Aiming to Put O.C. ‘Koreatown’ on Map

After his wrongful arrest--and subsequent release--in connection with the shooting death of a California Highway Patrol officer in July, Young Ho Choi held a news conference in the heart of Koreatown in Los Angeles to discuss his ordeal.

To Korean American leaders in Orange County, there was definitely something wrong with this picture, and it wasn’t just the mistaken arrest.

Even though the shooting occurred in Fullerton and Choi lived in Buena Park, he chose Los Angeles--not the “Koreatown” right in Garden Grove--to stage his public outcry.

“The Choi issue is just another thing that shows how we’ll always be under the shadow of Koreatown in Los Angeles,” said Raymond Choi, president of the Korean Chamber of Commerce in Orange County and not related to Young Ho Choi. Raymond Choi and others were appeased somewhat--but not much--when Young Ho Choi later explained he was all but hand-led to Los Angeles by a Korean-language newspaper reporter based there.

Korean Americans in Orange County acknowledge that it’s understandable--even expected--that their Koreatown plays second fiddle to its bigger, older sister an hour’s drive to the north. The county’s Korean American population of 36,000 is only a quarter of Los Angeles County’s.

But on the two-mile stretch on Garden Grove Boulevard between Brookhurst Street and Beach Boulevard, where Korean-owned retail businesses and restaurants abound, community leaders said Garden Grove’s Korean business district is poised for change.

They have embarked on a campaign to boost the profile of the community, raising money to build a Korean community cultural center and participating in a trade mission to Korea last year to entice investors to the area.

“Koreans who visit this country . . . stop by L.A. to visit Koreatown,” said Koo Oh, president of the Korean-American Assn. in Orange County, an umbrella group consisting of Korean civic, business and religious organizations in the area. “When they say Koreatown, they only think of L.A. We’re trying to change that.”

Ideally, Oh and others would like to see a vibrant tourist draw--complete with large new and renovated shopping centers, hotels and a cultural center--within five to 10 years. They dream of the day when national and international visitors would speak of an Orange County Koreatown in the same breath as the other Koreatown.

Until then, some are resigned to the local business district’s status as neglected sibling--and with good reasons. The doyens of the Korean American community in Los Angeles generally treat them as such, albeit without malice.

“Because the Korean community in Southern California is the largest outside of Korea, we support them--[those in] Los Angeles, the Inland Empire and Orange County--morally, spiritually and in every way we can,” said Tae Hee Park, consul general at the South Korean Consulate.

But when it comes to attending functions sponsored by each community and responding to the needs of community leaders, L.A.’s size gives it an edge, Park said.

“Because L.A. is so much bigger, to be frank, we do emphasize and show preference to the people there. . . . I don’t mean we neglect Orange County, we just show more favor to L.A.”

Young O. Kim, a field representative in community relations for the office of Rep. Ed Royce (R-Fullerton), who works extensively with Korean leaders in both Los Angeles and Orange counties, concluded less diplomatically: “Orange County Koreatown is perceived to be the stepchild.”

In their effort to revitalize and promote their Koreatown, Orange County Korean American leaders are taking a delicate approach. In the past, residents who are not of Korean ancestry have opposed turning the district into an official tourist and business area.

In raucous city meetings over the years, many old-time area residents said such a district, with its clusters of Korean-language signs, would make them feel isolated in their own neighborhood.

“We have to tread very carefully and be sensitive to these concerns,” said Euiwon Chough, an Anaheim businessman and member of the Korean chamber of commerce. “We want to harmonize, to unite. At this point, we don’t want to disturb the harmony that we’ve tried to establish all these years.”

Even now, the moniker Koreatown can invite protestations, so leaders and city officials are careful to qualify the area as the “Korean business district.”

City Councilman Robert Dinsen, who has sided with those opposing further development of the district, said his office no longer receives as many calls and letters from people against the idea as it did in the late 1980s. It was around that time, Dinsen recalled, that Korean-owned businesses began cropping up, and residents were not comfortable with foreign-language signs that accompanied them.

“People who call all say they’re not against [the Korean merchants]. It’s just the many Korean-language signs in the area, he said. “The calls aren’t as many as before, so I guess it will just take time before changes happen.”

Concern over making waves has meant slow progress toward developing the district, but that will soon change, Chough and other Korean American leaders said.

Earlier this year, the Korean-American Assn. of Orange County began in earnest to raise money to build a long-planned Korean Community Center that is envisioned as a hub for the district, now marked by rambling stretches of strip malls.

Such a center “would really help boost the economy and the business community,” said Kim, the Royce aide, who is also vice chairman of the Korean-American Assn. Now, many Korean Americans living in Orange County trek north in search of cultural activities, she and others said.

For many years, Hong Lee has made it a routine to come to Garden Grove every weekend to get her groceries at one of the three supermarkets in the district. But when she wants to do major shopping or spend the day soaking in Korean culture, she said, she drives to Los Angeles.

“It’s more alive up there; here it is nice, but too quiet,” said the 52-year-old Fullerton resident as she shopped recently for tea and sugar cookies at the Doremi Market. “There’s not too many social places here where we can go.”

A local cultural center, Kim said, would keep residents such as Lee and their families closer to home and bring other visitors in.

The cultural center, to include a library, a youth center and office spaces for civic and business groups, will cost about $2 million and will take five years to complete, according to Oh and Choi, who are spearheading the effort.

So far, about $50,000 has been raised locally. The committee set up to raise the money will also solicit money from Korean business people in Los Angeles as well as investors from South Korea, members said.

On a drive down Garden Grove Boulevard in the heart of the district on a recent afternoon, Choi waved at the many small restaurants, boutiques and offices that line the thoroughfare. He recalled the days in the late 1970s and early 1980s when the street mostly consisted of empty fields or businesses such as strip joints and adult video stores.

Korean immigrants, lured to the county’s suburban comfort and high standard of living at the time, moved into the area and bought up land and opened businesses because real estate was inexpensive.

Back then, there were about 11,000 residents of Korean descent living in the county, according to the 1980 U.S. census. Today, business and community leaders said there are at least twice as many living in the county as the 36,000 counted in the 1990 U.S. census.

Local leaders say that the most recent influx of Korean Americans to Orange County occurred after the April 1992 Los Angeles riots, although they add that they do not have an official number.

The new Korean residents are also geographically dispersed, many choosing to live in Fullerton and Irvine.

“Our community has been growing,” Choi said. “We need more development to reflect that growth.”

“We’ve gone through a lot of changes in the past 10 years,” he added. “But they’re not big changes. They’re very small changes, like the businesses we have here. Sooner or later, we will see taller buildings with big stores here.”

But for their dreams to be realized, business and civic leaders are turning homeward to South Korea in the hope of bringing in more dollars. The local economy, they said, has been saturated and most of the Korean-owned businesses are mom-and-pop operations.

There are between 600 and 800 Korean-owned businesses in a district that in two years has brought in $800,000 in sales tax revenue for the city.

Although these small-scale businesses are necessary to retain a community identity and flavor, they are not enough to launch the kind of ambitious plans leaders have to revitalize and develop the area.

Last September, Choi and a group of local Korean American business people joined city officials on a trade mission to Anyang, a Seoul suburb that is Garden Grove’s sister city, and met with potential investors and developers there.

No commitments have been made. But those on the trade mission said it was valuable because a line of communication was established. Next month, some members of the Korea Chamber of Commerce will visit and tour the business district, said Tom Kim, a local insurance broker who also went to Anyang last year.

“There are no definite plans but we are encouraged because [some investors in Korea] have been talking about putting a golf range in this part of town,” Kim said. “Things are looking good.”

Oh, president of the Korean-American Assn., said he believes that “Koreatown in Los Angeles has grown about all it can.” Garden Grove Koreatown will get its turn one day in the not too distant future, he said optimistically.

“We have time. We have a community,” he said. “And soon, maybe we will have new developers.”

He added: “We’ve already started the process by selling the good points of the business district to investors.”

The thrust of the pitch?

“The city of Garden Grove is the center of Orange County and we’re not far from Disneyland,” Oh said.

“And we’re not far from Koreatown in Los Angeles.”