Is Chinatown a Ghetto? (New York, York: sales, apartments, rent)

[Nexis4Jersey]

A few of my Friends don't seem to think it is , but if you compare it to parts of Harlem and the South Bronx it is ghetto looking. I know the crime levels are different and maybe that's why people don't view it as a ghetto , but look at the way there area looks. Super dirty , even by NYC standards and messy and the living conditions are horrid....

[bg7]

dirty doesn't equal ghetto. And living standards have a lot to do with crime levels.

[uptown_urbanist]

We recently looked at multiple apartments in Chinatown, and they were definitely not "ghetto."

[bluedog2]

Of course it's a ghetto.

Ghetto is simply a section of a city where large numbers of a minority group dominate.It doesn't necessarily have to be high crime or dirty . It was originally the term used for a section of Venice were all Jews were forced to live.

The term is often applied to white ethnic neighborhoods in big cities as well. Woodlawn is quite definitely an Irish ghetto.Howard Beach could be viewed as an Italian ghetto.Chelsea is a gay ghetto.Riverdale is definitely a ghetto, considering that it is an overwhelmingly white/Jewish neighborhood in a borough where whites and Jews are a definite minority.

Soon NYC will be overwhelmingly Hispanic and pockets of overwhelmingly white neighborhoods in an overwhelminly non white city will technically be ghettos.

[Alkonost]

It depends on what your definition of Ghetto is.

If Ghetto = looks shabby, then yes..

if Ghetto = high crime, extreme poverty, lots of abandoned and run-down building- then no...

if Ghetto = an ethnic enclave, then yes...

Pick one.

[bluedog2]

Originally Posted by Alkonost

It depends on what your definition of Ghetto is.

If Ghetto = looks shabby, then yes..

if Ghetto = high crime, extreme poverty, lots of abandoned and run-down building- then no...

if Ghetto = an ethnic enclave, then yes...

Pick one.

Actually,Chinatown qualifies under almost any definition.

Not only does it meet the standard according to the classic "minority quarter" definition but it is also one of the filthiest sections of NYC,has an extremely high concentration of poverty,looks shabby for the most part and is situated in one of the 5 highest crime precincts in the city.

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_32...rlanguage.html

http://www.usasianwire.com/release.php?id=1056914519

"In Manhattan’s Chinatown, the ranks of the impoverished have grown in the wake of the American economic slump. Families unable to pay the grocery bills survive by hook or by crook, cutting costs however possible, and the heartbreaking scene of people picking through trash bins outside supermarkets has become all too common.

The restaurant and garment industries, which have large concentrations of Chinese immigrant employees, have become a barometer for economic conditions. New York restaurant owners are cutting staff positions because of declining profits, and many laid-off out-of-state restaurant workers are swarming back to New York, swelling the population of unemployed immigrants.

With sources of income vanishing, wages decreasing, and costs of living such as rent and transportation spiraling upward, some poor Chinese have taken to cutting costs in their grocery shopping. In New York’s Chinese supermarkets, sales of low-grade prepackaged fruits and vegetables, which often cost less than a dollar, have increased dramatically.

In addition, more and more people flock to supermarkets after-hours to pick through the trash. These scavengers tend to be middle-aged and elderly housewives. They stand in wait as merchants bring their soon-to-be discarded food items out to the street, and then rush forward to pick through the boxes, retrieving still-edible vegetables for their larders. "

[bg7]

"Ghetto is simply a section of a city where large numbers of a minority group dominate."

It does not have that meaning in 2011. Thats like saying I feel gay means I'm happy. Wake up, language evolves, meanings of words change. Ghetto, in current American parlance, has connotations of crime and social disorder and dysfunction. Simply shabby and derelict doesn't fit the bill.

[Alkonost]

Originally Posted by bluedog2

Actually,Chinatown qualifies under almost any definition.

Not only does it meet the standard according to the classic "minority quarter" definition but it is also one of the filthiest sections of NYC,has an extremely high concentration of poverty,looks shabby for the most part and is situated in one of the 5 highest crime precincts in the city.

I shop in Chinatown at least twice a week and I must respectfully disagree on some of that. It's dirty in a "old" sort of way, but far from what I'd call run-down- I can only recall seeing one abandoned building somewhere near Bowery and Grand. The buildings that are shabby-looking seem to be well kept, but there's a limit to how nice an old building from the 1920's can look no matter what you do. Unless it's garbage pick-up day I don't see any litter on the streets. I've never seen homeless people begging for change, or the poor sleeping on the streets or parks, nor seen any crimes take place. It's just very old and dense, with some gutter drainage problems.

[mgt04]

Originally Posted by Alkonost

I shop in Chinatown at least twice a week and I must respectfully disagree on some of that. It's dirty in a "old" sort of way, but far from what I'd call run-down- I can only recall seeing one abandoned building somewhere near Bowery and Grand. The buildings that are shabby-looking seem to be well kept, but there's a limit to how nice an old building from the 1920's can look no matter what you do. Unless it's garbage pick-up day I don't see any litter on the streets. I've never seen homeless people begging for change, or the poor sleeping on the streets or parks, nor seen any crimes take place. It's just very old and dense, with some gutter drainage problems.

I agree, I'm here a few times a month and I'd never had anyone begging for money and I never felt fearful walking around at any time of the day (there's a noodle shop there thats open almost 24 hrs If you think crime is bad in Chinatown then wow...cut the umbilical cord from mommy and experience the world on your own for once. Of course you have your typical pick pocketing and theft but where does that not exist?

I bet some of the posters on here went to Chinatown maybe once or saw like one block of Chinatown and stereotyped the whole place to be like that.

You don't hear loud obnoxious music or gangs of people hanging around the corners after midnight. No cat calling women passing by.

A ghetto by the 2011 meaning, chinatown definitely is not.

[babo111]

Dirty yes but low crime, great location hub to get to Queens, Brooklyn, State Island, near Wall St. and some of updated or newer units in new buildings are very nice. Expensive...

And at night time, it's pretty damn quiet.