Wiseguy in Little Italy by Dennis Wierenga

About "Wiseguy in Little Italy"

by Dennis Wierenga

About the artwork

On a terrace in Little Italy, Manhattan, New York is a Wiseguy Mafia;-) reading his newspaper. On the wall a mosaic mural is overlooking the street.
Little Italy is a neighborhood in lower Manhattan, New York City, once known for its large population of Italian Americans. Today the neighborhood consists of only a few Italian stores and restaurants. It is bounded on the west by Tribeca and Soho, on the south by Chinatown, on the east by the Bowery and Lower East Side, and on the north by Nolita.
Little Italy on Mulberry Street used to extend as far south as Worth Street, as far north as Houston Street, as far west as Lafayette Street, and as far east as Bowery. It is now only three blocks on Mulberry Street. Little Italy originated as Mulberry Bend. Jacob Riis described Mulberry Bend as "the foul core of New York?s slums."

Bill Tonelli from New York magazine said, "Once, Little Italy was like an insular Neapolitan village re-created on these shores, with its own language, customs, and financial and cultural institutions." Little Italy was not the largest Italian neighborhood in New York City, as East Harlem (as Italian Harlem) had a larger Italian population. Tonelli said that Little Italy "was perhaps the city?s poorest Italian neighborhood". In 1910 Little Italy had almost 10,000 Italians; that was the peak of the community's Italian population. At the turn of the 20th century over 90% of the residents of the Fourteenth Ward were of Italia