TGIF FEATURE: United Shades of America visits Chinatown, July 2

CNN

W. Kamau Bell talks about the touchy subject of race.

W. KAMAU BELL is a big, black man, anathema to many non-blacks, but he is so easy-going and disarming he can get the racist Richard Spencer and the KKK to open up to him.

The comedian is also host to one of the best shows that nobody has heard of, The United Shades of America. The double-entendre of the title should tell you a lot about the show.

In the finale episode of his second season, airing July 2, Sunday on CNN, 10 p.m. EDT, he ventures into San Francisco's Chinatown to get the Asian perspective on the underlying theme throughout every episode - racism.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Earlier versions of this post had an incorrect date of the Chinatown episode. July 2 is the correct date.

In his show, at least, he's talking about a topic that is so hot-button, many networks won't touch. People shy away from the subject when the topic comes up. It's just too uncomfortable for them. Well, then, what about us people who deal with it everyday?

The controversial topic of race is handled deftly by Bell. With his dry sense of humor, the Bay Area resident, often finds himself and his subjects laughing together - not AT each other. He is not mean or demeaning.

One topic he touches on that is not often talked about outside of the Asian American community is the spill-over effect Donald Trump's China-bashing and demonizing of Chinese might have on the Chinese/American and overall Asian/American communities. 

To most of America, there is no distinction between China and the Chinese/Americans. We don't have to go back too far in American history to a period of the Yellow Peril and the racist sentiments that rose up against the different waves of Asian immigrants - The Chinese, Japanese, Filipino and now, South Asians and Muslim/Americans.

If you miss his shows on CNN, you can always catch up on HULU or the United Shades of America website. His earlier episodes this season included "Immigrants & Refugees" "Native Americans," "What I Learned Talking to Muslims," and "Treatment of Native Americans."

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Chicago's Chinatown bucking national trend; it's thriving and growing

The entrance to Chicago's Chinatown.

WHILE CHINATOWNS across the country struggle to maintain their identity, the Chinatown in Chicago is thriving and growing. The Windy City's ethnic enclave may be a model for the survival of Chinatowns across America.

"Between 2000 and 2010, Chinatown's population increased 24 percent and its Asian population increased 30 percent. Asians make up nearly 90 percent of the neighborhood's population, according to 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data," said an article in the Chicago Tribune. "Experts also say that of all the foreign-born Asians living in Chicago's Chinatown, nearly 10 percent arrived in the last three years — a stark contrast to New York and San Francisco, where immigrants no longer fuel Chinatowns."

RELATED: 'Progress' putting the squeeze on America's Chinatowns

In 2013, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning announced a plan to preserve Chinatown's cultural identity by improving public education and elderly care, bolstering transportation infrastructure and creating more public parks. In addition, the city built a new library that has turned into a new gathering place community groups and residents.

The city is committed to preserving Chinatown for its residents. In 2013, the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning announced a plan to preserve Chinatown's cultural identity by improving public education and elderly care, bolstering transportation infrastructure and creating more public parks.

The City of Chicago invested in its Chinatown. Above is Chinatown's new library.

But the biggest factor in preserving Chicago Chinatown is growth and the room to grow. Unlike other cities where Chinatown's housing is at a premium, gentrification isn't taking place.

New developments cater to the Chinese residents instead of excluding them. That reinforces the bond of community and allow traditions to flourish. 

RELATED: S.F. Chinatown fighting gentrification

Instead of relying on the status quo - half of the neighborhood's residents work in the food and hospitality industry, health care and social services - Chicago has increased job training programs to create new employment opportunities and sought improvements to the infrastructure serving Chinatown.

In other words, instead of fighting change, Chinatown made sure the change - or some would call it - progress - enhanced the existing neighborhood making for a more vibrant, stronger community while retaining the traditions that make the neighborhood attractive to new immigrants and long-time residents.

San Francisco is trying some of that same strategy with the Central Subway Project connecting Chinatown to BART, Market Street and the South of Market's Yerba Buena Center, the redesign of Portsmouth Square and the recent addition of the 8-story Patient Tower to Chinese Hospital which will house a new Level 4 Emergency Center facility will be expanded: 88 beds (an increase from 54), state of the art diagnostic imaging department, Cardio-pulmonary outpatient services, 4-surgical suites, all-private ICU beds, and a telemetry unit. The new building will also house East West medicine services, pharmacy and Chinese Community Health Plan (CCHP) member services center.

Despite these infrastructure improvements, the greatest threat to San Francisco's Chinatown remains to be the landlords and developers who want to cash in by switching their low-cost rooming houses and apartments to high-end housing for the cash-rich tech workers moving into the city. If the residents can't afford to live there, those services are all for naught. 

Despite the racist laws and attitudes that created America's Chinatowns, they serve a purpose as a way-station for newly arrived immigrants and for those who want to live in a community in which they don't need interpreters and are not considered as outsiders.

To read the entire Tribune article, click here.

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For more news about Asian/Americans & Pacific Islanders, read AsAm News.

'Hello' parody targets San Francisco's Mayor Ed Lee

AS SAN FRANCISCO rents soar, home prices are out of reach for the middle-class,  affordable housing is getting more out of reach in the neighborhoods that make up the character of this city, including homes for the newly arrive immigrants and elderly on limited incomes in Chinatown, South of Market (Filipino/American), the Mission, the Bayview -- throughout the City by the Bay.

Ed Lee, the first Asian/American mayor of San Francisco is under a lot scrutiny even though he won re-election easily last November. A lot of his former supporters, who backed him in previous elections because on his history as being an advocate for affordable housing, now see him as having caved in to the dollar-rich high-tech industry whose well-paid workers are willing to pay exhorbitant prices for closets (literally - some live in closets) much less a studio or a one-bedroom flat. 

As this ad that ran during the November election indicates - former allies are now Ed Lee's critics.

Everywhere you look in San Francisco yo see the building cranes building high-rise offices and condominiums raising the property values of those parcels within their vacinity.

The only way some projects are getting approved are through promises from the builders to include affordable housing. In S.F., "affordable housing" -- out of necessity -- means below market rate, which developers are loath to build because it reduces their profit margin.

Lee knows something has to be done to address the housing implosion. He has called for raising the affordable housing mitigation requirement from 12% to something higher. (In some newer projects, it has been as high as 40%.) 

A change in the inclusionary housing policy will require a ballot measure because the law is part of the city's charter. Lee is seeking a proposition for the November election this year.

"We want to do it in collaboration with the private sector," said Lee. 
What happens when the high-cost residences are constructed, landowners of adjacent parcels see the value of their properties rise and are no longer satisfied charging affordable rents and either evict their low-paying tenants in exchange for higher-paying new tenants,  or sell out to other developers who, in turn, build more expensive housing. The poor renter, is left out in the cold or they have leave the city.

We're not just talking about the poor, though they are the first to suffer, the higher cost of living in the city is impacting, the working poor and the what - in other cities - would consider middle-class occupations. We're talking about teachers, construction workers, nurses, bus drivers or all those secretaries and administrative assistants who work in the financial district.

San Francisco is not alone in facing this housing dilemma. There is a dire lack of affordable housing in all of America's urban areas, from Los Angeles to New York City, an issue no presidential candidate has yet to address. In the meantime, he has to put up with the critics who created his parody of Adele's "Hello."

Lyrics to the parody:
Hello, Ed Lee
I was hoping we could talk about a tale of two cities
And not the book, but reality
They say you started on our side
But you were bought and sold by greed

Hello, can you hear me?  
Has Ron Conway got your ear, planning his next big back room deal
Like more tax breaks or bus stops for free
I can’t help but count red carpets, are there any left for me?

Oh this city is filthy rich, yet there’s crisis in the streets

Hello from the other side
The Google bus don’t give no rides
And I don’t work for Twitter or Airbnb
So I’m struggling to stay here, I’m down on my knees,

Hello from the Mission
Ground zero for evictions
Where bus drivers, school teachers, the old and the young
Are fighting to hold on, we’re all on the run

Hello, Mayor Lee
I'm in San Francisco dreaming about how things used to be
When I could pay rent and eat
Can’t afford these here new condos cause I’m not some VIP

How do you sleep Ed, when this city is losing its heart and soul

Hello from Vallejo
This is just how far I had to go
Now I can pay my rent but my friends are all gone
I left my heart, wait, that’s someone else’s song

Hello from a city robbed
Self dealing cronies, inside job
SOS SF, home of the tech bourgeoisie?
Your “progress" is toxic, Mr. Mayor can’t you see? 

For more news about Asian/American &Pacific Islanders, read AsAm News.

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"Progress" putting the squeeze on America's Chinatowns

What would happen if Chinatown disappeared? Imagine San Francisco's Grant Avenue without the souvenir stores, Chinese restaurants, grocery stores and other businesses lining the street. 

Gone would be the housewife bargaining with the butcher in Cantonese. Gone would be the exotic smells (some wonderful, some of questionable origins). Gone would be the kung-fu students and their dancing dragons and fire-crackers to chase away the evil spirits. Gone would be the dim-sum and herbs sold in little shops. 

UPDATED: April 16, 2019 for clarity and new photos.

Also, gone will be the homes, jobs and businesses of thousands of immigrants, elderly living on limited incomes and long-time families who make Chinatown their home, their cultural and emotional Mecca.

It is ironic that like the other ethnic enclaves such as the Little Italy's and Manilatowns, the Chinatowns that were formed as a result of racist attitudes towards the Chinese, discriminatory laws and real estate practices are now in danger of disappearing because those racial "ghettos" are now being eyed as attractive places to live. Chinatowns are in close proximity to city attractions and most importantly, they offer relatively cheap living accommodations.

The entrance to Grant Avenue, San Francisco, USA

For the last decade, Chinatowns in the cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington DC have been fighting a long, drawn-out battle against the forces of the market place. Even the biggest Chinatown in the U.S., San Francisco's Chinatown, is fighting what might seem an inevitable fate.

The culprits: landlords and developers aren't satisfied with the low rents and see an opportunity to lease the units to people willing to pay higher rents or razing the old residential hotels like the International Hotel for fancier, more expensive condos or apartments.

The victims: The Chinese elderly and newly arrived immigrants who find the familiarity of the food, language and community as a refuge from the larger society. Most importantly, the residential hotels offer affordable rent. and who still find the relatively low rents or low price of the older residential hotels, a bargain compared to other ritzier parts of the cities.

The gentrification of the low-rent ethnic enclaves are just too noticeable to be ignored anymore.

"Local governments drove areas of accelerated gentrification and have encouraged and assisted the gutting of Chinatowns," said a report conducted by Asian American Legal Defense Fund focusing on Boston, New York and Philadelphia.  "

Government policies have changed these traditionally working class, Asian, family household neighborhoods into communities that are now composed of more affluent, White, and non-family households. From the expansion of institutions like universities and medical centers in Boston, to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s massive rezonings promoting development in New York, and the government’s encouragement of luxury condominiums and casinos in Philadelphia, local governments have dramatically transformed what these immigrant neighborhoods look like."

“We’re slowly being gentrified out of existence,” said University of Massachusetts professor Andrew Leong, who coauthored a 2013 report on Chinatowns. “You’re talking about displacement of those kinds of people that have rented from these unattractive units for decades.”

In Boston, only 46 percent of Chinatown residents are Asian.

According to some estimates, only 300 Chinese live in Washington DC's Chinatown. A new development project would eviscerate the heart of Chinatown. That is in the middle of fight between the low-income tenants and preservationists vs. a big development firm who wants to do away with the Section 8 housing and build condominiums that would sell for $800,000 each.

In San Francisco, the financial district encroaches on Chinatown. 

Across the country, the landlords of the low-rent residential hotels, long the backbone of living units in San Francisco's Chinatown, see the possibilities of higher profits. High-salaried tech workers who are attracted to the city can't find enough housing in the city with one of the country's highest cost of living.

DIOKNO

New York City's vibrant Chinatown.

The story is repeated in New York's Chinatown where now, the majority of residents are non-Chinese and the residents and merchants are fighting off gentrification of their neighborhood.

In cities like San Francisco and New York which have rent regulations - the landlords can't raise the rents until a unit is vacant. So some landlords or managers are trying to make life difficult for the long-time tenants: citing them with minor infractions like hanging laundry out their windows, putting up unpermitted Chinese New Year decorations or changing the locks on the doors while tenants are out. In essence: make life so miserable that the tenants move out.

“I’ve never seen a situation where they just don’t even file the papers, they just change people’s locks. That’s almost unheard of,” tenants rights attorney Alex Lemieux told a KQED reporter.

Even after many of the Chinatowns, especially in the larger cities, have become tourist attractions and important sources of revenue by contributing to the economies of the host cities, Chinese/Americans still can't avoid returning to them for celebrations, worship or to visit with friends. It is a place that they still consider home, even after they've moved to the suburbs. 

For the newly arrived, Chinatown serves as a way station of comfort and familiarity as they become accustomed to the customs of their new country. Many families have stayed put for generations because ... well, because its home. Services like banks and healthcare are steps from their door. Friends and family are nearby. They know the grocer by his first name. And jobs in the restaurants, small businesses and garment factories, are right around the corner.

Some argue that the young people and start-up companies will be what saves the Chinatowns that we've all grown up with. But that argument sounds counterintuitive.

The historic Chinatowns are not going quietly. They have their supporters. There are efforts to preserve the neighborhoods and their affordable housing. There is no way San Francisco will allow Chinatown to disappear. The Chinese New Year Parade alone brings in millions of tourists and untold dollars to the city's coffers. Mayor Ed Lee cut his legal teeth fighting for the International Hotel in the 60s and 70s and he has issued warnings to landlords trying to evict tenants by harassment.

At a recent rally in Washington DC, Micahel Kane, NAHT’s executive director of the National Alliance of HUD Tenants, said: “What the (developer) is doing amounts to ethnic cleansing: removing communities of color from the city to make room for a high-rise.”

“This is not only a struggle to save our homes. It’s a struggle to save our cities, to save the principles of inclusion, community, justice, and values that we all reflect,” Kane added.

In Boston, a Chinatown Land Trust is submitting buildings to the National Register of Historic Places which would put up barriers to any attempt to tear down the structures. “The city is committed to preserving Chinatown,” said Sheila Dillon, Boston’s housing chief and director of the Department of Neighborhood Development. “It’s a wonderful neighborhood and the city is better for it.”

DIOKNO

Life goes on in the alleys of San Franciscco's Chinatown.

RELATED: Saving San Francisco's Chinatown

The housing market growing influence on the U.S. Chinatowns comes at a time when immigration from China and the rest of Asia is the highest it has ever been surpassing immigration from Mexico. Movement to the suburbs or neighboring cities have taken a lot of pressure off the traditional Chinatowns and new enclaves have developed outside the historic Chinatowns.

Zoning tactics, rent control laws, tenants rights groups and sympathetic politicians are doing what they can, but will those strategies and allies be enough to beat back the opportunistic landlords and market forces nibbling away at what have become American institutions?  I don't know. The question I posed at the beginning still needs answers: What if there were no more Chinatowns?

I do know that if something isn't done, all we'll be left with are some old buildings behind a Chinese gateway -- newer perhaps, the smells and chatter of Mandarin mixing with Cantonese and English will be gone  - but they'd  just be empty shells with no heart or soul.

FOR MORE INFO: Google "Saving Chinatown" or "gentrification of Chinatown" and you'll discover that the phenomenon happening around the world: in Riverside, CA, Honolulu, Vancouver, B.C. and London.

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