This was our final adventure. I was so upset that this class ended, it was truly one of the best experiences of my college career. I was excited though, since our last class finally went through one of my favorite areas of new York…Little Italy! But we had a few ventures before finally making it there.
Our first stop was to the Essex Street Market. I had never seen nor heard of this market before today. The market was created by Major LaGuardia in 1940. During that time street vendors were the main source of buying products, and because of this these vendors took up much of the space of the streets. Major LaGuardia (who had a love for cars as a main source of transportation) couldn’t have this. He decided to create an indoor market that these products could be sold to the public. That would eliminate the crowded streets, and still allow for peoples businesses to flourish. Delancy Street at that time was populated with mostly Jewish and Italian decent, causing this area to double as a social ground. Soon immigrants of Puerto Rican decent moved in and with them brought many new key items that allowed these markets to gain even stronger popularity among the town. The markets downfall came after the start of supermarkets. These “super” markets were just that, they had more variety in one stop, and people are continually drawn to convenience. Over the years the Essex Market had been bought out by different people and most recently was owned by New York Economic Development Corporation which decided that re-renovating this area, making it again available to market vendors would be the best choice. They were able to bring back the nostalgic feeling of the area where quality out ran quantity.
Next we went to the tenement museum. This museum showcased the lives of immigrants 1869-1935 living in these tenements on Delancy Street. The entire purpose of this museum was to bring understanding and tolerance to the immigrant experience during this time. One five story tenement housed over 7,000 immigrants. There were immigrants from all different areas of the world, all coinciding together. Seeing how this population lived in the late 1800’s really brought attention to the extreme differences in living environments in such a short period of time.
Lastly, my favorite part was walking through immigrant New York, through the lower east-side, the bowery, little Italy, and Chinatown. Chinatown took a while to actually get to where it is today. The Chinese slowly immigrated to New York from building the transcontinental railroad, and from cigar shops in Cuba. Surprisingly there were many laws that prevented the Chinese from immigrating to New York, such as law not allowing men’s wives and children to come. Originally “Old Chinatown” was native speakers only. This was because the jobs they were occupying were labor intensive and never required them to have to know English. In 1965 the laws changed and therefore an influx of new immigrants made their way to New York. They even created “Chinatowns” in Brooklyn and Queens. Chinatown nowadays is struggling with poverty, overcrowding, and has issues with using sweatshops and counterfeiting (BG, 108).
Canal Street (known by most females as handbag heaven) separates Chinatown on the western side from the Bowery on the eastern side. The Bowery is very well known for their jewelry. In the 1930’s the diamond stores were mostly owned by Jewish population. Over the years the diamond district moved from the Lower East Side to Midtown on 47th street where is now resides. The stores are now owned by Asian decent rather than Jewish (BG, 109).
Little Italy began to be created in the 1880’s. Sadly nowadays this area isn’t as ethnically Italian as it once was. Immigrants of Asian descent are spilling over from Chinatown and Italians are moving away. Despite this, Little Italy is still keeping to its routes having plenty of Italian style restaurants, café’s, and festivals. The two big festivals are “The feast of St. Anthony of Padua” in June taking place on Sullivan Street, and “The feast of San Gennaro” in September. These festivals are by far my favorite time to be in the city. They are so lively and have so much great Italian food; it just reminds me of any family get together in my home. I wish I came to dine out in Little Italy more because the food is just incomparable to any other restaurants (BG, 114)
Though this was our last class, and I should be happy that I will now have more free time in my week, it’s a bittersweet feeling. I got to know a lot of new people and share a fun memorable experience with them. I can’t wait until the next time I go into the city and I’m able to actually ride the subway and understand where I’m going! (Or if I don’t I won’t be scared to get lost and try). Overall I loved this class and wish it never ended.
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