Carroll Gardens Block Co-Named "Citizens Of Pozzallo Way"

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Councilman Bill De Blasio

City Council candidate John Heyer

Community Board 6 member Joseph Igneri

credit: Katia Kelly on Vimeo.

After days of rain, the sun broke out just long enough for a wonderful ceremony to honor the citizens and immigrants of Pozzallo in Carroll Gardens.

As of Friday afternoon, there is a new street sign on a stretch of Henry Street, between Union and Sackett Streets. The block has officially been co-named "Citizens Of Pozzallo Way" in honor of the Society Of The Citizens of Pozzallo. The Society was started in 1919 by immigrants from the Sicilian town of Pozzallo, Italy who formed an organization, to "promote fellowship and friendship amongst its members and to educate them to the American ideals in order to transition them to the American way of life and American citizenship."
Ninety years later, "La Societa Di Pozzallo" is still going strong and its members were visibly moved by the ceremony and by the speeches of local dignitaries.

Councilman Bill de Blasio, who had endorsed the street renaming, was on hand, as was Borough President Marty Markowitz Chief-of-Staff, Carlo Scissura, who gave his speech in fluent Italian. City Council Candidate John Heyer acted as master-of-ceremony.

The society had proposed the street co-naming as a collective tribute to the many immigrants who had come from the little Italian town by the sea and had contributed greatly to their adoptive country.
One of these immigrants was my friend and one-time neighbor Santo Matarazzo. He was a sculptor and one of the most interesting people I ever had the pleasure to meet.

When the big moment had finally arrived for the unveiling, there was just the slightest little snag. The rain-soaked paper sleeve which had covered the new street sign refused to be pulled away by tugging on a connected string, so John Heyer limberly climbed up the streetlight to help it along.

The ceremony was a wonderful reminder that citizens like those from Pozzallo made this neighborhood and this city great. Co-naming this stretch of Henry Street is a great homage and reminder for future generations of Carroll Gardens' Italian history.



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