The North Shore was the first section of Staten Island to become more or less densely populated, a condition that had been achieved by the beginning of the 20th Century.
According to the most currentwhen?U.S. Census data, the population in the neighborhoods typically lumped together as the North Shore is almost evenly split among Whites, African-Americans and Hispanics, which each group comprising slightly more than 30 per cent of the total. They are joined by recent immigrants from such countries as Sri Lanka, Albania, Trinidad, Liberia and the Philippines. Since the late 1990s, the North Shore has seen a large influx of Mexican immigration, many from Michoacan, and centered around Port Richmond and Tompkinsville1 The area also continues to see a large number of Italian immigrants.
The Kill Van Kull shoreline — stretching from St. George to Mariners Harbor — was once a major manufacturing hub, but today most of its factories are closed. The North Shore also suffered economic blows when the branch of the Staten Island Railway serving it ceased passenger service in 1953, and when the Staten Island Mall opened in 1973, attracting many businesses from Port Richmond, which heretofore had been a prominent commercial district.
St. George is the county seat of Richmond County, as Staten Island is alternately known, and is the site of the passenger ferry connecting the island with downtown Manhattan.
^On Staten Island, Without a Lifeboat, By LESLIE KAUFMAN in the New York Times, December 26, 2004
Smith, Robert C. , "Racialization and Mexicans in New York City," in New Destinations for Mexican Migration, Ruben Hernandez Leon and Victor Zuniga, eds., (New York: Russell Sage Foundation. 2005).
