Wikipedia Entry: West Side of Stamford

West Side of Stamford-- From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The West Side of Stamford, Connecticut is one of the poorest and most violent sections of the city. It is located north of the Waterside neighborhood, west of Downtown and east of Greenwich, Connecticut. The different sections of the West Side including Vidal Court, Fairfield Court, Spruce Street, Friendship Building and the infamous Southwood Square (formally known as Southfield Village).

One version of the boundaries of the West Side has it located between Stillwater Avenue, Broad Street, West Main Street and West Avenue up to Exit 6 Interstate 95.[1]

The West Side has had a problem with violent crime for years. "Despite efforts to curb it, the area is still a breeding ground for drug dealers, and gangs, such as the Bloods, the Crips, the Merrell Avenue Posse and the Haitian Posse," according to an April 2007 article in The Advocate of Stamford. "A shootout last year [2006] between factions of the Crips that left two people injured spurred a citywide police sweep called Operation Clean Streets."[2]

Ethnic groups

The West Side has a large Italian American population, but much less than in the past. After World War II and the emergence of Italian-Americans from the working class, Blacks became a larger presence, and more recently Haitian Americans and Hispanics have moved to the neighborhood. The Roman Catholic Sacred Heart Church on Schuyler Avenue in the neighborhood was built for Italian-Americans in the early twentieth century at a time when Roman Catholic Churches were organized for groups by national origin.[citation needed]

Many Italian-Americans in the neighborhood in the Twentieth century immigrated from Minturno, Italy and communities near it. The Minturnese Social Club, founded in 1939 and only made up of members whose families hailed from Minturno, had 120 members in 2007. A Minturnese tradition, the Festa de la Regna ("Festival of Wheat") celebration of harvest day and honoring the Maddona delle Grazie, is still honored with an annual procession. On July 8, 2007 the procession was held on Stephen Street after a Mass said in Italian at the Sacred Heart Church. The procession included women in traditional black and white dresses, a float with miniature palm treas, a stuffed rooster, sheaves of wheat and an Italian flag, a marching band, a woman in red, white and green traditional dress with a sheaf of wheat and men carrying a yellow throne with a portrait of the Maddona delle Grazie.[3]

Another group of Italians in Stamford, came here from Settefrati, Italy. They also have a Social Club located on 23 Virgil Street, in Stamford, CT. The Settefratese tradition in Stamford is to have a Mass for their Patron Saint, La Madonna di Canneto, followed by Sagne e Fagioli at the Club.

Local institutions

Stamford Hospital with a campus of more than 10 acres, is the largest institution in the neighborhood[4], the Yerwood Community Center is located in West Stamford, as is Lione Park, and the Westover Elementary School. The public E. Gaynor Brennan Golf Course is to the north

The New Covenant House soup kitchen, established in 1978, is in the neighborhood and is the only soup kitchen set up to help people in Greenwich, Stamford, New Canaan and Darien. Run by Catholic Charities of Fairfield County, the soup kitchen provides daily hot meals and extreme nourishment to the homeless.[5]

Pellicci's Italian restaurant has been located at the same address on Stillwater Avenue since 1947. The family-owned restaurant is known for unpretentious, old-fashioned Italian cooking. Joe DiMaggio, Nancy Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Walter Cronkite have all dined there. The eatery sells more than 1,000 poinds of baked chicken a week.[6]