The Importance Of Gentrification In New York City

I was born in the Belmont neighborhood in the Bronx, and at that time it was mainly only Italians living in this little section. As of today, unlike many New York City neighborhoods, it has thankfully remained true to itself. It still has all of it’s original shops and markets it once had, and one of the few places left in the city you can still see and feel that old town character. Of course, since then it has become more diverse, but it is still the real little Italy of New York. Belmont still represents the old way of life when the first wave of European immigrants came to the city in the early twentieth century. When they came over, each ethnic group settled in each of their own areas throughout the city, many of which today aren’t occupied

There’s pretty much none left in East Harlem, and in what is considered the Little Italy section of Manhattan now, it has shrunk so much from what it use to be, as now it only covers a couple blocks. Gentrification has hit that area hard and there’s not many ethnic Italians left there, even though there’s current efforts to save this part of the city. Rents in that area have been on a steady increase and hopefully it doesn’t get so bad that it’s not going to be the Little Italy of Manhattan anymore. However, Belmont is still going strong, even though the area has gotten more diverse in recent times, which isn’t a bad thing, the ethnic local population hasn’t left, and it is still largely what it still was from those early times. It’s one of those places where the old local population is still living and their values are still shown, but the newer and diverse people who immigrated to the city recently live among them, so the old village like feel is still there. If you go there today you will also see how the neighborhood benefits from the newest wave of immigrants, on the street you’ll hear both Italian and Spanish being spoken, Italian by the old local population and spanish by the new ones. You’ll also see tiny little hispanic stores nestled in between pasta and cheese shops