A large Italian community along 13th Avenue in Dyker Heights showed their support Tuesday for a proposal to designate an area in their neighborhood as a “Little Italy.”

There is a large Italian community along 13th Avenue in Dyker Heights, and one of its members has started a petition hoping to get the area designated as a Little Italy.

A petition on Change.org had a goal of 2,500 signatures. In just four days, it has already received more than 1,700 signatures.

It was started by Raymond Guarini. He is the founder of the Italian Enclaves Historical Society. It is a catalogue of Italian neighborhoods and Italian national parishes across the United States.

Guarini, who was raised in the Dyker Heights area, says the corridor along 13th Avenue has all the makings of a Little Italy, with so many Italian-owned businesses as well as the people who live here.

"Dyker epitomizes an Italian neighborhood by virtuoso of not only it's aesthetics seeing all these businesses proud to wave their Italian flags and have things in the window that would be indicative of what you'd find in an Italian community. There are still many Italian people living here,” says Guarini.

The petition has been sent to Councilmember Justin Brannan and senator of the district, Sen. Daphne Jordan.

Guarini says many in the community have welcomed the proposal.