might I just mention...I'm so happy the search is back and better than before!
New leader's goal: a livelier Chinatown
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Fred Leeson
The Oregonian
When Dorian Yee talks about a "toothless smile," he isn't talking dentistry.
He's referring to streets in Old Town/Chinatown and what it takes to make the neighborhood more lively during daytime.
"There are too many gaps on our streets," says the first chairman of the recently formed Old Town/Chinatown Business Association. "Retail shoppers like continuity. We don't have enough destination sites to pull them in."
In a perfect world, Yee would like to see Old Town/Chinatown filled with interesting shops and a citywide awareness that crime in the city's oldest neighborhood is lower than it used to be -- and lower than in some other parts of Portland.
And he'd like to see tens of thousands of people turn out for family-friendly events on the two festival streets, as they did last September for the first Under the Autumn Moon festival.
But Yee, a Bank of the West branch manager whose office perches on the edge of Old Town, is a realist. "Some people want to start running," he says. "We have to crawl and then walk first. "
"He's the perfect guy," says Carol McCreary, vice president of the Old Town/Chinatown Neighborhood Association. "He's in touch with everyone."
McCreary says Yee moved his bank desk from a closed office to the front lobby. "He's the storefront," she says. "He's the guy with his eyes on the street all the time. He knows everybody."
The idea for a business association grew out of meetings last year aimed at updating neighborhood development plans. Yee, who volunteered for that chore, said housing advocates, social service agencies and the Old Town Chinatown Neighborhood Association realized nobody was championing business retention and recruitment.
A prior group, the Historic Old Town Business Association, imploded years ago. Yee and others decided to form a different type of association, with tightly focused goals and open to members from the nonprofit world, many of which reside in Old Town.
"What we have to do is learn to be compatible with each other," Yee says. "They face the same issues as for-profits. If there are problems, we need to talk about them. We can't create a sense of alienation."
The most visible role of the new association will be programming the festival streets, Northwest Davis and Flanders streets between Third and Fourth avenues, that are easily closed off for public events.
The Autumn Moon festival appears on its way to being an annual affair. The first one attracted about 35,000 visitors over a weekend.
Yee says the association is considering events such as pingpong tournaments and outdoor markets. Staging public events is a big chore. "We are not professional event planners," he says. Finding sponsors to front the costs will be essential.
Yee believes public events would help change Old Town/Chinatown's image as a neighborhood dominated by inebriates, drug users and the homeless. Successful events would also tell the city the $5 million urban renewal project that created the festival streets was worth it.
"We need to show a return on the investment," Yee says. "That's important."
Spoken like a banker.
Fred Leeson: 503-294-5946;
fredleeson@news.oregonian.com
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/o...941.xml&coll=7
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