L.A. vote favors more changes to L.A. Chinatown

PHOTO BY KAREN

A street scene in Los Angeles Chinatown.

ASAM NEWS

A CITY-WIDE EFFORT to put new restrictions on apartment, shops and offices in Los Angeles has been soundly defeated by a 2-1 margin, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The controversial Measure S exposed a division in LA’s Chinatown where some say new development is necessary to keep the neighborhood culturally relevant. Opponents argue such development is displacing Chinatown’s poor.

“I am poor. Yes on S,” simply wrote Chinatown resident Eang Thai Ngou.

In recent years, the community has seen an influx of new upscale restaurants that have generated both buzz and crowds. The recent story by KCET, however, shows the impact on the community may be mixed.

“It’s bringing in a new client base, a customer base into Chinatown, (but) whether or not those ([newer) businesses support the legacy businesses, I don’t get that sense,” said Sissy Trinh of the Southeast Asian Community Alliance. “I feel like they operate in an independent silo. They may talk to their neighbors, but the customers that are new, they’re not necessarily buying produce from the markets in Chinatown, or the customers that go to a Chego! or Pok Pok aren’t going to go to Kim Chuy — those types of places. It’s kind of clear who goes where.”

RELATED: 'Progress' putting the squeeze on U.S. Chinatowns

Roy Choi’s Chego! was among the first of the new restaurants to open four years ago. While he sees the overall impact of newer developments on Chinatown as positive, he knows the story is not yet complete.

“I don’t know if their businesses have grown since Chinatown has grown from the food angle. I hope it has, I think it has,” he says. “I’ve seen a lot of the restaurants get busier. I see a lot of people walking around with bags, so that’s always good. Commerce is growing. Yeah, I think overall it’s been a positive thing.”

Perhaps what indisputable, these new businesses are not targeting existing Chinatown residents, they’re catering to those outside of Chinatown.

“For example, the seniors that have lived here for many generations, they’re less likely to be out and about partying on a Friday night as opposed to grocery shopping at 9 in the morning. It’s a different vibe, but it’s definitely created an environment where rents are rising — and rising quite fast,” said Trinh.

Tentative deal might prevent evictions in N.Y.C. Chinatown

83 and 85 Bowery, right, lie in the heart of New York City's Chinatown.

Reprinted from AsAm News

THE NY Daily News reports 27 low-income tenants in New York’s Chinatown have reached a deal with their landlord to avoid eviction.

The deals with landlord Joseph Betesh will give the tenants at 83 and 85 Bowery a long term lease and the apartments will remain rent stabilized.

Word of the settlement was reported Tuesday (May 10), on the same day the tenants and their supporters held a rally outside the state Supreme Court building where a session was also held.

It also follows increased political and community scrutiny of the plight faced by the tenants.

RELATED: Progress putting the squeeze on America's Chinatowns

On Monday (May 9), Rep. Nydia M. Velazquez (D-NY) wrote a scathing letter to Betesh:

“Members of the properties’ Tenants Association have reported that the buildings are unsafe and that living conditions in the buildings are substandard. Problematic conditions include, but are not limited to: deteriorated wood beams and joists along the staircases; slanted floors and staircases; leaking ceilings that have resulted in mold and mildew on ceilings and walls; peeling plaster and paint; deteriorated bathroom tile and mortar; and inadequate heat in the winter months. The media has reported that one resident had to use an umbrella to stop-up a leak until the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (“HPD”) investigated the incident and forced your company to make repairs. As a result of these conditions, I am informed the Department of Buildings (“DOB”) and HPD have issued numerous violations at 83 Bowery and 85 Bowery and DOB has issued partial vacate orders.”These reported living conditions are disturbing, but what is perhaps more alarming are reported claims that your company is intentionally allowing the buildings to fall into disrepair as an excuse to empty them and evict 27 families from their homes. According to court filings, “the landlord has conjured up a claim that the buildings are in imminent danger of collapse and is attempting to use it as a vehicle to quickly empty out two buildings in Chinatown and evict 27 families from their homes.” If such motivation is in fact correct, these actions are unacceptable.”

The deal is expected to be finalized before the next court hearing on June 15.

“I want to win the case and not move,” said Shuqing Wang, who’s lived in the apartment with her family for three years. “My kids go to school here, my husband works here. We want to stay here.”

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Another Chinatown falling on hard times

Oakland's Chinatown has come into some hard economic times.

LIKE OTHER CHINATOWNS in other cities, the cultural, spiritual and symbolic home of Chinese/Americans in San Francisco's East Bay, Oakland Chinatown's existence is threatened.

A confluence of factors has hobbled Oakland's Chinatown, several square blocks south of Broadway, sandwiched between downtown, Jack London Square and the Lake Merritt neighborhoods: rising rents that threaten to displace longtime residents and businesses; competition from Asian communities and business that have sprouted in the suburbs; the struggle by shop owners to adjust to changing tastes and a changing business climate that includes minimum wage increases; and younger generations of Chinatown residents who leave family retail businesses in favor of other professions.

RELATED: 'Progress' putting the squeeze on U.S. Chinatowns

An article in the East Bay Times outlined some of the problems facing Chinatown. Some business people believe that Chinatown is being neglected as other neighborhoods in the city get more attention from City Hall.

Some advocate more housing be brought to the neighborhood but in doing so might invite the gentrification that is plaguing other Chinatowns in Washington D.C, New York City, Boston and even on the edges of San Francisco's Chinatown, still home for thousands of Chinese immigrants and elderly despite becoming a major tourist attraction for the city.

RELATED: San Francisco's Chinatown fights off gentrification

But as the resident Chinese disperse to the outlying neighborhoods and suburbs, questions arise whether or not there is still a need for Chinatowns. The older Chinatowns grew out racist policies instituted by realtors, financial institutions and city officials. eThe quest for affordable housing is no longer relegated to the normally crowded conditions those policies create. Except for the higher-income neighborhoods, almost all other urban neighborhoods are also seeking affordable housing.

However, the Chinatowns allowed services to be delivered to a lot of clients in a small densely packed area. Social services, financial institutions, medical needs could focus on one area.

So I have two philosophical questions I pose to all of you: 

1. If those racist policies were in play today, would we allow the Chinatowns to form? Wouldn't there by boycotts and demonstrations protesting those policies in order to prevent the "ghettoization" of the Chinese community?

2. Or, would there be a movement afoot to form a "heritage district," in the same way that Filipinos were able to do in San Francisco's SoMa neighborhood to preserve the neighborhood's Filipino/American character and institutions?

Just asking.

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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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