New City America

Rinascimento in San Diego
Fra Noi; Chicago, IL, January 1999; Bill Dal Cerro

You saw them in practically every big or small city in America at the turn-of-the-century: transplanted versions of European villages recreated in the United States by immigrants settling into a new way of life in a new country. The neighborhoods created by Italians were particularly vibrant, recreations of Italian villages that preserved the foods and customs of paesani from every region of Italy. New immigrant groups - Asian, Hispanic and Eastern European - are continuing that tradition. Yet America's "Little Italys," which continued to thrive well after a majority of Italians moved to the suburbs, soon began to wither.

Yet one "Little Italy" community has proven you CAN go home again. San Diego, a sunny, middle-class city in Southern California, once housed a bustling Italian community, comprising mostly Sicilian fisherman who fled San Francisco after the devastating 1906 earthquake, Looking for a safer place to live and work, they settles in San Diego, succeeding beyond their wildest dreams in the fishing and tuna industries.

After the tuna industry folded in the late 1950s, San Diego's Little Italy followed the familiar path of others across the country: economic decline, an exodus of second-generation Italians to the suburbs, the building of a new highway, etc. A few older Italians and working-class Hispanics remained, but the area became a mere skeleton, an evanescent memory of italianità dissolving in the California sunshine.

That was the case until Marco Li Mandri came along. A second-generation American of Scilian heritage who grew up in San Diego, Li Mandri felt saddened that future generations would have to hear about the old Little Italy rather than experience it. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, however, Li Mandri put his skills as a developer and planner to work. In the early '90s, he helped organize the business of the area into the Little Italy Association. Working in cooperation with the mayor and city council, the association created an economic blur print for the rejuvenation of Little Italy which can serve as a model for others across the nation.

"All in all, there will be close to $5 million dollars in renovations done to the area," says the energetic Li Mandri. "New sidewalks, new street lights, trees, a huge neon sign spanning the street, new business and buildings - it's just tremendous. Come and visit San Diego now and then come back in two years. You'll shout 'what happened?' It's not going to be Disneyland, but an authentic Little Italy again. We want our community to serve as a model, to simply show what can be done in other Italian communities."

How did San Diego manage to transform an aging neighborhood into a potential Mecca for Italianophiles?

"We're not claiming to be special, we just got smart about it," says Li Mandri. "By organizing and funding ourselves through tax increments, which go into funds toward redevelopment, we established a solid economic base. We showed that we're serious. And once we got organized, we started demanding. Italians have contributed tremendously to the economy of the U.S., so we said it was time that the government gave a little back."

Local authorities did just that through city development block grants and other spending programs earmarked for urban renewal.

"The monies were there for the asking," says Li Mandri. "If we didn't go after it, it simply would have been sent somewhere else or given back to Congress. All cities qualify for such funding. It was only a matter of time before Italians got organized and demanded their fair share."

For more information on San Diego's Little Italy, call the Little Italy Association at (619) 233-3898.

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