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While I support gentrification/revitialization in the District, it is a shame to see what’s happened to/continues to happen in Chinatown. It really isn’t much of a Chinatown anymore.
I really wish this is one part of DC that remained as it is.. I realize that back in the day, Chinatown faced some pretty bad crime problems, but couldn’t there have been a way to address those issues without yuppiefying it?
I also realize that higher rent costs and such drove a lot of the Chinese business owners and residents out, but couldn’t the DC govt have cut them some slack, in any way? To think today, our Chinatown is characterized by Hooters, Fuddruckers etc with their store signs in Chinese. As if that would help retain the neighborhood’s authentic Chinese flair!
It ain't going to happen. You want authentic Chinese restaurants, just go to Rockville and you can have some of the best Chinese food in this part of the world.
I don't think it would set a healthy precedent if the DC government started "cutting slack," by which I assume you mean subsidizing the rent, for certain ethnic groups.
It ain't going to happen. You want authentic Chinese restaurants, just go to Rockville and you can have some of the best Chinese food in this part of the world.
I don't think it would set a healthy precedent if the DC government started "cutting slack," by which I assume you mean subsidizing the rent, for certain ethnic groups.
No ethnic group as such except for the Chinese, or Chinese-related business owners, whoever they may be.
I already frequent Rockville/Seven Corners in Falls Church for the food, but it's really more about restoring the neighborhood back to what it was meant to be.
While I support gentrification/revitialization in the District, it is a shame to see what’s happened to/continues to happen in Chinatown. It really isn’t much of a Chinatown anymore.
I really wish this is one part of DC that remained as it is.. I realize that back in the day, Chinatown faced some pretty bad crime problems, but couldn’t there have been a way to address those issues without yuppiefying it?
I also realize that higher rent costs and such drove a lot of the Chinese business owners and residents out, but couldn’t the DC govt have cut them some slack, in any way? To think today, our Chinatown is characterized by Hooters, Fuddruckers etc with their store signs in Chinese. As if that would help retain the neighborhood’s authentic Chinese flair!
I'm not sure that there is much of a DC Chinatown heyday to recapture. First the original Chinatown was wholesale displaced by federal triangle development. The current Chinatown had to reboot at its current location in the mid 30's, which essentially halved it's historic geographic roots compared to Chinatowns in other cities. Then you only had a little more than one generation growing up in the current location prior to the DC riots. That kicked off 30 years of spiking crime, higher taxes and a dearth of economic opportunity. Meanwhile opportunities in the DC suburbs, along with an overall friendlier environment, were a strong draw out of the city.
For the past 35 years, no more than 25% of Chinatown businesses have been Chinese owned.
So, while you support recent revitalization, I would urge you not to place the downfall of Chinatown at the feet of gentrification. It was struggling long before money, people and opportunity flowing into the area were the biggest challenges.
let it blow over for the next few years after
it all get totally yuppified, then anything
chinese about it will be forgotten. i think
that's the point really, just like 14th & U.
they're just exploiting the history of its
recent past to lure a certain demographic
and capitalize on it.
let it blow over for the next few years after
it all get totally yuppified, then anything
chinese about it will be forgotten. i think
that's the point really, just like 14th & U.
they're just exploiting the history of its
recent past to lure a certain demographic
and capitalize on it.
The businesses on 14th & U are flourishing because they are making people forget the recent history of 14th & U.
let it blow over for the next few years after
it all get totally yuppified, then anything
chinese about it will be forgotten. i think
that's the point really, just like 14th & U.
they're just exploiting the history of its
recent past to lure a certain demographic
and capitalize on it.
If you purely consider the cultural semantics, the impact of gentrification in 14th and U cannot be measured on an equal level with the changes going on in Chinatown.
A Chinatown is a distinct hallmark of most major metropolitan cities in the US and the rest of the world that showcases the Chinese culture. The changes in the U street corridor are still ‘American’ for all practical purposes.
let it blow over for the next few years after
it all get totally yuppified, then anything
chinese about it will be forgotten. i think
that's the point really, just like 14th & U.
they're just exploiting the history of its
recent past to lure a certain demographic
and capitalize on it.
Wow DC is really becoming Yuppieville. I knew it was going to happen but not this fast. I remember Chinatown DC in the 80's and 90's. It was really unique back then.
I'm not sure that there is much of a DC Chinatown heyday to recapture. First the original Chinatown was wholesale displaced by federal triangle development. The current Chinatown had to reboot at its current location in the mid 30's, which essentially halved it's historic geographic roots compared to Chinatowns in other cities. Then you only had a little more than one generation growing up in the current location prior to the DC riots. That kicked off 30 years of spiking crime, higher taxes and a dearth of economic opportunity. Meanwhile opportunities in the DC suburbs, along with an overall friendlier environment, were a strong draw out of the city.
For the past 35 years, no more than 25% of Chinatown businesses have been Chinese owned.
So, while you support recent revitalization, I would urge you not to place the downfall of Chinatown at the feet of gentrification. It was struggling long before money, people and opportunity flowing into the area were the biggest challenges.
Ethnic enclaves in other cities have seen riots and unrest as well, Koreatown in LA being prime example. It still retained its Korean elements to date.
The current 'Chinatown' that we have in DC is a joke, at best. Nothing Chinese as such other than the Friendship Gate that overlooks Hooters, Irish pubs, American fast food chains, Urban Outfitters. The Chinese store signs is a lame attempt at retaining the Chinese flair
Ethnic enclaves in other cities have seen riots and unrest as well, Koreatown in LA being prime example. It still retained its Korean elements to date.
The current 'Chinatown' that we have in DC is a joke, at best. Nothing Chinese as such other than the Friendship Gate that overlooks Hooters, Irish pubs, American fast food chains, Urban Outfitters. The Chinese store signs is a lame attempt at retaining the Chinese flair
The development of other ethnic enclaves in other cities does not speak to my point that the past century of DC's Chinatown has played of a role in the lack of a robust Chinatown in DC than recent gentrification.
Sure Walgreens probably would not have put their DC flagship store at the corner of 7th & H, the former location of the most robbed CVS in the history of CVSs, without gentrification. But when the Friendship Arch was erected, it wasn't looking over a historic Chinese business at that location; it was looking over a run-of-the-mill furniture store. Chinese stores and restaurants were flanked by delicatessens, Leon's Office Machine Shop and Hardy's Real Estate even then.
To portray the development of LA's Koreatown to DC's Chinatown affords DC a larger, more concentrated, more homogeneous Chinese population than it actually had. We didn't have a huge Chinatown where the vast majority of businesses were Chinese-owned. It was a smaller population with only a plurality of Chinese businesses; not quite the ethnic enclave that serves as a self-perpetuating and lasting cultural anchor.
I'm not arguing that our Chinatown isn't much of a Chinatown, or that it is diminishing relative to developments in the area. I'm arguing that the reasons for that are predominantly historic developments in DC Chinatown's history.
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