Italian neighborhoods in North America

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by s.davis

While Columbus Park - which was for most of it's history was just called "The North End" - is still the part of town (along with River Market) in which you are most likely to find a concentration of Italian-themed (for lack of a better word) storefronts, along with River Market, KC's Italian (almost exclusively Sicilian) community quickly expanded from the North End to the streetcar suburbs of Northeast, which, as you know, is kind of KC's Queens. And while many of KC's Italians moved into the Northland suburbs in the last 30 years, Northeast remains the most Italian neighborhood in the city, with census tracts that hold the same concentration of Italian-Americans as the Hill.

Obviously, Northeast is a lot bigger than the Hill geographically, as it's really more of a district or collection of neighborhoods, than a single neighborhood, and you are much less likely to find Italian-themed retail, but there's a swath of the city from the River Market due east to the edge of the industrial bottoms of the Blue River that remains largely Italian owned, and if you enter a bar, a bike shop, an auto garage, a slum-apartment building or cut-up rental house, etc., chances are you are entering an Italian-American owned operation in that swath of the city.

It doesn't feel as touristy as the Hill, or as enclavely, it's certainly not a monoculturally-oriented or identified, and I don't think it will be around long-term in the same way the Hill will be, but it's every bit as "Italian".

the greater north end is actually the most st. louis feeling/looking part of kcmo, incidentally. it reminds me of the western hilly neighborhoods oriented to the railyards and industry along manchester avenue and parts of maplewood. physically, the heart of columbus park feels like a slightly denser version of the hill, in a smaller area.