"No one likes San Gennaro who lives here," said Sean Sweeney, a member of the community board's street events committee

Sweeney is not quite an Italian-sounding last name to me.

lol at Mount Carmel Feast being "authentic"

San Gennaro is the same crap street fair that you see all over the city. I used to go years ago. Now, there's no point. It doesn't do the residents any good. The local businesses don't benefit. Like all other street fairs, it is just a profit center roving booth businesses to sell low quality goods and food at ultra high prices and then move on to the next victim, I mean location. All these street fairs are just the same garbage everywhere.

Dread. My friend lives on Mulberry and relocates during the chaos of the "festival"

no.4: i don't mean authentic as in the feast celebrations in Italy, you douchebag, i mean similar to the way they were set up when they first started organising the celebrations in NYC at the turn of the century. one example: no underwear stands.

All street fairs in Manhattan are about the same now, way too much mess to clean up after they are gone and nothing really worth seeing unless you want a wonder mop and missed the late night infomercial. It also has become very unsafe down at San Gennaro. The only time I ever had to serve jury duty (grand jury duty at that) there were at least two cases directly tied to the festival. Violence and generic attractions... sounds like reason enough to me to get rid of it.

But really now, wasn't everything better when the Mafia ran it?

San Gennaro is about as "Italian" as the St. Patrick's Day Parade is "Irish" these days.

Everyone gripes how San Gennaro is not as "authentic Italian" as it used to be. Since when has it ever been? It's more of an "authentic New York" festival, if anything.

In fact, you could even argue that this festival reflects the same trends that are going on now in the rest of New York. Manhattan is turning into one big, rich-man's shopping-mall anyway.

I went to the festival in the early 90's and it was essentially the same crap then as now, except that the cheesy music being played at that time was house instead of reggaeton.

As an Italian-American, it's so irritating when people pull out the "guido" card. Ohhhh, it's about discrimination against italian americans...sure it is.

I went last year, as a tourist to the city, and I thought I'd get culture and yes, all I got were underwear stands and the same product every twenty feet. It's not about culture at this point...nothing is.

I've lived on Mulberry for three years now and the festival is an absolute nightmare for residents. Most of the stores close down, and the ones that stay open see shrinking business so it doesn't help the neighborhood economy, and most residents avoid it like the plague, so it's not for the local community citizens either. It's a bridge and tunnel festival that has maybe a dozen different things for sale every fifty feet. The carnies that run it are travelling bands who hit all the street festivals on the East Coast and then go back to West Virgina in the off-season. Jersey City seems to be up-and-coming, can we move it there, where it'd be more at home? There's something not right about a street with shops selling $2000 pairs of shoes and a degenerate carnie selling tube socks by yelling through a microphone strapped around his neck. This "festival" may have been the pride of Little Italy, but it's a train-wreck now.

"San Gennaro to Sleep With Fishes"

As an Italian American, I to am sick of these stereotypical slaps in the face.! Most of us were brought up in hardworking, educated, middle class families with no ties to organized crime.

Shame on you Gothamist for posting a un-news worthy story like this with an ethnic slur for a headline.

Go to hell..!

"But really now, wasn't everything better when the Mafia ran it?"

Because we all know that the Mafia is all about customer satisfaction.

"Everyone gripes how San Gennaro is not as "authentic Italian" as it used to be. Since when has it ever been?"

Maybe if we bring the Mafia back to the festival it'll have that authenticity that it's currently lacking because everyone loves to see people getting busted on their kneecaps and getting whacked right on the streets of Little Italy. So why disappoint.

May you all sleep with the fishes.

Vinnie, get my bat.

Bada bing!

i live on mulberry st, and i can tell you san genarro is the worst 9 days of the year for all of us who live here. there is the drown the clown (but if only he would really drown) and the nasty garbage that is piled up on the streets by people who don't live here.

the worst part was the sausage guy who set up shop on my stoop and wouldn't let residents into the building, didn't clean up his garbage, and cursed at any woman who walked by with the vilest language i have ever heard. oh, and the rats the festival brings out.

i say good riddance.

Wouldn't you know it. The Medici "foundation" is also a for-profit company - (b)the-medici dot com(/b) - that certainly benefits from sucking all it can out of Little Italy with no regard for the people who actually LIVE there. I will eat my hat if any of the "Board of Trustees" lives in a 25 mile vicinity of the San Genarro arrepa fest.

Too funny. One of the San Genarro board members, Austin Campriello, was Dennis Kozlowski's defense lawyer. You KNOW he's looking out for the community's best interest, right?

forbes dot com/business/2005/05/25/cx_da_0525topnews dot html

Seriously though, Atlantic Antic in Brooklyn should be the model. Why can't all NYC street festivals be like the Atlantic Antic? Lots of music and performances pertaining to the character of the neighborhood and food stalls from the vendors who actually line the street. Little Italy needs just that, if only someone can organize the businesses to cooperate. Renting out your street fair to the street fair industry only makes sense if it's the cheapest, easiest option. But it's not working- they've become a blight.

I've had family in the neighborhood for 4 generations (like John Fratta's, who I know)so here I go...
It's so easy to dismiss us and say there are no Italians are left. Yes, mostly everyone has moved to Brooklyn, S.I. and NJ. But some of us are still here! Hello! Ciao! And our opinions still matter!
There are a handful of insane old school Italian characters alive and kickin' it in Little Italy. Seriously. They have balls. Um, once, @ a community board meeting I saw someone mentioned above throw a metal folding chair at someone accusing the feast organizers of embezzling money. Hey, they were falsely accused!
Anyhoo "the beast" is like a necessary evil. It's one of the few things LEFT that represent Italian-American culture - for better or for worse!
And there IS good food to be had. For example, Umberto's has two stands on Mulbery St. w/fried clams, shrimp, and calamari w/its famous hot, sweet or mild sauce. A tad pricey, but absolutely delicious!
Yeah, there's a lot of non-Italian people serving up shitty food, but we've had to deal w/people ripping off our food for hundreds of years - nothing new! I know a stand last year where a Hispanic-Italian family made THE BEST affordable calamari, fried shrimp, big fat raw clams, etc. If you don't like that kind of food, tough shit, don't eat it!
I love being able to walk a few hundred feet to stuff my face for lunch. Not everyone has to be a pure Italian and "from the neighborhood" to know how to make excellent food. I'm half Italian myself. I know some Greek-Italians and Hispanic- Italians who live in various parts of NY, but who are proud to show up and work at a booth, food or non, year after year.
I DON'T live directly on Mulberry Street, rather on a parallel street, and I KNOW that it can be overwhelming to have all that Italian sausage smoke and noise underneath your window. But if you look closely you will see what remains of the older generation sitting outside on their chairs. This chaos makes them feel alive again. They relive memories and are excited. Let me tell you, the small amount of younger people, the middle aged, and older people who are Italian FROM THE NEIGHBORHOOD defintely do not want the feast to go away. Shit we all bitch about it, but it's OURS.
There are some deserving older people FROM the neighborhood that make money during the feast. Ex: anyone know "Vinny Peanuts?," he sells nuts and torrone from a cart. He used to park his cart in a parking lot in the neighborhood, now it's been bought for condos. He now pays a parking garage an insane amount of money to store his cart. He's one of the nicest people I know and he makes a lot of his money during San Genarro and St. Anthony, and hey does anyone even know that we still have San Gandolfo? He's only in his fifties. I doubt he'll be able to survive if the feasts are denied permits.
FYI, If I ever see someone pissing on the side walk near my bulding, I call the 5th precinct on my cell and start running towards them, yelling. Yes, I've gone apeshit and chased people down the block. No one wants drunks pissing in front of their bldg. Since the alchol ban there's been a lot less of that, and most of us know how to enjoy a drink @ home and take a couple of quick token walks through the feast during the 10 day period.
A few years ago my neighbor hung a sign on our bidg. door that said: "Anone caught shitting on the sidewalk will be hit with a baseball bat. Thank you. Vinnie" hoooohaaha!
So look for me and like the ten of us non-guido younger generation hanging out this year.(Chinese included, btw.)
I also enjoy riding on the ferris wheel on Grand btwn Mott and Mulberry. Hey, you've got to take this shit w/a grain of salt, it is what it is.
And COME ON, who doesn't love gawking @ guidos from NJ? They're a riot. It's almost touching to see someone blissfully unaware that "mall hair" was elimated years ago. Just look at how 1990 has time traveled and landed on their heads!
And to think that there are actually people who exist NOT wearing a Bon Jovi shirt to be an ironic piece of shit attention-seeking loser. I prefer guidos cause they simply have bad taste!
I'm going to be pro-active and find if there are ways that the community can compromise on this instead of having it eliminated. Fuck that. Comunity Board 2 has fucked over the neighborhood so many times by not protesting strongly enough against the INVASION of bars in the past few years. And when they did come together to recommend AGAINST liquor licenses it didn't do much good. The SLA handed them out left and right to ANYONE for the last five years until it finally but a halt on them!
And, YOU, "Mulberry residentS" who has lived on Mulberry Street for three years, you have some fucking nerve:
"There's something not right about a street with shops selling $2000 pairs of shoes and a degenerate carnie selling tube socks by yelling through a microphone strapped around his neck. This "festival" may have been the pride of Little Italy, but it's a train-wreck now."
I've got news for you. I have watched Nolita morph into a retail/real estate beast in just over a decade! That's right, a NY Times article coined Nolita when there were still artists and artisans and barely ANY bullshit boutiques selling their precious crap.
There's something not right about people who have lived in the neighbrhood for a couple of years complaining that something that has gone on for EIGHTY YEARS. This neighborhood was predominantly Neopolitan for a hell of a lot longer than you've been around. There are old people shaking their heads right now saying that it's not right that $ 2000 pairs of shoes are being sold where the deli used to be. If ten days disrupts your stupid sense of entitement, just get over yourself already!
Don't worry once all the smoke and noise clears you are free to consume and commercialize the neighborhood for the remaining 355 days of the year.

I gotta agree with Penny and La Leone, learn to love the chaos. Try and improve it by removing the stands that are in the "typical" street fair circuit and replace it with representatives of the GREAT restaurants in the area. I have lived in the area for 7 years and while it may be a pain at times it usually puts a smile on my face. I really hope some cooler heads prevail here and people try to improve it before they scrap the whole festival. It is a great part of NY and I would hate to see it go away.

So this is where all the crazies went...they're online sucking down their Med's.

Wow, #38 you really had a lot to say concerning this issue . Anyway, I think the festival is a positive for the city for obvious reasons . It's both a boon, As well as a thorn in the ass for the folks that live in the area ! Both conditions considered, It's a necessary evil that the folks impacted have to learn to deal with .

#43: "Whining is so un-NY"

Are you kidding? Whining is so NY. It's our god-given right to bitch about everything, and anything, that bothers us.

And it's also everyone else's god-given right to not give a shit about us whining.

It's a good system.

considering San Genero is the patron Saint of disaster areas, then maybe this SHOULD be a tradition. But by Gawd, have you been to this mess recently? Where is the authenticity gone, the stand selling of (insert ethnic of your choice here) mix tapes that STILL echo in my ears.... What, you don't think "yards" of Pina Colada's and stands selling crap I wouldn't take for free is to be preserved?

**Elect a senior board of trustees commited to oversee restoring the Event to what it should be. The Best Little feast of the Year, not the biggest piece of recycled mozzarella this side of Houston.

And please someone cap the price of stuffed anchovies, slices, and fried oreos, or you, my friend, will find me "going to the matresses."

O' Italian Festival we were young once. And good.

don't forget the wine with peaches.
How many sausage, zeppole, pop the balloon, shiskabob, calzone stands do you need per block?
I think the festival is too long. make it 5 blocks.
However, I will miss the ladies peeing behind the hedges behind what used to be the DMV, but that was ages ago. that was an eye opener.