Our group’s topic concerns family and community. We have examined parts of the Bronx through this lens and discovered many different aspects of such places that we would not have noticed otherwise.

 

The first underground subway line connecting the Bronx and Manhattan built in 1904 below 149th Street encouraged migration into the Bronx. By 1910, the population more than doubled, as the abundance of available land and housing encouraged those living in cramped Manhattan tenements to seek better housing. Among these groups were the Italians.

 

The Italians arrived looking for work and found such in building the railways, streets, and reservoirs of the Bronx. One particularly famous Italian enclave originating from around this time is “Little Italy” in Belmont, which is one of the sites we will be focusing on within this project.

 

 

 

To this day, Arthur Avenue and 187th Street, particularly busy and culturally rich sections of the Bronx’s “Little Italy,” houses many Italian gourmet food sites and local family businesses, such as Borgatti’s Ravioli & Egg Noodles; and Italian restaurants, such as Ann & Tony’s Restaurant, making these sites popular tourists destinations within the city.

 

These establishments strive to preserve the cultural charm of their older days. While Ann & Tony’s Restaurant uses the Old World recipes of the current owner’s late grandmother, Borgatti’s Ravioli & Egg Noodles utilizes the same pasta cutting machine of generations ago. Both family-owned businesses have been passed down from father to son for generations.

 

We also examine Mike’s Deli of the Bronx’s Little Italy neighborhood. Of all of the eateries on the famous stretch of Belmont known as Arthur Avenue, perhaps none is more lauded or recognized than Mike’s Deli. Additionally, no business or enterprise could better exemplify the strong bonds between family and community – how a business, a family, and a neighborhood all inform each other. Though the business has undergone several incarnations and developments, the roots of Mike’s Deli trace back several generations. From the moment the first family members arrived in New York from Italy in the 1920s to the present in which their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren lend some helping hands making homemade mozzarella on their breaks from class, the business has been family-centered since its inception. It has been an undeniable boon to the neighborhood, with the original butcher shop (that would later become the larger scale deli/market that it is today) as arguably the most important business in cementing the avenue’s cultural and commercial bent. Thanks to Mike’s Deli, Arthur Avenue and the greater Belmont area has been a friendly, welcoming, and economically reliable home to residents as well as an alluring tourist destination for those from other boroughs, cities, states, or even countries.

 

To look at another group of non-native Bronx residents, we also studied the stories of Bangladeshi immigrants. These immigrants have also been present in the borough since the 1970’s, but they have migrated into the Bronx and other areas of New York City in even greater numbers in the 1990’s. Although Astoria, Queens is widely considered to be the heart of the Bangladeshi community in the city, the East Bronx has, in recent years, drawn families from that area due to the rising costs of living in Astoria.

One Bengali-immigrant concentration can be found within the Parkchester residential area, particularly Starling Ave. On this stretch of five street blocks is a culturally dense neighborhood consisting of Bangladeshi-owned stores and restaurants that are family oriented and that provide the residents with meals and ingredients reminiscent of their homeland.

 

 

 

Bronx Zoo is one attraction that serves these aforementioned neighborhoods. It is one of the most famous locations in the Bronx. Although not run by a family itself, it is oriented towards children and their families while also acting as a tourist attraction. With its fun atmosphere, the zoo promotes learning and education while providing entertainment and interesting venues at which to eat.

 

 

In examining the past and present of the borough, it is clear that family and community are vital aspects of the Bronx and are the reasons that the borough became what it is today.