Urban US Chinatowns wane as Asians head to suburbs
Urban US Chinatowns wane as Asians head to suburbs
By HOPE YEN and BEN NUCKOLS Associated Press Posted: 01/19/2012 12:06:34 PM PST Updated: 01/19/2012 02:53:53 PM PST WASHINGTON—America's historic Chinatowns, home for a century to immigrants seeking social support and refuge from racism, are fading as rising living costs, jobs elsewhere and a desire for wider spaces lure Asian-Americans more than ever to the suburbs. Shifts also are under way in Los Angeles, Boston, Houston, San Francisco and Seattle, where shiny new "satellite Chinatowns" in the suburbs and outer city limits rival if not overshadow the originals. Nationwide, about 62 percent of Asian-Americans in the nation's large metropolitan areas live in the suburbs, up from 54 percent in 1990 and the highest ever. Tied with Hispanics as the fastest-growing group, the nation's 4.4 million Asians are more likely than other minorities to live in the suburbs; only whites, at 78 percent, are higher. Since 2000, nearly three-fourths of Asian population growth in the U.S. occurred in suburbs, many of them in the South. In the Washington, D.C., metro area, which has a population of one-half million Asian-Americans, fewer than 500 Asians live in Chinatown, down from around 3,000 in 1970. Once a close-knit community of modest shops and rowhouses, it now has become known more for a sports arena, high-rise luxury apartments and national chains including Starbucks, Bed Bath & Beyond and Hooters. http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_19776301 |
This is old news. I thought everyone knew this.
That said, some of the "suburban" Chinatowns are pretty damn urban. And some of the "urban" Chinatowns are sorta suburban. The real transformation has been from "core" Chinatowns to "peripheral" Chinatowns, rather than from urban to suburban. |
This same thing happened some time ago in Portland, however our "new" Chinatown is still in the city, just in a cheaper area further out (82nd ave).
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Diamond Bar, Irvine and some others are more like traditional suburbs: sfh's, lawn, large garages, etc. Edit: I agree with Crawford, who posted while I was writing. |
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LA's chinatown still has a lot of asians in the area, they just are much less Chinese. More like Vietnamese last I heard. The suburbs to the east of downtown with large Chinese populations definitely overshadow Chinatown now.
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Same thing goes for Koreatowns. There are two in Toronto: The Annex, and Young Street (north of North York City Centre). The former is pedestrian-based; the latter, auto.
Montreal's Chinatown is slowly being taken over by Vietnamese. |
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And plus they don't take away from the existing Chinatown, which also isn't getting smaller. |
This isn't the case in Chicago. Our Chinatown is growing stronger by the year. For some reason Chicago has very strong ties to China (was one of only two cities in the US visited by Hu Jintao last year) and Chinatown here is overflowing into Bridgeport and Bronzeville and seeing highrise proposals right now.
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Yonge St. in North York is not auto-centric. Its a high-density residential & commercial area centred on a subway line. There are a few strip malls left, but thats about it. http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4110/...564886e2_o.jpg Photo by Paradox21 Toronto's main downtown Chinatown is also becoming more Vietnamese...interesting that thats the case in multiple cities. |
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that's a Chinatown? I see one Japanese restaurant and a ton of signs in English. I'm not sure if this is still true but last I heard Manhattan's Chinatown was still growing, swallowing up Little Italy. Of course Flushing, Queens and Sunset Park, Brooklyn continue to boom. I also don't understand the 4.4 million figure. The latest census put the nation's Asian population at nearly 15 million.
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Somebody who is local can correct me if I'm wrong... I am going to (maybe naively) make this point without having actually been to this place. But isn't the Chinese enclave/municipality of Monterey Park (just east of L.A.) actually becoming more urban because of its recent ethnic shift? I base this purely on studying historical aerial imagery over the past decade, and looking through the city's website... but it appears they have been aggressively redeveloping the main suburban boulevards to accommodate all the newcomers. I'm assuming this is because most of the existing lower-density housing stock has already been occupied, and the city now has a political majority with the interests of the Chinese community in mind (pretty smart move considering the many clashes Chinatowns have historically had with their city governments).
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There are also lesser known Chinatowns in Elmhurst, Queens (mostly along Broadway), and in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn (mostly along Avenue U). There's a sixth potential Chinatown now growing in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. 18th Ave. from about 65th to 75th streets is heavily Chinese. One weird thing about greater NYC is that there are no suburban Chinatowns yet. There are suburban Koreatowns and Little Indias, both in NJ and Long Island, but nothing yet approaching a suburban Chinatown. |
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http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Nort...,83.61,,0,-3.1 Back to Chinatowns though, Toronto actually has two urban ones. The main one is quite close to downtown, it's where the tourists go although unlike Koreatown, there are Chinese living there too. It might not be quite at the same level as a few decades ago, but it's still very vibrant. There is also a second Chinatown that's a bit smaller and has much fewer tourists, and is cheaper. I'm not sure how long it's been there for, maybe not that long... http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Gerr...,113.61,,0,4.4 Then there's the suburban Chinese community. It's basically Markham, NW Scarborough, SE Richmond Hill and NE North York. There's probably around 300,000 Chinese living in this area where they are the largest ethnic group, compared to the urban Chinatowns which might have a few thousand. This suburban Chinese community is spread out over a much larger area though, with dozens of predominantely Chinese strip malls and I think 3 Chinese shopping malls. There are plans for more urban neighbourhoods in the area though, quite a lot actually, so we'll see if these communities attract Chinese or white suburban yuppies... Anyways, here's an example of a Chinese stripmall in SE Richmond Hill: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Agin...33.07,,1,-6.56 |
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http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/...aspx?id=198558 |
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