Little Italy, Manhattan

, At its largest, Little Italy used to occupy a space in lower Manhattan bound by Lafayette Street to the west and Bowery to the east, Kenmare Street to the north and Worth Street to the south. It is now only five blocks on Mulberry Street north of Canal St. Little Italy originated at Mulberry Bend south of Canal, in what had formerly been the Five Points area but is now the heart of Chinatown. Jacob Riis described Mulberry Bend as "the foul core of New York's slums". During this time period "Immigrants of the late 19th century usually settled in ethnic neighborhoods". Therefore, the "mass immigration from Italy during the 1880s" led to the large settlement of Italian immigrants in lower Manhattan. The results of such migration had created an "influx of Italian immigrants" which had "led to the commercial gathering of their dwelling and business". Bill Tonelli from New York magazine said, "Once, Little Italy was like an insular Neapolitan village re-created on these shores, with its own language, customs, and financial and cultural institutions." In 2010, Little Italy and Chinatown were listed in a single historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. Little Italy, by this point, was shrinking rapidly. == Demographic changes==

won the 2006 FIFA World Cup The New York Times sent its reporters to characterize the Little Italy/Mulberry neighborhood in May 1896: They are laborers; toilers in all grades of manual work; they are artisans, they are junkman, and here, too, dwell the rag pickers. ... There is a monster colony of Italians who might be termed the commercial or shop keeping community of the Latins. Here are all sorts of stores, pensions, groceries, fruit emporiums, tailors, shoemakers, wine merchants, importers, musical instrument makers. ... There are notaries, lawyers, doctors, apothecaries, undertakers. ... There are more bankers among the Italians than among any other foreigners except the Germans in the city. Since the late 1960s, when the United States allowed immigration from China, Chinatown's traditional boundary at Canal Street has inched northward into Little Italy. By the 1990s, while many Italian business remained, the blocks between Canal and Kenmare Streets had taken on a feel of Chinatown, though locals continue to refer to the area (including Nolita) as Little Italy. As of the 2000 census, 1,211 residents claiming Italian ancestry lived in the three census tracts that make up Little Italy. Those residents comprised 8.25% of the population in the community, which is similar to the proportion of those of Italian ancestry throughout New York City as a whole. Bill Tonelli of New York magazine contrasted Little Italy with the Manhattan Chinatown; in 2000, of the residents of the portions of Chinatown south of Grand Street, 81% were of Chinese origins. Tonelli added, "You have to slow your gaze to find the neighbors in this neighborhood, because they're so overwhelmed and outnumbered by the tourists. But once you focus, you can see them, standing (or sitting) in the interstices, taking in the scene, like the group of men, mostly senior citizens, loitering contentedly under an awning on Mulberry Street." ==Events==

in Little Italy in April 2005 The Feast of San Gennaro is an annual celebration of Italian culture and the Italian-American community. The Feast of the Seven Fishes, an Italian-American Christmas Eve tradition, is thought to have originated in Little Italy in the late 1800s. ==Organized crime and the Mafia==

• Ignazio "The Wolf" Lupo (a Morello crime family boss operated in Little Italy from late 1890s-1920s) • Paolo Antonio "Paul Kelly" Vaccarelli (founder of the Five Points Gang, who operated in Little Italy in the early twentieth century) • Michele "Big Mike" Miranda (a Capo in the Genovese crime family operated in the neighborhood from the 1950s into the late 1960s) • Peter DeFeo (a Genovese crime family capo who operated an illegal Italian lottery in the 1960s into the 1970s) • Matthew "Matty the Horse" Ianniello, a Genovese crime family capo operated from his restaurant ''Umberto's Clam House'' in the 1970s • John Gotti, boss of the Gambino crime family operated from the Ravenite Social Club in the late 1980s into the early 1990s ==Notable people==

• Robert De Niro, actor and film producer • Gianni Russo, actor and singer • Catherine Scorsese, actress • Charles Scorsese, actor • Martin Scorsese, filmmaker ==In popular culture==

Little Italy is the locale of the fictional Corleone family depicted in the novel The Godfather and the film trilogy based on it. It is also the setting for the Martin Scorsese film Mean Streets (1973), starring Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro, the latter of whom also grew up in the neighborhood, and the Luc Besson film Léon: The Professional (1994), starring Jean Reno, Gary Oldman, and Natalie Portman. It is also depicted in the series finale of The Sopranos, titled "Made in America", where a character walks down a block and finds himself in Chinatown, demonstrating how Little Italy has shrunk. ==See also==