Chinatown And Developers, So Happy Together

How can you expect a Chinatown to survive without people of Chinese descent? The neighborhood housing prices are sky high and are not affordable to many of the elderly population that remains. Most of DC’s Chinese community has moved to the burbs — where the cost of living is cheaper — where they moved their businesses — and where they are able to send their kids to better schools.

You can never compare DC’s Chinatown to SF or NY — centers of immigration from China and other Asian countries. I have seen Chinatown through the 70s to present day. It was never more than a few blocks, and even in the heyday, could never hold a candle to the type of communities found in SF/NYC.

Have you seen Chinatown in LA? Boston? Chicago? These are dying (or have already been pronounced as dead), too. Same reasons — more opportunities and lower costs in suburbia.

What to do now? Without some intervention by the City, Chinablock will be in name only — with silly required signs for the GAP, McD’s and other chain atrocities in Chinese characters.

I would LOVE to see real estate set aside or tax incentives for some of the original businesses to stay. It would be great to see some non-touristy restaurants stay open. But the neighborhood will never be a cultural center again — that time has come and is long gone.

the mayor of chinatown dc send his kids to Gonzaga College high School, North Capitol and Eye NW

I agree that it is partly because there are not Chinese immigrating in large numbers from China to DC. Even the ones that are go to live with someone they know in the suburbs. But I would also say that most Chinese, especially families with school age children, left Chinatown for the suburbs way before the prices skyrocketed here because it was just not a decent nieghborhood for families back then.

Before this area took off, crime was even worse, all government services were worse, schools were still horrible, and the Chinese value education for their children highly. 15 years ago you could move to Montgomery county or Fairfax county and pay the same or a little more, and get a safer neighborhood, good government service, and some of the best public schools in the country. I think it also hepled that most of the new companies that popped up in during the tech boom were based out in the suburbs, places like the Dulles corridor. And just as important, when your kids graduated from High school, you could send them to a good college like UVA, William & Mary, VA-Tech or the University of MD at in-state tuition rates. The only public University you have in DC is UDC (horrible, and the program giving DC HS graduates money for out of state colleges didn’t exist back then). Why would you not move back then? Most Chinese families I knew that moved out of Chinatown were happy to get out of that horrible neightborhood and into a good neighborhood, where their kids were mixing with educated, middle class kids, moving them toward a better future. I don’t think the majority were driven out by high prices to the suburbs. I think it was what was best for their families in terms of safety, education, etc.

Today, there are far more Asian markets and restaurants in the suburbs than there ever were in Chinatown. As little as five years ago, I had Chinese people asking me why the heck I wanted to live downtown, and with their kids in AP classes at the magnet schools, they wouldn’t consider subjecting their children to this environment, especially the school system, even today. I do realize there are exceptions like Tony Cheng, who have businesses here, value the cultural history, and bought his Daughter a condo at Gallery place. But he is the exception, not the rule.

DC’s treatment of chinatwon is horrible. while i love the new developments, movie theatre, and other shopping that is making 7th st such a destination, i hate what is being do the H st. the DC goverment and local groups should have fought harder to make sure that the success of one area did not destroy another. to see what is going on on H st, with the building torn down, it’s a real shame, and DC will be the worse off becuase of it.

#3: You are dead on.

The same reasons that caused the Chinese flight from Chinatown will also result in many of the professionals currently living in the neighborhood to flee if they have children. It’s either that or pay astronomical costs for private education on top of the ridiculous taxes we already pay.

Many professionals who moved down here are already fleeing — In our building, the first round of people have already sold to move back to the ‘burbs. Noise, crowded streets, parking/traffic and other issues have led to their decisions. Thankfully, younger, more city-minded people are moving in.

I don’t think the government neglected Chinatown and ruined it anymore than the entire city was neglected. People moved out of the District from all neighborhoods – black, white, Jewish, Chinese – because the entire city was in decline under Marion Barry, much like most other downtown areas throughout the country. Although I support preserving the cultural history, I don’t think it is sad that Chinatown is changing, especially if you like at from a historical perspective where Chinatowns started in the US largely due to the racial discrimination that existed between Whites and Chinese back then. And I don’t believe the Chinese in the DC Metro area feel like some wrong has been done to them concerning Chinatown. Everything is dynamic and will always change. What about the corridors of shopping on 7th and 9th that were dominated by Jewish owned stores. Do we say it’s horrible that the District didn’t do something to save them? Or U Street – it used to be Black Broadway, but that was a point in time that has passed. Older people in that neighborhood lament the change, and it is good to preserve the history, but really much of the change was due to the end of forced segregation that allowed a lot of successful business to CHOOSE to move to other parts of the city (and then drug wars that drove a lot of those that could move to the suburbs to do so. What in can the government really do to recreate only the good things from those types of past environments? Correct me if I’m wrong, but early on the formation of Chinatowns in America was largely due to the racial discrimination that existing in America between Whites and Chinese. This time has passed. And in DC, we just don’t have the huge amount of foot traffic to support the types of businesses that thrive (often illegally) in the NYC Chinatown. Nor do we have the ports that import the asian foods and inexpensive fake purses, watches, etc. that flow into NYC. Finally, the Chinese that do own the buildings here in DC Chinatown CHOOSE to rent them to Starbuck’s and other more lucrative tenants. I don’t completely understand the dynamics of NYC’s Chinatown, but I read this online and thought it was interesting:

“When the quota was raised in 1968, Chinese flooded into the country from the mainland, and Chinatown’s population exploded, expanding into Little Italy, often buying buildings with cash and turning them into garment factories or office buildings. Although many of the buildings in Chinatown are tenements from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the rents in Chinatown are some of the highest in the city, competing with the Upper West Side and midtown. Foreign investment from Hong Kong has poured capital into Chinatown, and the little space there is a precious commodity.”

http://www.ny.com/articles/chinatown.html

I attended the recent Chinatown Revitalization Council meeting that both OAPIA representatives and Chairman Gray attended. This issue was brought up by one person in the context of developing an “international zone”, not just revitalizing Chinatown per se. From what I remember, this person advocated DC creating incentives for foreign investment in the Chinatown area. This person not only envisioned new restaurants and shops, but also corporate offices for international law and finance professionals.

Maybe Chinatown is “dieing” because the few Chinese in DC to begin with don’t feel they need to live a homogenous ghetto to get by. It’s the same reason Dupont isn’t as gay as it once was. I do find it kind of absurd that in this day and age tax dollars should be spent to make sure a certain geography maintains its ethnic monopoly. Aren’t we supposed to be progressing beyond all this?

Kelby!

Now, that was a great commentary that you gave us on the dynamic nature of our world’s neighbourhoods.

Thanks!

It was just our city’s neighborhoods. And I made the comments because every couple months I hear this recurring theme pop up about how sad it is that rich, greedy developers and wealthy condo purchasers have kicked the China out of Chinatown here in DC, and why didn’t the government step in and stop it and preserve the real Chinatown instead of being in cahoots with the developers. I just don’t think it happened anything like that based on what I remember from growing up in the DC area.

Trying to maintain a Chinese business population in Chinatown is about as futile as subsidizing buggywhip manufacturers. The underlying economic fact is that taxes on small businesses are too high; national chains are among the few businesses that can remain profitable downtown. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it has an undeniable impact on the economic diversity of a neighborhood.

Instead of focusing on one ethnic community that’s vacating the premises anyway, DC needs a broad economic plan to encourage unique small DC buisnesses to remain downtown. Unlikely that is, considering how much the chain buisnesses contribute to the District’s tax coffers.

Without those taxes how would we fund all of those failing and inefficient programs for the underprivileged and also line the pockets of the corrupt DC government employees.