Quote:
Originally Posted by Beedok
I'm used to cities which are Italian enough that neighbourhoods get defined by having a lack of Italian presence.
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In the NYC area, any regular white middle class neighborhood within 100 miles or so of Manhattan will have an Italian presence. Of course Italians are suburbanized alongside everyone else, but there are still some old-school urban enclaves.
Putting aside the touristy Little Italies of the region, places that are both old-school Italian and where you may hear Italian spoken would be:
Dyker Heights Brooklyn (around 13th Ave.)
Morris Park, Bronx (around White Plains Road and Williamsbridge Road)
Middle Village, Queens (along Metropolitan Ave.)
Howard Beach, Queens (along Cross Bay Blvd.)
Then there's the South Shore of Staten Island, which is definitely Italian, and where you are very likely to hear Italian, but the problem is it's newer and more suburban, so you lose the feel, even if the shopping plazas are full of salumerias and Italian bakeries.
There are other Italian enclaves, but I would say less intense these days. These would be East Williamsburg around Metropolitan Ave. (yeah, hipsterville still has an Italian section, where you still see little old Italian ladies making "gravy" outside their house), Bensonhurst around 18th Ave. (though the Chinese are really taking over this section), Whitestone, Queens, Mill Basin, Brooklyn, Gravesend, Brooklyn (which has some really good Sicilian places still) and even Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn (though this area is also super yuppieville).
In the suburbs, the South Shore of Long Island tends to be very Italian, as is Eastchester (Westchester County), parts of Yonkers (which has a Little Italy), parts of SW Connecticut.
In NJ, Garfield, Lodi, Belleville, Bloomfield would probably be the most Italian towns, and are old enough that they have a bit of the urban Italian-American feel, with street-corner shopping. There are old school Little Italies in Newark, Paterson, Trenton.