The Lapskaus That Is This Vibrant City Is That Much Less Rich Without Her

The Brooklyn Paper reports (.pdf) that the borough’s declining Norwegian population doomed this year’s Miss Norway competition:

Thanks to a stunning shortage of Viking descendents, the venerable Miss Norway of Greater New York pageant has been cancelled — meaning
that this Sunday’s 52nd annual Norwegian-American 17th of May Parade in Bay Ridge will have no sash-wearing, tiara-topped queen riding up Fifth Avenue in a convertible.

“It’s sad,” said Josephine Beckmann, district manager of Community Board 10. “It’s going to be a emptier without Miss Norway.”

The fault, as Shakespeare said, lies not in our stars, but in our selves. Norwegian-American population in Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights has shrunk so dramatically that finding eager contestants has become as difficult as finding a bowl of fish pudding. Of course, it wasn’t always that way.

“At one time, Bay Ridge was all Norwegian,” said Ken
Johnson, chair of the parade committee. “Eighth Avenue
was known as ‘Lapskaus Boulevard,'” a reference to a beloved Norwegian salted meat stew.

In 1940, nearly 35,000 Norwegians or Norwegian descendents lived in Brooklyn, mostly in Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights.

Now, according to the 2000 Census, there are only 2,900.