US Chinatowns On Decline

[Thomas Promise]

This is not hard to understand if you have strong historical ties to the "Old Country"
My Grandparents and father where born in Italy and came to the USA 90 years ago. My Grands where the Italians, My dad was Italian American, I am American Italian and now my children are American Americans. One day the Chinese will be American Americans as well.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/urban-us-chinatowns-wane-asians-140626512.html

[dnoblett]

Good article, I have noticed this trend on visits to Toronto the old downtown one is still vibrant, however there are strong centers located out in Toronto's suburbs such as Markham, Richmond Hill, and Mississauga. On our trips up there we tend to stay at hotels out in Markham or Richmond Hill, and visit the old downtown location either on the drive up there or on the day of the drive back home.

[knloregon]

In Portland, Oregon, this isn't so much about " old country" -- or cultural assimilation. Portland has two Chinatowns. The first, downtown, with a 150 year history, was emptied entirely by the grinding racism after the first Chinese Exclusion Act of the 1880's. The new Chinatown is further east, (naturally, in an area historically affordable) but is healthy and growing.

[Randy W]

Houston likewise has two Chinatowns - the old one is all but abandoned in favor of a newer area. Simply due to growing pains.

 

What I found is that the ones who came over on student visas, got their PhD degrees, and stayed on for white-collar jobs tend to assimilate more in different parts of the city. And also tend to be Mandarin-speakers who are now primarily speaking English, whereas Cantonese is the language of Chinatown. A large number of Vietnamese also live in that area, so English is very common.

Edited January 21, 2012 by Randy W (see edit history)

[tonado]

In Boston, housing in the city is expensive. Chinatown is no exception. Population of Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans are increasing. Thus, they move to the suburb but Chinatown is still very much alive. I went there today for shopping Chinese grocery. The place is packed with people shopping for the New Year. It was very tough to find a parking place.

[steveandrong]

Chinatown is as Chinatown does....and in the 3 years we have been going to Chicago's Chinatown, it is still new to us.....there are the favorite places we like to go to eat and grocery shop, but there is so much more that we have not yet discovered....in some ways it is kind of spread out and if you don't drive around and happen onto some of these places or if someone hasn't told us aout this place or that place then it just remains to be found by us....by and large, Chicago Chinatown serves our need pretty well,,,however, as Rong points out, the most predominant language there is what she calls "Guangdong" language, which I take to mean is mostly southern china residents there....as for growth or decline, it seems to be thriving.

[Randy W]

Chinatown is as Chinatown does....and in the 3 years we have been going to Chicago's Chinatown, it is still new to us.....there are the favorite places we like to go to eat and grocery shop, but there is so much more that we have not yet discovered....in some ways it is kind of spread out and if you don't drive around and happen onto some of these places or if someone hasn't told us aout this place or that place then it just remains to be found by us....by and large, Chicago Chinatown serves our need pretty well,,,however, as Rong points out, the most predominant language there is what she calls "Guangdong" language, which I take to mean is mostly southern china residents there....as for growth or decline, it seems to be thriving.

 

Guangdong hua is Cantonese

[tsap seui]

Decline????? Shucks, our Chinertown rat cheer in Bedford Pennsyltucky is booming. Before August 2011 there wasn't even a Chinertown here....now there is 2, count em TWO Chinertuckians in Chinertown Bedford. They speak Mandarin.

 

On a sad note about our Chinertown. Fireworks is illegal here....and I don't even know where to go to buy explosives for these two firecracker poppin' Chinese New Year revelers....so, I plan to eat me two cans of Lucks pinto beans tonight, give them a couple of hours to simmer and offgas in my stomach and then I plan to light some farts for Chinese New Years celebratin. Won't be too loud but the flash of blue light will look like a sale at a K-Mart when I squeeze me a juicy one out to my waitin' flicked bic. YEEEEEEEEEEEHAWWWWWWWWWWWWWW Let's party BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Nothin' like Luck's pinto beans to make some awful and very plentiful gas for a party.

 

tsap seui

Edited January 21, 2012 by tsap seui (see edit history)

[Zhou Zhou]

Decline????? Shucks, our Chinertown rat cheer in Bedford Pennsyltucky is booming. Before August 2011 there wasn't even a Chinertown here....now there is 2, count em TWO Chinertuckians in Chinertown Bedford. They speak Mandarin.

 

On a sad note about our Chinertown. Fireworks is illegal here....and I don't even know where to go to buy explosives for these two firecracker poppin' Chinese New Year revelers....so, I plan to eat me two cans of Lucks pinto beans tonight, give them a couple of hours to simmer and offgas in my stomach and then I plan to light some farts for Chinese New Years celebratin. Won't be too loud but the flash of blue light will look like a sale at a K-Mart when I squeeze me a juicy one out to my waitin' flicked bic. YEEEEEEEEEEEHAWWWWWWWWWWWWWW Let's party BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Nothin' like Luck's pinto beans to make some awful and very plentiful gas for a party.

 

tsap seui

 

Yup, "Luck's" always packed a punch fer me too...Your fireworks are gonna be funnier than a one legged cat trying to bury a turd in a frozen pond.

[DennisLeiqin]

Leiqin and I live just outside the old LA Chinatown. We enjoy the old Chinatown tourist feel vs. the new China burbs of Monteray Park in LAs San Gabriel Valley where we do our grocery shopping. The old downtown Chinatown won't be going anywhere soon. It still draws tourist who want to see Shanghai building's architecture that were originally built as movie props and then moved to here. Chinatown is still a China town where Chinese live and work.

 

I have often sent CFL friends who travel to LA to the real, new China towns that are away from the tourist Chinatown to the new, modern areas in San Gabriel.

 

I suppose some day looking back visitors will view the San Gabriel Chinatown just as quaint as the current downtown Chinatown is seen today.

[chilton747]

In Boston, housing in the city is expensive. Chinatown is no exception. Population of Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans are increasing. Thus, they move to the suburb but Chinatown is still very much alive. I went there today for shopping Chinese grocery. The place is packed with people shopping for the New Year. It was very tough to find a parking place.

 

The wife and I have been there. Quite an interesting place.

[knloregon]

"..Chinatown is still a China town where Chinese live and work."

 

Not in Portland. Oregon was particularly racist towards the first Chinese. At the time of the first Chinese Exclusion Act, Portland had the second largest Chinatown on the west coast, second only to SF, and still had a population of over 11,000 in the 1910 census. (and Portland even then, wasn't that big of a city---it still isn't)

 

Its empty (of Chinese) today, and one of the amusing experiences we encountered on our way to a local restaurant there was a tourist couple desperate for a photo op.: "Excuse us, but can we take a picture of you?" "Sure!", I say. "Well, not you, just your wife.... and can you move a little more to the left, you're still in the picture..."

[warpedbored]

Portland today is one of the least racist cities in the country. I think a big part of the decline of China towns is they are more accepted in the general population now. They no longer need to huddle together for protection. Today's Chinese grocery store is likely to right next to any other kind of business.

[Kyle]

Kansas City has a fairly strong Chinese community, but there is no Chinatown that I know of. There are a couple of Chinese markets that do have lots of imported goods which is nice

[Randy W]

Portland today is one of the least racist cities in the country. I think a big part of the decline of China towns is they are more accepted in the general population now. They no longer need to huddle together for protection. Today's Chinese grocery store is likely to right next to any other kind of business.

 

In Houston's Chinatown, there are several small shopping centers full of Chinese businesses "huddled" together, along with just about all the shops in between. Mainly Cantonese spoken - the Mandarin speakers tend to be more educated and living in different areas of the city, although they seem to visit around once a week to a month, depending on how far away they are. Day care and community centers, schools and housing provide about everything they need, including a police station.