Boston's Big Italy

July 10, 2006

Boisterous chants and cheers replaced the North End's usual buzz yesterday when thousands of soccer fans streamed onto Hanover Street to cheer an Italian victory in World Cup soccer. It would be hard to imagine greater excitement in the streets of Palermo.

Only about 30 percent of the North End's current 12,000 residents claim Italian heritage, according to the Boston Redevelopment Authority, down from an estimated 90 percent in 1920 and roughly 70 percent in 1965. Longtime residents like the two elderly Italian women sitting on a Charter Street stoop are adamant, however, that the Italian population has dropped well below one in five. But yesterday they didn't need to fear invasions by yuppies or condo developers, not when waves of people were celebrating nearby with Italian flags.

No Boston neighborhood is immune from demographic change. Still, the North End has done a better job than most at preserving the authenticity of its ethnic identity, largely through its many shops and restaurants. But rising real estate prices and the demolition of the elevated Central Artery exposed the insular North End to change as great or greater than the suburban exodus of the 1970s. Only about 700 school-age children now live in the neighborhood. Groups of young Italian men dubbed ``birds of passage" roamed the North End in the early part of the 20th century in search of housing and construction jobs. Many of the young men roaming the North End yesterday hailed from suburbs north of Boston and came in search of street parties and beer.

Still, there is no hospitality like that afforded in the North End. Domenic Ventresca, a lifelong resident of the neighborhood whose real estate business caters mostly to newcomers, swept his friends, co-workers, and a stranger into the Strega restaurant, brimming with delicacies. ``In this neighborhood, it's still 1954," shouted Ventresca. Nearby, an order for a slice of pizza at Ernesto's on Salem Street yielded two for the price of one. ``We're Italian," the woman said. No further explanation necessary.