Chinatown Leaders Push Revitalization Plan, Local Levy for Beautification

In a concerted effort to rejuvenate Chinatown, which for years has suffered from poor retail sales, stagnant property values and image problems, a group of business and property owners Thursday launched a campaign to revitalize the historic district.

Members of the Los Angeles Chinatown Business Council, a nonprofit group affiliated with the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, said they hope to create a business improvement district in which property owners would agree to a special assessment to make Chinatown safer, cleaner and more attractive to residents and visitors.

The group is circulating bilingual petitions to Chinatown’s 200 commercial property owners to approve the proposal, which would require a special assessment to generate about $1.2 million a year to pay for sidewalk sweeping, private security patrol, tree and shrubbery planting, and other measures to beautify and to promote Chinatown as a tourist destination.

If the petitions show support for the proposal, the city will mail out what are known as ballots to all affected property owners, who will have 60 days to respond. The proposal needs a majority of property owners for approval.

“If we don’t do something now, Chinatown will become dead town,” said Patrick Lee, president of the council and a longtime Chinatown property owner and businessman.

However, the proposal is not sitting well with some family associations in Chinatown because they don’t want to pay more taxes. The family associations own property in Chinatown that they use primarily for noncommercial purposes.

Deborah Ching, executive director of the Chinatown Service Center, said, the Chinatown Business Council has a “real sales job” to do to win over the family associations and others who are pessimistic about revitalizing Chinatown.

Public safety, street sweeping and marketing and promotion of Chinatown were high on the list of priorities for Chinatown property owners responding to a survey conducted in the last month by the council and New City America, the San Diego-based consulting firm handling the group’s proposal.

With more than half of the property owners answering, 88% of the respondents said they believed that Chinatown has an image problem and 58% said that they support funding safety services for Chinatown. More than 70% of the respondents said they wanted to see street light pole banners and trees and shrubberies along the sidewalks. The survey also found that 84% of the respondents have owned their properties in Chinatown for more than 10 years, most more than 50 years.

If the 25-block area north of City Hall has long suffered from some neglect, proponents of the project say the climate has turned around. They attribute the change to a convergence of new projects, including the start of construction for the Pasadena Metro Blue line and plans to develop the closed U.S. Postal Service’s Terminal Annex into a giant high-tech center.

“There is a whole new level of excitement [about Chinatown] that we haven’t seen in 20 years,” said Chinatown investor Kim Alan Benjamin, a Los Angeles native who recently purchased Little Joe’s on North Broadway. His plans for the site of the closed eatery include a 300-room, four-star hotel and a New Little Joe’s Italian Restaurant.

With the property next to the Blue Line’s Chinatown station, Benjamin wants to build a park-and-ride facility for 500 cars. When the Blue Line’s Chinatown station opens in 2003, more than 30,000 riders are expected to pass through Chinatown daily.

In addition to promoting Chinatown as a shopping, dining and tourist destination, backers of the business improvement district want to organize festivals and events to lure visitors and businesses and provide goodwill ambassadors and tourist information kiosks.

“Chinatown is an important fixture in our culture--and it must be maintained,” said Steve Riboli, owner of San Antonio Winery, who bought the historic Capitol Milling property in Chinatown and plans to develop it into artists lofts and telecommunications office space.

Roland Soo Hoo, whose ancestors were among the founders of Chinatown, said that prior efforts to revitalize the district didn’t take off because they did not have politically savvy and well-connected people in the campaign.

New players such as Benjamin are bringing not only their ideas, energy, money and time but also their connections and knowledge, said Ching of the Chinatown Service Center.

“It’s the best opportunity I’ve seen in the 20 years of working in Chinatown,” she said.

Councilman Mike Hernandez, whose district includes Chinatown, is a big supporter of the proposal.

“A lot of small businesses in Chinatown will benefit because [visitors] will have a better impression of Chinatown,” he said. What’s good for Chinatown would be good for the rest of the city, he said.

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Times staff writer Elise Gee contributed to this story.

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Chinatown Profile

Chinatown is home to about 13,500 people. Here is a look at the diversity of the community:

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Asian/Pacific Islander: 75%

Latino: 19%

White: 4%

Black: 2%

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Here is the composition of the Asian/Pacific Islander population of Chinatown:

Chinese: 80%

Cambodian: 7%

Vietnamese: 7%

Other: 6%

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Source: Chinatown Service Center 1998 report based on 1996 estimates by Claritas