April 22, 2021
The Great Arrival
“Little Italy” on the Lower East Side of Manhattan witnessed as much change over the course of the 19th century as any part of New York City. The hub of Italian immigrants took shape as they started arriving in America in the 18th century. Italy at the time suffered from droughts and diseases like cholera and malaria that drove Italians to seek out greener pastures. As the 19th century progressed, Italy showed little improvement thanks to fascism, corruption, exorbitant taxes, and the Mafia.
Between 1880 and 1920, over four million Italians arrived in America, many settling in New York City. From pasta to organized crime, Italians brought a piece of everything from home. Today, “Little Italy” hardly resembles the sprawling 30 block section that the “five families” called home. Now it’s 3 blocks and functions more like a tourist destination rather than a neighborhood for “made men.”
The Italian Wave
From the end of the 19th century into the beginning of the 20th, New York City received a seemingly endless wave of Italians. By the Roaring twenties, almost 400,000 Italians made the Big Apple home. Not all of them settled in “Little Italy”; many branched out to East Harlem. However, the Italian influence was felt all over the city. The food, the language, even organ grinding, and puppet shows popped up all over “Little Italy” as well as the rest of the city. Obviously, the delectable food and the joyous nature of Italians helped to ingratiate themselves with native New Yorkers and soon they were a proud part of the city.
Five Points
Mulberry Street was and still is the principal thoroughfare in Lower Manhattan which became intrinsically linked with the heart of “Little Italy” and the Italian-American culture. Mulberry Street turned into Mulberry Bend that fed into the infamous Five Points. Five Points was depicted by the famous Italian director and once Little Italy resident, Martin Scorsese in “Gangs of New York.” So infected with crime, disease, and child mortality, it ranked as one of the worst neighborhoods in the world. It also suffered the highest murder rate in the world for years! The “Black Hand” ran an extortion ring that continually terrorized the occupants of the neighborhood.
From Five Points To Little Italy
The crime and issues facing its residents became so bad that in 1897 the city razed a number of tenement buildings and built Mulberry Bend Park (now called Columbus Park). After the redevelopment “Little Italy” filled in the gaps. By 1930, Little Italy was 98% Italian with almost 10,000 Italian-Americans living in the roughly two square mile area. Part of Mulberry Street even became known as ‘the Italian Wall Street’ as banks there would assist Italian in saving money or sending their hard earned paycheck back home.
The Dark Side Of Pasta
While just about everyone with taste buds loves Italian food, America learned that true Italian cuisine comes with a large side of organized crime. Just as the Italians brought risotto and focaccia, they also brought the Mafia and the “five families”, known today as the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese families. By 1930 these families held an incredible amount of power over everything from federal and state politicians to the entertainment industry. Their larger than life personas and disregard for human life have been famously portrayed in movies like “The Godfather,” “Good Fellas,” and “Mean Streets.”
Little Italy’s Seat Of Power
As the Mafia grew in power and influence, authorities cracked down on the sprawling organization that was based in “Little Italy.” The Ravenite Social Club on Mulberry Street, which is now the centre of a much smaller “Little Italy,” was the home base for notorious Mafia head John "Dapper Don" Gotti. Vincent "Chin" Gigante also held a stranglehold over the annual Feast of San Gennaro street festival. The Genovese crime family ran a gambling hall, imposed a “mob tax” upon vendors while ransacking neighborhood church donations.
Mafia No More?
As authorities cracked down on organized crime, the Mafia influence lessened. "The colorful names remain the same. Some of the scams and the shakedowns remain. But the vice grip on businesses and others is not the same as it used to be," said Randy Mastro, an attorney who once served as a mob-busting point man for the city. However, in 2019, Frank Cali, the assumed leader of the Gambino crime family, was shot to death outside his Staten Island home in New York, just minutes from the residence that served as Don Corleone's compound in “The Godfather.”
Still Some Little Italy Left
It was the first targeted killing of a known Mafia boss since Paul Castellano, head of the Gambino family, in 1985. Despite a 2011 FBI arrest of over 100 mob members, many believe the days of the Mafia are far from over, according to Dr. Anna Sergi, senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Essex.
Little Italy Today
As Soho and Chinatown grew, Little Italy shrank. The cost of living in New York began to skyrocket and many families who lived in the famous ethnic neighborhood began to be priced out of their own neighborhoods. Art galleries and upscale clothing stores replaced the Italian restaurants and cheese shops over a century old. As Vinny Sabatino, proprietor of Vinny’s Nuthouse, the last pushcart on Mulberry Street, says, “All the Italians are dead. Gone. Moved out of here.” By the 2010 census, not a single person born in Italy lived in Little Italy.