Little Italy Isn't So Italian These Days

By Ed Scarpo
The big surprise in Little Italy: The latest New York census found that not a single Italian lives in the home of Mafia legend, the U.K.'s Independent reported.

The US Census Bureau reported earlier this year that, "of the 8,600 residents interviewed in the two-dozen-square block area of Lower Manhattan that might still be deemed Little Italy – determining its borders is another area of contention – not one was actually born in Italy," the article noted.

"And descendants of immigrants from Italy (Italian-Americans) made up only 5 percent of the area's population.

"It is a stark demographic evaporation which has been going on for decades. In 2000, the US Census Bureau found 44 Italian-born people in the neighbourhood and a 6 per cent share for Italian-Americans. Back in 1950, there were 10,000 New Yorkers residing in the area and nearly half were considered Italian-Americans."

Also worth noting -- and we posted a story about it months ago -- non-Italian boutique owners are moving to have the San Gennaro festival that crowds Mulberry Street each September curtailed on the grounds that it was hurting businesses.

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