“There’s no more Italians left. There are no more stands like me,” Cirelli said. “Before, there used to be 10 stands down just this one block that sold Italian food, just like mine. Now, I’m the only one left.”

The downtown neighborhood of Little Italy took root in the early 1900s when hundreds of Italian immigrants settled in the neighborhood. Many, like Cirelli’s family, were from Naples. The neighborhood used to comprise 30 blocks, but now stretches only three blocks down Mulberry Street, according to remaining residents.

The Italian population began to diminish in the 1990s when longtime residents died or moved away. In February, Little Italy and Chinatown were listed as a single historic district on the National Register of Historic Places.

Many residents say the main reason most Italians have left is because they didn’t want to raise their families here.

“You can’t grow your kids here,” Cirelli said. “There’s nothing for them to do here. There’s no good parks — no room for them to run around. For the movies, you have to go uptown.”

Although many outsiders claim Little Italy has been taken over by Chinatown, some residents also blame another culprit — “yuppies.” Young college students have come in and made the neighborhood more Americanized, they say. Cirelli and his workers are not always too fond of them.

“I don’t like the way kids are today around here,” said Pat Giordano, one of Cirelli’s workers. “They have no respect for their parents. I see young kids cursing at their mothers and saying ‘f–k you’ to them. If we ever did that, we would have gotten killed.”

Cirelli says he is one of the last remaining Italians who speaks the language fluently.

Traces of his childhood still remain in the neighborhood. Hanging in the window display at the Italian American Museum, on Mulberry Street, is a photo of a 7-year-old Cirelli and his grandmother, who died when Cirelli was 29. One of the main reasons Cirelli chose to stay behind while most of his friends and family left was to keep the business that his grandmother left him alive, according to those who know him best.

He has no wife or children. His friends say he has been married to his work ever since his grandmother left him the business, and he grew up with enough responsibilites that he did not need feel the need to start a family.

“I had a pretty hard life because my brother and sister were younger than I am, and I basically raised them,” Cirelli said. “I wanted to be on my own and have my head be clear…I already felt like I was married.”

Cirelli’s ‘marriage’ to his work has lasted more than 35 years. His medium-sized stand is right in front of the Italian American Museum and is painted green, white, and red, the colors of the Italian flag. He sells terroni and nuts to tourists and young college kids and shirts that say “Vinny’s Nut House”.

He’s been here forever and his employees say they cannot picture him doing anything else. He takes each day with a grain of salt, they say.

“He’s got his days. He can be grumpy sometimes,” employee Phillip Toribio, 24, said. “But for his age, he’s pretty funny and can find the humor in anything.”

Yet Cirelli has a hard time finding the humor in his changing hometown.

Despite the problems facing Little Italy faces, the longtime residents who stayed here say they won’t let their neighborhood fall apart.

“There will never be a bad part of Little Italy,” said Jimmy Valentino, 45, a longtime friend of Cirelli. “I won’t allow it. That’s why it’s one of the safest neighborhoods to live in. There’s never been any problems, and anyone who lives here will tell you that. And if there’s a problem, then it becomes my problem.”

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