Is San Gennaro Feast Sans Mafia Really Better Off Now?
 |
| San Gennaro sans Mafia: Is it better off now??? |
Over those years, the group Figli di San Gennaro took in $4.4 million in gross revenue, but gave up only $210,500 of that to charity. That’s about 4.7% — just slightly better than when the Mafia was running the feast.
Back in 1996, then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani kicked out the previous charity, saying it was giving out only 3% of what it took in to charitable causes.
At the time, the Genovese crime family was actually in charge, stealing everything in sight — even some of the dollars tacked to the statue of St. Gennaro, patron saint of Naples, that’s paraded down Mulberry St.
That year, the feds busted a gaggle of gangsters, including one named Tony Waterguns who ran a game at the fair, alleging they’d skimmed hundreds of thousands of dollars from the festival for years.
The feds installed a monitor. The charity running the feast back then was kicked out. And Figli di San Gennaro was put in charge.
Shortly after Figli arrived, the amount of charitable giving increased dramatically, from $7,700 when the mob ran things to $185,000 when the new charity took over.
Giuliani promised, “It’s going to be a feast that actually delivers to charity. It will help children.”
Since then, even with a monitor overseeing things, the feast and the charity have had their share of troubles.
I wrote this in a previous story about San Gennaro and am rerunning it here:
MY TWO CENTS:
Yes, former mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who recently seemed to wistfully acknowledge that he missed the old days, when the "certain rationality" of Mafia violence held sway over New York, declared in 1996 that the feast was "gangster-free," except for a few minor incidents, such as one effort tied to Joe "Rat" Massino and the more recent move by Conrad Ianniello (who also runs a cannoli shop) and his crew in 2008 to shake down vendors. But what is the larger trend?
I quote from the New York Times: "Little Italy — or Littler Italy, as certain wits have called it — has lost a good deal of its square footage and authentic flavor over the years. Caught between an encroaching Chinatown and a growing SoHo fashion trade, its pork stores and red-sauce joints have been left to huddle largely on its main drag, Mulberry Street. The 2010 census failed to find a single neighborhood resident — not one — who was actually born in Italy."
Could there be a correlation? I am playing devil's advocate, of course, but the question is worth considering. If the mob were shaking down the feast, if it was earning off it, would it have shrunk to what it is today? For me, the answer is, no.
I quote from the New York Times: "Little Italy — or Littler Italy, as certain wits have called it — has lost a good deal of its square footage and authentic flavor over the years. Caught between an encroaching Chinatown and a growing SoHo fashion trade, its pork stores and red-sauce joints have been left to huddle largely on its main drag, Mulberry Street. The 2010 census failed to find a single neighborhood resident — not one — who was actually born in Italy."
Could there be a correlation? I am playing devil's advocate, of course, but the question is worth considering. If the mob were shaking down the feast, if it was earning off it, would it have shrunk to what it is today? For me, the answer is, no.
If it were a Mafia ATM machine, I think it would still be thriving. The merchants were shaken down -- but they had a business. The Mafia bleeds people, but not to death; they know if you don't earn, they can't steal from you. How much are merchants earning off this vastly smaller feast, compared with the ones held in years past? What about the merchants not there anymore, earning zip. Ask: were they better off 10-20 years ago?
I am NOT advocating crime, but some things... I don't know. It doesn't seem as black-and-white to me as it seems to appear to others.
Reading the Times story, others seem as wistful as the former mayor (and myself) about the Mafia's historical footprint in Manhattan.
“I know Conrad — he used to have a dessert place, Lo Spuntino, on Mulberry between Hester and Canal,” said Mort Berkowitz, a street-fair specialist who has been running the feast since 1996, when Mr. Giuliani appointed him to the job with a mission to clean up the notorious corruption. “His wife, Rosalie, used to make the greatest gingerbread-house Christmas cakes. To me, he was always a nice guy.”
"Mr. Berkowitz, who once described his own relation to the feast as “the hired help, the Jewish guy from the Upper West Side,” said he had no idea that gangsters still ran roughshod over its vendors.
“I find it incredible,” he said. “No one’s ever said a word to me — and some of these people are my close friends.” Hmmm, interesting....
"The reactions of business owners in the neighborhood were equally incredulous and seemed to fall into one of two groups. There were those like Lou DiPalo, proprietor of DiPalo’s, an Italian delicatessen on Grand Street, who said the indictment would distract people from the contributions Italians had made to the city — the building of its bridges, for example, and the cooking of its food. Then there were those who simply puffed their cheeks and offered up their palms, professing ignorance of Mafia involvement in the fair. ...
But it's not LCN that is described by the Times as "the most serious recent threat to the festival." That rubric the newspaper reserves for "a coalition of fashionable newcomers — baristas, owners of designer stores and residents who use the name “NoLIta” — [who] filed a motion with Community Board 2 to reduce by half the footprint of the fair. Though the motion was defeated by a 20-to-13 vote, the board won some concessions from the feast."
What, may I ask, were the reasons for that "coalition of fashionable newcomers" to try to "reduce by half" a New York event so closely tied to Italian heritage?
What if a fashionable group of newcomers tried to have the Puerto Rican parade cut in half? Or [name any ethnicity]? And I have nothing against Puerto Ricans.
Back at the time, a New York Post story on the "fashionable newcomers" quoted one "coalition member" saying: “They come in with greasy hands” and stain the leather handbags and $300 dresses, said Ying Ying Chong, owner of White Saffron, one of the hip shops that have popped up on Mulberry Street between Kenmare and Houston streets — the blocks where the festival would be banned.
“I have cannolis frying in front of my store!” she said. [Note: she is not complimenting the Sicilian pastry dessert.]
This pissed me off. Maybe Joe Colombo was right.
I am NOT advocating crime, but some things... I don't know. It doesn't seem as black-and-white to me as it seems to appear to others.
Reading the Times story, others seem as wistful as the former mayor (and myself) about the Mafia's historical footprint in Manhattan.
“I know Conrad — he used to have a dessert place, Lo Spuntino, on Mulberry between Hester and Canal,” said Mort Berkowitz, a street-fair specialist who has been running the feast since 1996, when Mr. Giuliani appointed him to the job with a mission to clean up the notorious corruption. “His wife, Rosalie, used to make the greatest gingerbread-house Christmas cakes. To me, he was always a nice guy.”
"Mr. Berkowitz, who once described his own relation to the feast as “the hired help, the Jewish guy from the Upper West Side,” said he had no idea that gangsters still ran roughshod over its vendors.
“I find it incredible,” he said. “No one’s ever said a word to me — and some of these people are my close friends.” Hmmm, interesting....
"The reactions of business owners in the neighborhood were equally incredulous and seemed to fall into one of two groups. There were those like Lou DiPalo, proprietor of DiPalo’s, an Italian delicatessen on Grand Street, who said the indictment would distract people from the contributions Italians had made to the city — the building of its bridges, for example, and the cooking of its food. Then there were those who simply puffed their cheeks and offered up their palms, professing ignorance of Mafia involvement in the fair. ...
But it's not LCN that is described by the Times as "the most serious recent threat to the festival." That rubric the newspaper reserves for "a coalition of fashionable newcomers — baristas, owners of designer stores and residents who use the name “NoLIta” — [who] filed a motion with Community Board 2 to reduce by half the footprint of the fair. Though the motion was defeated by a 20-to-13 vote, the board won some concessions from the feast."
What, may I ask, were the reasons for that "coalition of fashionable newcomers" to try to "reduce by half" a New York event so closely tied to Italian heritage?
What if a fashionable group of newcomers tried to have the Puerto Rican parade cut in half? Or [name any ethnicity]? And I have nothing against Puerto Ricans.
Back at the time, a New York Post story on the "fashionable newcomers" quoted one "coalition member" saying: “They come in with greasy hands” and stain the leather handbags and $300 dresses, said Ying Ying Chong, owner of White Saffron, one of the hip shops that have popped up on Mulberry Street between Kenmare and Houston streets — the blocks where the festival would be banned.
“I have cannolis frying in front of my store!” she said. [Note: she is not complimenting the Sicilian pastry dessert.]
This pissed me off. Maybe Joe Colombo was right.
One of the guys who we consider a mentor (he helped us develop the name and positioning of this blog when we were preparing to launch) emailed me his thoughts on this story.
I think he eloquently nailed a considerable part of the problem here:
Read your story on the Feast. It's important to note that since Giuliani stepped in to "fix" the Feast it has shrunk to a shadow of its former self. Not only have those neighborhood residents and alumni who had stands each year taken a financial beating, but all those who supplied bread, seafood, sausage, etc. have lost out. Let government step in to fix a perceived problem and it usually gets worse. As RR said, the most frightening words are, "I'm from the government and am here to help you."