November 3, 2012, Saturday, 307

Project for Revitalization

From The Peopling of New York City

Projects for Revitalization

Chinatown: Vibrant on New Year's
Historic Chinatown
The revitalization of Chinatown has become a central goal of post 9/11 New Yorkers. Before 9/11, Chinatown could be described as a vibrant area of the city where one could barely walk because of the dense amount of people it attracted. Tourists flooded this part of the city as everything from “tobacco” pipes to “designer” handbags could be found. Specialty stores littered the streets and everyone would wan you specifically to come buy their fantastic products. Over the years, Chinatown’s reputation only grew until it became a central part of everyone’s life. The food became renowned around the country. People from everywhere wanted to visit this extraordinary cultural environment. The Chinese New Year Parade attracted more people than any other parade save the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and not by much. It was a place where everyone no matter where they may have come from, could go and have an amazing experience with only a few dollars to spend. It was a central
Female Garment Workers and their Families Fighting for Union Rights
area of Manhattan that continually brought tourists, job opportunities, and amazing food! After the World Trade Center was attacked, Chinatown began to fall as well. The garment factories, which helped build Chinatown into its most vibrant self, closed, as workers from in and around the area could not get into the area. Because Chinatown was so close to the World Trade Center, many areas were simply off limits because of the debris and smoke in the air. It became a desolate place with no tourists, hardly any workers, and few residents. People began moving out of the area, and business all around began to collapse. It became a rarity for the streets of Chinatown to be completely filled.


When speaking of the revitalization of Chinatown the four major areas most connected to the improvement of the area are commerce, business, culture, and housing. These areas have been strongly looked at by the Rebuild Chinatown Initiative (RCI) sponsored by the Asian Americans for Equality (RCI). This has been one of the most prolific groups in post 9/11 Chinatown starting with their gathering of surveys that greatly enhanced their understanding of what Chinatown needed in these desperate
Asian Americans for Equality Marching in Chinatown
times. They went around to the various occupants of the area and asked them about such things as their lives after 9/11 and the needs of the community with regard to the economy of the area, the jobs within the Chinatown “borders,” what cultural institutions need extra support, and what overall they believed needed to be done. Only after these interviews were finished were the four many areas in need of improvement truly brought up and with this information, the RCI created eight specific sub-areas to battle the ever growing instability of the area. These sub-areas became the main initiatives of the group and they included Historic Chinatown, Arts and Architecture, Jobs, the Waterfront, Linkages, Affordable Housing, Family Neighborhoods, and Business districts. They began the arduous process of implementing the ideas they had developed for the area and while many have not been fully realized, and others have taken more precedence, they have thought of them nonetheless. One of the major ways the RCI has helped Chinatown has been by creating the Chinatown Partnership LDC, which is an economic development corporation. Within the next two years, it plans to completely transform the Chinatown of today, into the Chinatown of tomorrow. They have many plans in the works, including creating a Historic strip of Chinatown. They have brought in different designers to design new buildings for the area and have demolished certain buildings. While some of these buildings could in fact be described as a part of Historic Chinatown, the Chinatown Partnership LDC ensures everyone that they will leave the most important historic buildings alone to becomes a part of their overall plan. Their main reason for demolishing so many buildings is to create a sleeker more refined Chinatown. They want to bring new people in.


Rebuild Chinatown Initiative Conference
Besides this specific group, the Chinatown Lower East Side Acquisition program has also been a prolific head in the revitalization of Chinatown. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) allocated $16 million dollars to this program and they promise to make affordable housing for those living in the Chinatown and Lower East Side areas that is completely permanent under rent stabilization. They are trying desperately to help those in Chinatown that cannot afford the overpriced luxury condominiums that are now beginning to riddle Chinatown’s streets due the Chinatown Partnership LDC. These new Luxury condominiums are their way trying to revitalize Chinatown. They think that by demolishing these buildings and creating nicer prettier ones, they can reel in higher paid people to live within Chinatown’s “borders.” These people can in turn use their money in the various places in the area. They will in a sense be revitalizing Chinatown purely through buying their necessities and luxury items. They believe that this will then create more business opportunities and commerce inside Chinatown, raising the standard of living as well as Chinatown’s prestige. They want Chinatown to become like the Upper East Side rather than the Chinatown that was built from the ground up by the Chinese immigrant community. They want the wealthy to breath life into the dying Chinatown community.


Loews Canal Theatre Right Before Its Demolition
While the revitalization of Chinatown in some ways is well under way, there seem to be disparities regarding what these programs are truly trying to revitalize. It seems as though the economic and business opportunities within Chinatown, which are definitely important, are taking a huge precedence over the cultural and historic aspects of the area. They seem to be much more inclined to increase business in general rather increase business while at the same time preserving the dying core of the area. When walking through Chinatown, new buildings are popping up left and right while older buildings are at the same time being knocked down. One building in particular was an incredible historic relic that was in pristine condition before it was destroyed last year. The Loews Canal Theatre, which served as a movie theatre, was built in 1927. It was in business well into the 1970's until its eventual closure in 1980. It could have become a truly interesting piece of Chinatown's "Historic Chinatown" segment of the area to be created but instead it was demolished to make room for a luxury condominium building. This is at odds with the idea of keeping historic Chinatown alive, since many of the buildings being destroyed are important monuments to the tough times the Chinese immigrants had when coming to New York City. These buildings are where Chinese immigrants worked, slept, lived, and died. They are intrinsically a part of the community and are lost treasures once destroyed. These new buildings are also ridiculously expensive and many of the people who built Chinatown are being pushed away to make room for this new wealthier clientele. In Confucius Plaza for instance, we interviewed a woman about the increasing wealthier clientele of the area. The interview went something like this...


Q. Do you live in Confucius Plaza?

A. Yes.

Q. How long have you lived here?

A. Oh...more than 15 years now.

Q. And who do you live here with?

A. My daughter and granddaughter.

Q. Have you noticed the new buildings being constructed in Chinatown?

A. Yes, yes. The expensive ones, do you mean?

Q. Yes. How do you think Chinatown will change because of them in the next five or ten years?

A. I don't know. Maybe more rich people will move here. Maybe things will be more expensive for everybody. But I think I will try to still live here. It's my home.

Many people who simply want to remain in their homes can't afford the rising cost of living in Chinatown. They want to stay, but many can't.