The italians in bayonne are very old who never left. There is no action at all. Belleville is shot. I had relatives in both belleville and bayonne. Totowa is also changing alot. You have a lot of hispanics from paterson moving in. The italians are spread out in all different communities to where there are very few italian communities. East hanover and florham park have a lot of italians as does toms river and brick.
Yes, most Italians nowadays like other ethnicities have dispersed to the suburbs. Very few "dedicated" heavy Italian sections. But as I say, Massapequa and the Peninsula housing Long Beach are two that have held up somewhat.
But it's largely over. As Italians made more money and gained traction financially, and their Little Italy's throughout the 5-Boros, Jersey, and elsewhere changed ethnicities, they were encouraged to leave as well and spread out.
NYC still boasts roughly 20% Italian population, LI boasts 25%. Several areas in NJ do as well. The State of RI actually holds the highest rate of populous claiming Italian background at somewhere around 1 of every 2, or 1 of every 3 people in their state having Italian blood. Thats amazing! NE in general is heavy Italian.
