Today, the area is defined by restaurants and cafés catering to tourists, covering a dense neighborhood of tenements shared by recent Chinese immigrants, young Americans who can’t afford Soho and a few remaining real live Italians." There is still a real old fashioned vibe of Italy in the area but less than 1,000 Italian-Americans live here now as Chinatown has expanded into the neighborhood.
After the September 11 attacks, Little Italy was cut off for the rest of 2001 and suffered economic loss for some time.