This paper describes various ethnic communities in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area whose cultural continuity and identity are threatened by encroaching economic problems and government involvement. Each of these areas is mixed in population but has a dominant group that provides an ethos within which a stable, supportive social structure exists. This social structure emphasizes communal values above those of narrow hypercompetitive self-interest. The economic organization of the community reinforces this so that the community tends to occupy a sharply defined home turf set off from neighboring areas. However, the very ambience engendered by the community prods outside economic activity to tap and directly siphon off the resources developed by the communal activity, as in the commercialization of the old Italian neighborhood of Greenwich Village. Similarly, government intervention in the social functions of the community hinders the communal values of the community and develops a sense of narrow-minded individualism within its residents. Theoretical questions on how this situation can be prevented are stressed. (Author/DE)