Reinventing Chinatown
Hotelier Peter Kwong Jr. remembered with nostalgia the bygone days when people flocked to Los Angeles’ Chinatown to eat, play and shop, and businesses stayed open late into the night.
“The economy was robust, and there was a real sense of community then,” said Kwong, whose family has been in Chinatown for three generations and owns Best Western Dragon Gate Inn on North Hill Street. When Kwong’s grandfather, suffering from Alzheimer’s, eluded his nurses and wandered off to bookstores and tea shops, storekeepers took care of him and made sure that the family knew where he was.
Now, a quarter-century later, Kwong bemoans perceptions of the business, cultural and spiritual capital of the region’s Chinese Americans as a virtual ghost town after 6 p.m., and as a dangerous place, despite statistics indicating that it is one of the safest areas in the city.
Tour operators report that they rarely are asked to stop in Chinatown unless someone from Asia gets a craving for rice. Few downtown workers go there regularly for lunch, although Chinatown is a short, 25-cent DASH ride from the Civic Center, Bunker Hill and the business district.
The decline of Chinatown--coinciding with a dramatic rise of ethnic Chinese immigration in the 1970s and a population shift eastward to the San Gabriel Valley--bothers Kwong. But he and other Chinatown movers and shakers are more hopeful about the future of the place than they have been in years.
They believe they have the right plan to revitalize the 25-square-block district to draw visitors and suburbanites who have abandoned Chinatown for Monterey Park and Alhambra.
A proposal by the Los Angeles Chinatown Business Council, which is affiliated with the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, to get the historic area declared a business improvement district has infused new energy, commitment and vision into the neighborhood that began as “new” Chinatown in 1938 after “old” Chinatown was razed to build Union Station.
Under the latest plan, property owners would tax themselves to get a cleaner, safer and more appealing Chinatown. They would pay special assessments ranging from $100 a year to $100,000--with most paying between $2,000 and $3,000--according to George Yu, coordinator for the business council. The all-volunteer council has been meeting weekly for the past year to get the plans rolling.
It is circulating bilingual petitions to Chinatown’s 192 property owners, seeking their approval to raise $1.2 million a year to pay for sidewalk sweeping, graffiti removal, private security patrols, tree and shrubbery planting, and other measures to enhance Chinatown as a tourist destination and as a home for 13,500 residents.
If the petition drive is successful, the city will mail ballots to the property owners in June. They will have up to 60 days to return them. If a majority approve, the business improvement district for Chinatown will be created in January and last 10 years.
Though Kwong would pay $30,000 a year more in property taxes on his family’s three hotels, he considers it an investment in the future of Chinatown and his family.
“This is our last chance,” he said. “If we don’t take control of our own destiny now, we will lose Chinatown.”
But some of the old-timers in Chinatown aren’t so sure that this is the best way to boost the area.
Kenneth Lee, whose family has operated the Jade Tree arts store on quaint Chung King Road since the 1940s, said all the improvement plans in the world won’t help unless the city provides parking in Chinatown.
“What does the city do for us?” he asked. “Nothing.”
He suggested that the city offer two-hour free parking, as places in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica do. His neighbors unanimously endorsed the suggestion.
Philip Young, who runs a family printing business at 977 N. Hill St., said he has mixed feelings about the project.
Explaining Goals
On the surface, a business improvement district seems like a good idea, he said, but it doesn’t come anywhere near addressing all the issues in Chinatown because they are more complex than people realize.
Steve Wong, chairman of the Wong Family Assn.’s investment fund, opposes the plan. He doesn’t see how his group could benefit by paying an extra $6,000 to $7,000 a year in taxes for three parcels the association owns, he said.
The plan’s backers say they must do a better job of explaining their goals to gain support.
Some may be leery because of past failures, said Roland Soo Hoo, president of Los Angeles Chinatown Corp., which owns and manages the streets of Chinatown.
He wants to assure them that things are different this time because the project has the strength of people, money and connections behind it.
“These [investors] are high rollers,” said Soo Hoo. “They have their investments to look after.”
Los Angeles has 26 business improvement districts. The ones downtown and in Hollywood have received high marks.
Kwong said the success of Hollywood and the Fashion District persuaded him to support the project.
Six years ago he wouldn’t have taken his wife to those neighborhoods. “Now, I let her go to the Fashion District by herself,” he said.
Rising property values, increased business traffic and enhanced quality of life for residents, workers and visitors are what the proponents foresee.
Chinatown, however, does not speak with one voice.
People with a stake in the place reflect varied backgrounds and interests.
Until 25 years ago, Chinatown merchants and residents--like most Chinese Americans at the time--had roots in Cantonese-speaking southern China. Many also had roots in America, some dating to the railroad workers who arrived here in the 19th century.
Today’s Chinatown is much more diverse. You can hear Mandarin spoken as often as Cantonese. The presence of ethnic Chinese from Vietnam, Cambodia and other parts of the world also has changed its character.
A recent foray into Chinatown by non-Chinese investors, including artists who are opening galleries, adds yet another dimension to the equation.
“We are joking that Caucasians are invading Chinatown,” said Lily Cheung, whose family owns an antique shop on Chung King Road. “When old-timers move out, Caucasian artists move in,” she said.
While merchants are glad to see empty spaces filled, some wonder how the arrival of non-Asians might change Chinatown.
At the same time, it would be unrealistic to expect educated, younger Chinese Americans to work and live in Chinatown, they said.
“They are able to make a better living elsewhere,” said Ming Chuen Fong, whose family has been in Los Angeles since the 1870s.
“Younger people want to make a lot of money in the shortest amount of time,” said Fong’s brother, Gerry. The Fongs own F. See On arts store.
“Chinatown would never come back the way it was in the ‘50s because people have changed,” he said. “In the old days everyone was dedicated to the shops, keeping the streets clean. That was that generation, you see. Now, the next generation and the generation after that--they’re not as interested.”
Colorful History
In its heyday, from 1950 to 1975, Los Angeles’ Chinatown bustled.
People by the thousands came, said Kenneth Lee, and shops remained open until 1 or 2 in the morning.
On a recent weekday afternoon, Rancho Cucamonga resident Tamara Clark brought two friends visiting from Missouri to Chinatown.
“All the stores are closed,” she said. “Why did we drive out here?”
Her friend, DeeAnna Adkins, also was disappointed. “I was expecting it to be more like the garment district, with lots of shops open,” she said.
While Los Angeles’ Chinatown never had the aura of its San Francisco counterpart, it has a unique place in the multiethnic history of the city and the region, home to more than 500,000 people of Chinese ancestry.
By the 1870s, Olvera Street--the birthplace of Los Angeles--was also home to Chinese immigrants. Chinese and Mexicans lived and worked side by side, partaking of each other’s foods and services. Some Chinese and Mexicans intermarried and raised families.
Despite Chinatown’s many voices and viewpoints, most veteran observers believe the business improvement district project will fly.
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 last month by the business council and New City America, the San Diego-based consulting firm handling the group’s proposal.
Time seems to be on the backers’ side, too.
The start of construction on the Pasadena Metro Blue Line and plans to develop the U.S. Postal Service’s Terminal Annex into a giant telecommunications and high-tech center all tie into the plan. The purchase of the Little Joe’s restaurant site and two major retail centers and completion of yet another shopping area have also added to the excitement.
In the past year, Chinatown has become visibly cleaner. Under the business council’s privately funded “Clean & Safe” program, 50 trash cans have been added along Chinatown’s streets and alleys.
Merchants say the project, underwritten by Cathay Bank and other donors, has helped.
“When we started, we only had 11 trash cans in Chinatown,” Yu said. Now there are 61, collecting a ton of trash each week.
“In order to appeal to the masses, you need to provide a nicer environment,” Yu said.
The business council pays attention to other developments in Chinatown as well.
Earlier this month, members of the business council went to City Hall to defeat a plan for an adult entertainment business proposed by an outside investor.
“We set a precedent that we do not condone that type of program in our Chinatown,” Soo Hoo said.
Toy manufacturer Charlie Woo, who heads two business improvement districts near downtown, said his experience has been positive.
“Once they [property owners] see the benefits . . . they become sold on the idea,” Woo said.
Property owners who initially balked at the proposals to create the Central City East Assn. and Downtown Industrial Business Improvement District are big supporters now because they see cleaner and safer streets, he said.
Architect Roger Hong, whose ancestors were among the founders of Chinatown, said it behooves those who care about Chinatown to take to heart the inscription over its west gate.
It reads: “Cooperate to Achieve.”
