A lot of odd combinations here that is for sure. The neighborhood where I spent the bulk of my childhood was a combination of Irish / Italian and Lebanese. Go figure,,, the tie in was that it was predominately Roman Catholic.
The roots of the ethnicity go back to the steel boom that began in the the latter half of the 19th century. There were a lot of jobs to be had, and Eastern Europe was a shambles, most fled poverty some fled persecution. Irish fled famine.
Jews fled the pogroms of Europe, mostly late 1800's.
I think the reason that the ethnicity has lasted so long is that until recently, It has been a place which is not generally moved to. That is to say, the people who are here were born here, as were their grandparents etc. This is very different than a place like Dallas or Charlotte, where everybody is from someplace else.
There is very little if any ethnic conflict here. We have got Serbs and Croats, Jews and Irish living next to each other. The last incident I can remember was an an orthodox jewish boy was killed by a black gangbanger, but that was a long time ago and was and isolated instance.
Once some nebsh!t got their britches in a bunch because of an artist created a bronze statue of a steel worker and called it "Mill Hunkie". The steelworkers loved it. It was a very masculine and imposing statue. Hunkie, has never been a derogatory term, in my lifetime anyway.
The geography does place significant constraints on the location of neighborhoods and access. Most of the roads are actually old indian trails. Some of the towns or neighborhoods may have actually been built around a mill of some sort, which may not have been directly obvious, since by the 80's many were already gone.
One of the best things to do is to go to the strip district on a Saturday morning, you think of it they got it. Italian, Chinese, Polish, Spanish etc.
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A long time ago, a place on Herron Hill (The Hill) called Wiley Avenue, was a vibrant economic section of the city and was The spot for Jazz between New York and Chigago, but it is dead now. Died in the 60's shortly after the implementation of the Great Society programs. |
