Sunset Park, Brooklyn
From The Peopling of NYC
The Brooklyn Chinatown
In the 1990s, when the second wave of Chinese immigrants flooded into Manhattan’s Chinatown and the rent in Manhattan started rising from about $500 to $800 a month, people started moving out into Sunset Park, Brooklyn where the rent was cheaper. Sunset Park’s Chinatown, which is located from 42nd to 62nd Street along 8th Avenue, is the third largest Chinese community in New York City. The population is mainly composed of poor, hardworking Cantonese and Fuzhounese immigrants. Restaurants, grocery stores, and supermarkets started popping up on 8th Avenue to accommodate the increasing number of people. The west side of the neighborhood is for commercial businesses and the east side is for residential two- or three-family houses.
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The Chinese chose to establish a community along 8th Avenue for two reasons – the number eight and transportation. In Chinese folklore, the number eight is lucky for business because in Chinese, eight sounds like the word for wealth or prosperity; therefore, “8th Avenue” is interpreted as the “road to wealth” or the “road to prosperity.” On the other hand, the N, R, and D subway trains connect Sunset Park with Manhattan’s Chinatown so people can just take a short subway ride to do their grocery shopping or to go to work. In recent years, the Chinese community on 8th Avenue has expanded to Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst while a smaller, fourth Chinatown has sprung up on Avenue U in the Homecrest neighborhood. The Chinatowns in Manhattan and Queens are wealthy and glamorous, but the Chinatown in Brooklyn is just a local place eat and shop.
