May 12, 2008 by willng24.

This morning a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit central China with a death toll rising close to 9000.  This earthquake was so large that vibrations were felt as far away at Thailand and Vietnam.   

Besides the major disaster that this earthquake has caused, it couldn’t have come at a worse time as China still struggles with relations with Tibet along with preparations for the looming Olympics in August. 

We can only pray for those involved in the disaster and their family members.  Even though I don’t have relatives in that area I can surely feel for the magnitude of this disaster.  Surely there will be relief efforts in play and hopefully it won’t be anything like the barriers that Myanmar is facing. 

For more information, please visit: CNN & Boston.com

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May 9, 2008 by Chinatown Blogger.

Construction for W Hotel on corner Stuart St. and Tremont St.

Tufts University Construction on corner of Kneeland St. and Washington St.

While the Chinatown Blogger may not have been posting as frequently as a blogger should, this does not mean that things are not happening in Chinatown. Currently, construction has already began for the W Hotel on Tremont/Stuart St. On the corner of Kneeland/Washington St. Tufts University is building an additional 3 stories to their dental building at One Kneeland.

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May 9, 2008 by Chinatown Blogger.

No, the Boston Arts Academy is not hiding tapes like Matt Walsh but they are working on plans to build a school in Chinatown and the school is not telling the community about those plans.

At the May 8 Chinatown Coalition (TCC) public meeting, Elaine Ng of the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center and representing TCC as part of the Executive Committee, reported that members of TCC contacted Linda Nathan, headmaster of the Boston Arts Academy for more information regarding the proposal to build a school on Parcel 12, the former Don Bosco parking lot. However, requests by TCC to invite the Boston Arts Academy to meet with the community has been greeted with silence.

Word on the street is that the Boston Arts Academy has already approached funders to launch a capital campaign. This fact has been verified by several people in Chinatown, including the Chinatown Blogger. As part of the capital campaign, the school has assured funders that they have been meeting with the Chinatown community. Contrary, the school has rejected requests to meet since December of last year. If the school has met with someone in the Chinatown community, they have not provided any names.

TCC, which is a coalition of community agencies in Chinatown, is concerned about the lack of information from the school. Ng said at the TCC meeting that due to limited land in Chinatown, there are only 2 parcels available for development, Parcel A and Parcel 12. Parcel 12 was at one point intended to be developed for housing and the community would like to know what the school’s intentions are.
The Boston Arts Academy has initial plans to build a middle school and high school with a total student population of about 500. Add in the nearby Josiah Quincy elementary school and the Josiah Quincy Upper school on Washington Street, there will be about 1,000 students within a block of each other, which may pose traffic problems and how to ensure the safety of the students.

So far the Boston Arts Academy has refused to meet with the Chinatown community. What are they hiding? If the school has no intentions to build on the site, why not simply say so?

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May 9, 2008 by Chinatown Blogger.

As the weather gets warmer, more people are starting to utilize the new Chinatown Park near the gate. Recently, the Chinatown Blogger happened to spot a group of people sitting on chairs and tables playing jiangqi, a game with similarities to western chess.

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May 9, 2008 by Chinatown Blogger.

Thomas Palmer in the Boston Globe reported on May 7 that a “compromise reached between City Hall and developers of a planned 299-foot-tall residential tower in Chinatown will reduce the height by 34 feet, but means elimination of the revered Dainty Dot building on the site.

The planned glass tower near Essex Street and Surface Artery, proposed by developer Ori Ron, has split the Chinatown and neighboring Leather District communities.

The compromise, described last night to the Boston Design Review Commission, includes reducing the building’s height to 265 feet, or about 4 1/2 floors, paring the number of residential condominiums from 180 to 147, and adding a new park on Oxford Street. But it also includes demolishing the Dainty Dot, once headquarters of a hosiery company and formerly known as the Auchmuty Building.”

http://www.boston.com/realestate/news/articles/2008/05/07/developer_agrees_to_trim_towers_size/

Whether you agreed with the Dainty Dot development or not, the fact is, the trend has been to build towers in or near Chinatown.

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