Which of these cities have the best Chinatown? (quality, ranking, pros)
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Probably comparable to Chicago's. I have been through Boston's without even realizing I was in a Chinatown, frankly. I have never been to Philadelphia's, but something tells me Oakland's would be larger. Numbers of Chinese residents of all of these Chinatowns have been quantified right here on C-D and if I recall, Oakland was ahead of all these other Chinatowns? It's a substantial place, and it is in a highly urbanized major city of the Bay Area, so naturally it will be large and authentic.
And yes, some cities in America have such a large, established Chinese population that they have multiple Chinatowns that are each larger and more authentic than the primary/single Chinatown you have in some of these other cities.
The Sunset and Richmond are large neighborhoods in SF that are 30+% Chinese, perhaps even 50+% Chinese, so there are lots of Chinese shops, restaurants, and businesses, and these neighborhoods have a couple hundred thousand people, but I find the businesses to be spread out a bit more. For instance, even on Clement, you run into a block that's more Russian or Greek, so there are other ethnic groups mixed in there, it's not purely Chinese.
Most of these cities just have a gate and a few businesses. Coming from the west coast, that is not really a "Chinatown" to me. Chicago's I have been to and it is isolated, but it's a few blocks of solid businesses and has encompassed a decent amount of more traditional architecture. There's no mistaking that you are in a Chinatown.
Oakland's Chinatown doesn't even have a gate, but even without it feels like way more of a Chinatown than some of these northeastern cities (I mean DC's Chinatown has a gate, but it has like 2 Chinese businesses and nearly no Chinese residents...come on). Oakland does have some Chinese looking buildings, and the businesses are essentially purely Chinese stretching for 3x5 blocks, with all surrounding apartment buildings clearly housing Chinese residents. It's quite large, probably larger than all of the ones in the NE outside of NYC.
Probably comparable to Chicago's. I have been through Boston's without even realizing I was in a Chinatown, frankly. I have never been to Philadelphia's, but something tells me Oakland's would be larger. Numbers of Chinese residents of all of these Chinatowns have been quantified right here on C-D and if I recall, Oakland was ahead of all these other Chinatowns? It's a substantial place, and it is in a highly urbanized major city of the Bay Area, so naturally it will be large and authentic.
And yes, some cities in America have such a large, established Chinese population that they have multiple Chinatowns that are each larger and more authentic than the primary/single Chinatown you have in some of these other cities.
The Sunset and Richmond are large neighborhoods in SF that are 30+% Chinese, perhaps even 50+% Chinese, so there are lots of Chinese shops, restaurants, and businesses, and these neighborhoods have a couple hundred thousand people, but I find the businesses to be spread out a bit more. For instance, even on Clement, you run into a block that's more Russian or Greek, so there are other ethnic groups mixed in there, it's not purely Chinese.
Most of these cities just have a gate and a few businesses. Coming from the west coast, that is not really a "Chinatown" to me. Chicago's I have been to and it is isolated, but it's a few blocks of solid businesses and has encompassed a decent amount of more traditional architecture. There's no mistaking that you are in a Chinatown.
Oakland's Chinatown doesn't even have a gate, but even without it feels like way more of a Chinatown than some of these northeastern cities (I mean DC's Chinatown has a gate, but it has like 2 Chinese businesses and nearly no Chinese residents...come on). Oakland does have some Chinese looking buildings, and the businesses are essentially purely Chinese stretching for 3x5 blocks, with all surrounding apartment buildings clearly housing Chinese residents. It's quite large, probably larger than all of the ones in the NE outside of NYC.
Hopefully that gives a picture.
Overall this was a good post and I learned a bit about Oakland's Chinatown, but the bold part is a bit ridiculous.
According to most sources Boston's Chinatown is the third largest in the country. According to this study by the AALDEF (http://aaldef.org/Chinatown%20Then%2...w%20AALDEF.pdf) Boston's Chinatown houses 475 commercial businesses and institutions, including 3 full scale Chinese grocery stores. It also houses a population of 28,000/per per square mile (4,444 people in total), 70% of which are Asian. Its a bit of an exaggeration if you say that you could miss an area that houses that many Asian businesses or institutions.
Here are a few images of the area. Like everything in Boston the land area is small, but packs in a ton in a small space.
Philadelphia , Chicago, and Boston all have significant Chinatowns that feel very Chinese on the street, have lots of Chinese businesses, and actually have large Chinese populations living there. Philly's Chinatown has been expanding and sort of feels like a miniature version of NY Chinatown, as does Boston's. Not so much for DC, Montreal, LA, etc. That being said, Oakland probably does outdo Philly, Boston, or Chicago though not by that much
OP: which Chinatown in NYC are you talking about? Brooklyn's Chinatown, while not as well known as Manhattan's, is much bigger than Manhattan's. Last time I checked, Flushing was not far behind, but still didn't have as many Chinese residents as Brooklyn's Chinatown did. Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/changing-...ticle-1.948028
Based on that definition, it seems to me that NYC's Chinatown's would occupy either 2-3 of the top 4 spots on your list. Things are far from being "undisputed."
Some of the cities on the "undisputed" list need to be removed and added to the poll.
If we're ranking Chinatowns without regard to cities, I'd say
1. Sunset Park and vicinity, NYC
2. Flushing, NYC
3. Chinatown, NYC
4. Chinatown, SF
5. Chinatown/Kensington, Toronto
Somewhere in Vancouver might be in there (not Richmond bc I'm talking about urban 'hoods) but I haven't been there so can't say
I'm curious about Seattle's Chinatown. It seems to have an architectural urban, if maybe a little bit quiet Chinatown (International District). In theory, it seems like it could someday be on par with Boston or Philly.
If we're ranking Chinatowns without regard to cities, I'd say
1. Sunset Park and vicinity, NYC
2. Flushing, NYC
3. Chinatown, NYC
4. Chinatown, SF
5. Chinatown/Kensington, Toronto
Somewhere in Vancouver might be in there (not Richmond bc I'm talking about urban 'hoods) but I haven't been there so can't say
Vancouver's urban Chinatown is way below the ones you mentioned. Personally I have always been underwhelmed by Vancouver's urban Chinatown. Richmond on the other hand is impressive.
I wonder what the ranking would look like if we also included suburban Chinatown's? You can make an argument that Markham/Richmond Hill is the most impressive of them all. I dont think I have seen a selection anywhere in North America that can rival it.
That was my intuition about Vancouver just from street-viewing, but glad to have that confirmed.
Obviously it's hard to do a list in order, especially of both urban and suburban ones, but if including suburban I'd imagine Markham, Monterey Park, and perhaps Richmond BC would all be in the mix
Compared a few of the Chinatowns. For New York and San Francisco, especially the latter, it's pretty difficult to find Census tracts <30% Asian, and then technically there is no breakout of what kind of Asian it is. So I actually kept standards for what is Chinatown in Manhattan/DT SF much higher for these cities (tracts >50% Asian), whereas I kept it to >25% in other cities.
Boston's encompasses 3 tracts, total population of 12,843 (density 22,427 ppsm), about 0.57 sq mi in size, 45.4% Asian for 5,826 Asian people.
Philadelphia's was a lone tract of 0.15 sq mi, 2,937 people of which 63% were Asian (or 1,850 Asians), density of 19,888 ppsm
DC's really can't be called Chinatown at only 21% Asian, 2,830 people at density 8,047 ppsm (594 Asians)
NYC's is massive, the largest actually, at 68,376 total people, of which 64% are Asian (43,854 Asians) living in 0.72 sq mi at 94,690 ppsm
Chicago's is pretty large, as well: 12 contiguous census tracts containing 36,055 people, of which 54% are Asian (19,487 Asians) living in just over 2 sq mi (16,436 ppsm)
San Francisco's is the most thoroughly Asian and is also very Asian and dense - 6 contiguous tracts of >50% Asian (but like I said, most of the city is at least 20-30% Asian), 23,014 people living in about 0.4 sq mi (59,894 ppsm) and about 71% of them are Asian (16,330 Asians)
Oakland's is also quite large (not to mention there is an even larger Asian neighborhood basically adjoining that I didn't count) - 5 Census tracts for 1 sq mi and 14,660 people, 50.1% Asian (7,347 Asians)
Chicago: 2.19 sq mi
Oakland: 1.03 sq mi
NYC: 0.72 sq mi
Boston: 0.57 sq mi
San Francisco: 0.38 sq mi
DC: 0.35 sq mi
Philadelphia: 0.15 sq mi
I think we can all agree that DC's isn't really a Chinatown. Philadelphia's is completely isolated from whatever Asian community they may have, and that leaves Oakland, Boston, and Chicago to vie for whatever spot behind NYC/SF. I would probably put Oakland's/Chicago's a notch above Boston's, though those pics up above of Boston's look compelling. I just know that I have walked through that area before knowing it was Chinatown and didn't get so much of a Chinatown impression. And that was even walking through there before moving to the west coast and living near SF's Chinatown, which raises one's bar, A LOT.
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