Are America's Chinatowns A Thing Of The Past?

With the developing trend of downtown revitalization in American cities in recent years, after about a half of a century of suburbanization, the increasing economic values of the properties of North America’s Chinatowns—usually located within or adjacent to downtown core areas—are menacing the survival of historical values, as well as to the potential for future developments that contribute to the well-being of these areas. When the poorer immigrants are forced to move out of their residences or of their businesses, because of the inability to compete with market-economy forces, this trend is posing threats to not just the historical constructions, but also the commercial and cultural activities—other vital components of these areas.

This situation is similar to what happen at other Ethnic communities, namely the Korean Towns, Little Saigons, and Little Italians across North America. For example, plans for many future luxury condos and big-box commercial in Seattle’s Little Saigon are threatening the survival of Vietnamese American’s businesses, and consequently, the existence of Little Saigon in the future. In Montreal, home of about 30,000 Vietnamese Canadian, the effort to create a “Vietnam Town” at the Jean Talon and Saint Denis’s areas has grown fast in the first two years, and then the project is moving forward very slowly because of the sudden increasing property’s values in this area. Local people are talking about the possibility to "relocate" the project to the South River's areas, on the other side of the Saint Laurent River from Montreal downtown.

In the “battles” between supporters of Chinatowns, Korean Towns, Little Saigons, Little Italians and the developers representing the market forces, the role of citizen-participation movements and of local government are very important. It is still unknown whether downtown ethnic communities will continue to exist and flourish under the support and protection by policies and regulations, or they will be relocated / or partially decentralized to suburban areas.

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Dr. Nam-Son Ngo-Viet is a planner / architect and researcher. His research focuses are physical form and human perception of urban centers in Pacific Rim countries.