Staten Island: Like It Or Not!

By Lorenzo Lucchesi

Staten Island: Like It or Not! is an unparalleled and unprecedented critical analysis of New York's "forgotten borough" examined through its ethnic history, politics and government, and social dynamics. A compilation of interviews with hundreds of native Staten Islanders, Staten Island: Like It or Not! explores change-inducing phenomena such as land development and immigration on the North Shore, Mid-Island, and South Shore through commentary extracted directly from the anecdotes, memories, and oral traditions expressed by Islanders themselves. Following the opening of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge connecting Bay Ridge, Brooklyn to the Island's east shore, Staten Island underwent a drastic transformation into a rapidly-evolving borough, leaving behind the ruins of a nostalgic past intertwined with that of the country's. Staten Island: Like It or Not! assembles the astonishing never-before-seen narrative of a borough whose community united together in neighborhoods from New Brighton to Rosebank to Tottenville to Port Richmond to achieve the manifestation of the "American Dream." An ideal model of small business America, Staten Island once boasted thousands of locally-owned Italian-American stores and other establishments whose legacies have been nearly erased with the stroke of time. Author Lorenzo Lucchesi has produced the family-held stories and testimony of Islanders ranging from century-old residents to politicians to restauranteurs to bakers to tradesmen to tell the incredible story of New York City's last frontier. As suburbanization increases exponentially throughout the once rural streets paved by the hands of hardworking immigrants and settled in the early-1900s by entrepreneurs seeking a retreat from their city homes at summer bungalows, Staten Island faces the Armageddon for the salvation of its triumphant past battled at the forefront of its industries, innovations, and vibrant personalities. An entertaining yet genuine look at Staten Island, Staten Island: Like It or Not! draws on the Island longed for both past and future by many, and the Island accurately interpreted by few.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1793180466
• ISBN13: 9781793180469
• Release Date: February 2019
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 348 Pages
• Weight: 2.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.9" x 6.0"