The WestSide has always been in a class by itself.

They have been hiding their boss since the 70’s

This is the way that I am looking at this:

If a large percentage of current members were either:

1) in a formal gang I.E. “PURPLE GANG” prior to being a member,
2) In the late 80’s and into the early 2000’s we’re part of a crew I.E. “BATH AVE BOYS”
3) Were brought in through family.
4) Associates that wanted to be made but never were. “HUGE POOL OF ASSOCIATES” Like Polito, Frankie B.F. Guerra, Larry Sessa just to name a few.

(I know Sessa was made, the point is he was newly made and was drawn from a pool that will no longer exist in future generations)

If you took an accounting of day the Bonnano’s and out of their what 110 members
Say 60-70 of them are part of the above statistic.

Case in point: The whole Bruno family the whole admin the closest associates were part of the Joey Merlino’s crew.

There are no more crews like that that the family can recruit from..,

With out the whole farm system and the fact that fathers are less eager to bring their children in to become members.

With out alll the above where is the next generation going to come from?

It has very little to do with the size of the family.

As a matter of fact the smaller the family the easier it would be to maintain its current strength by way of less recruits needed.