SF chinatown boundaries ( real) (Fremont, Daly City: live in, restaurants, vs.)

[tigerboy]

Guys a specific question. I am researching city enclaves and perhaps resident SFers can help.

The classic "guidebook" definition of Chinatown is three blocks wide and eight long from Broadway to Bush. 24 blocks. However wiki has the Chronicle talking of Chinatown stretching from the Financial District west all the way to Larkin St and south to Eddy. This seems huge. Can anyone tell me what the real current boundaries appear to be? Has gentrification/chain commerce invaded any of the old core? Has the core expanded? NY Chinatown boomed after 1968. Did SF?

Thank you for any comments which are appreciated.

[rah]

Nope, Chinatown doesn't stretch that far. Larkin Street is near the western edge of the tenderloin, and eddy is right in the middle of the tenderloin. I'd say that Chinatown is bordered by Kearney and Columbus to the east, Bush on the south (and at Sutter where grant intersects it...where the gate is), Powell street on the west, and Green street to the north...and that does come out to at least 25 square blocks or so (Chinatown is shaped kinda like a square with a triangle on top if you look at a map).

[BayAreaHillbilly]

The real "China Towns" are not even in China Town!

[LivingLikeAGradStudent]

Whatever includes the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory works for me.

[Mr. Ozo]

Larkin Street is a Vietnamese area.

[redwoodlvr]

For real the physical boundaries are irrelevant. *Non chinese or non-acceptable asian descent cannot get into the "real" chinatown. I'm talking all the way from real life mafioso gangsters to the REALLY good chinese restaurants. If you think you've experienced great, authentic chinese food, think again. evil laugh.

*Not about being racist, heck we all are to some degree. I'm brown and grew up with SF chinese folks from a young age who told me the truth. And you don't want to know the truth, believe me.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Other than a certain cohort who still are somehow attached to the old "Chinatown," most Chinese go to Irving or Clement. In fact, most don't even live in the City but in the burbs instead. All of Cupertino is a China Town, as are major chunks of Fremont.

[iTsLiKeAnEgG]

Yeah, I'm generally on Irving/Clement and some other portions of Sunset/Richmond when I'm looking for some good food.

[jman650]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

Other than a certain cohort who still are somehow attached to the old "Chinatown," most Chinese go to Irving or Clement. In fact, most don't even live in the City but in the burbs instead. All of Cupertino is a China Town, as are major chunks of Fremont.

Really? You're actually going to make Cupertino out to have a more significant Chinese population than the City? Approximately 172,000 Chinese that make up almost 20% of the total population of SF compared to Cupertino's 12,000? I mean there is a comparable percentage of Chinese in each city w/ Cupertino slightly beating it out (23.8% over SF's 20%), but SF is the Chinese capital of the Bay.

I mean Daly City has more Chinese residents than Cupertino and almost the same percentage as Fremont, and its a primarily Filipino/Latin city. One thing SF definitely is is very Chinese with a very significant population of many generations of them.

I suppose if you're speaking on the ENTIRE Bay Area collectively vs. SF alone, then I guess you have a point since there are close to 500,000 Chinese in the entire Bay Area. But SF alone would still account for about 1/3 of that, so I would still disagree with that statement since there are more in SF than any other single place in the Bay by a long shot. And it wouldn't really make sense to say that since SF only accounts for about 10% of the Bay Area's total population.

Now for the better food I'm inclined to agree with you that much can be found outside of Chinatown, and most particularly on Clement and Irving.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

I was not discussing population figures, I was discussing, specifically, Chinese oriented commercial zones. "China Town" is a tourist trap, and, meanwhile, "just another" node of Chinese oriented commercial activity.