A land squeeze in America's Chinatowns
In Boston, activists want to develop a site with affordable housing, but the city eyes offices and luxury condos.
from the July 10, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 3
The primary owner of the land, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, is in debt for its huge Big Dig project and would like to turn a profit.
Urban development will ultimately win out, and as part of that trend, Chinatown will become a tourist destination, predicts Michael Liu, a research associate at the Institute for Asian-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.
"The question is, who will this new Chinatown benefit?" asks Mr. Kwong, the author. "Making Chinatown a tourist destination ... is not something to be handled by the location population."
One sign of the times is a new Japanese-style restaurant on the northern border of Chinatown. The wood décor is fresh, the music Western, the chopsticks cute, and waitresses outfitted in kimono-like tops with black slacks and a polka-dot bandana over their hair.
The style appeals to the non-Chinese clientele that increasingly surrounds the neighborhood, says Judy Chow, a manager whose company owns the place.
"Chinatown is the best place to live when you first come," says Ms. Chow, who came here as a new immigrant in 1984. But business is business. "There are a lot of offices around here," she says. "We want to tap into that market."
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