September 22, 2007 by Chinatown Blogger.

This is the 22nd Annual Oak Street Fair. If my history is correct, the original idea for the Oak Street Fairs were to celebrate the Chinatown community’s efforts to preserve a piece of land on Oak Street from being demolished. Two decades ago (when the Chinatown Blogger was a young kid) the City wanted to build a parking garage on what was then called Parcel C.

Today the site of Parcel C is now known as the Metropolitan, which includes the whole block between Oak, Ash, Nassau and Harrison Ave. The Metropolitan is home to many community agencies and provides much needed affordable housing for the neighborhood.

UPDATE 10/1/07 :

I sent an email to the Oak Street Fair organizer to ask why the Oak Street Fair was started. This was the email I response:

“Yes, this was our 22nd one.  It was started as a way for the agency to reach out to community families and to provide a fun day for folks to enjoy.  Over time, we invited in other groups to share information about their services also, giving community members more information and access to organizations and providers.  We stress that this is a children and family focused event, and encourage participating organizations to give out information, provide activities, give out resources, or hand out “freebies”.  Other than the simple grilled food served, everything at the fair is free, and we don’t invite any vendors.” 

New England Medical Center gave free blood pressure tests.

Chinatown Residents Association

Asian CDC buiding houses with soft candies and toothpicks.

Tufts Dental School shows how brushing is done with a stuffed animal

Tufts University

Oak Street Fair organizer Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center had crafts and games for children.

Wally of the Red Sox shows up to pose a picture with Newton’s Alderwoman Amy Mah Sangiolo. Caught on camera by the Chinatown Blogger!

An empty booth! Can’t be!? Where is the staff??

A closer look at the Chinatown Gateway Coalition’s booth. Designs and plans to develop a 20-acre land next to Chinatown.

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September 21, 2007 by Chinatown Blogger.

Can you tell me a common theme of all these photos below?

You must be thinking: “The Chinatown Blogger is on crack! I don’t see anything special about these pictures. They are just all street shots, fuzzy and dark..”

Well, that’s my point. On Wednesday I was walking around after 7pm and noticed that many lamps/lights in Chinatown are just NOT working. It was not just one or two lamps, I’m talking about whole blocks where the lamps were not on. This is particularly evident on sections of Tyler, Kneeland, Harvard and Hudson.You think, “Maybe this is just a one time event.” The next day I walked bythe same area and noticed again that lamps were out on Hudson Street. Did see that some of the lamps on Tyler were working.

Update:
The City must be messing with the Chinatown Blogger as tonite the streets were lit up like a Christmas tree.

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September 20, 2007 by Chinatown Blogger.

Disclosure: The Chinatown Blogger is not affiliated with the Parcel 24 project or the developer New Boston Fund. This was written as an observer in a public meeting.

Janelle Chan of Asian CDC, Lillian Lew-Hailer of New Boston Fund, and Jeremy Liu, Director of Asian CDC, at Leather District Neighborhood Association meeting.

Lisa Davis (right) of New Boston Fund, the for-profit development partner with Asian CDC on Parcel 24.

Report back on Parcel 24 presentation at the Leather District Neighborhood Association meeting tonight. I have written here before on Parcel 24, a housing development on Hudson Street which is expected to be completed by 2010. Asian CDC is a non-profit community developer that helped in building the recently finished Metropolitan in Chinatown. Lisa Davis of New Boston, the for-profit developer, explained that New Boston is a “full-service equity fund that seeks investments in urban areas with a focus on positive environmental return.” New Boston has projects down the eastern seaboard to Florida. Investors in New Boston include state/local pension funds and banks.

Jeremy Liu, director of Asian CDC, the community non-profit developer, talked about how the process started 4 and a half years ago when the community found out that the land would be available upon the completion of the Big Dig. Through community planning and legislative action, Chinatown was able to get the Mass Turnpike Authority and the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) to adopt the community’s vision for Parcel 24. Parcel 24 has a long history in Chinatown, going back some 45 years ago when in 1962 the neighborhood was destroyed to make way for a highway. Where Parcel 24 is, there used to be hundreds of residents living in houses there. The people were dispersed and compensated only one-third of the market-value for their homes. Asian CDC board chairwoman, Caroline Chang, was born on Hudson Street. She is now a main driving force to bring back displaced residents to the area.

Janelle Chan summarized some key points of Parcel 24. The project will have 325 housing units, with up to 50% being affordable for different income levels. There will be 70 affordable rental units and 66-99 affordable condos (depending on financing). There will be 5000 sq. ft. of commerical/retail space and 6000 sq. ft. of community space. Building will be 200 feet or 20 stories at the highest point on Kneeland St. and scale down to as low as 4 stories. In October, there will be an offical filing the the BRA. The BRA will have a process to gather community input and public meetings.

Some of the Q&A session:

Q: How will the project determine median incomes for affordable units? Is it based on Leather District or Chinatown?

A: Lisa Davis: It will be based on HUD guidelines. (HUD definition of affordable=$59,000/household)

Q: Concerns about large number of housing units affecting local parking and traffic access to Hudson Street? Will Leather District residents be able to purchase a parking space in the new development?

A: Jeremy Liu: Hudson St. will remain a one way street… Based on the recently completed Metropolitan building, there was not that much demand to buy parking spaces. The Metropolitan could not sell all their parking spaces. Also, Chinatown has ample resident parking at night. 2000 Census showed that only 30% of residents in Chinatown owned vehicles and majority take public transportation. Residents of Parcel 24 will get first chance to buy available parking spaces and development team will look into if Leather District residents can buy spaces.

Q: A LD resident pointed out that the Dainty Dot is a 320 feet building. LD residents has strong sentiments on Dainty Dot. However, Dainty Dot keeps pointing to Parcel 24’s height. Should a 20 story high building on Kneeland St. be an issue? (My interpretation: The resident is saying that if the neighborhood approves Parcel 24 which exceeds the height limit of 120 stories, but goes against the 27 story Dainty Dot, would that be setting a double standard?)

A: Alex Zhang: The height question was not addressed directly, except that Asian CDC and New Boston argued that Parcel 24 is very different project than Dainty Dot…

The presentation ended with Hasley Collins, moderator of the LDNA meeting, stating that the LDNA will come to a decision and will write letters to the City and BRA stating their position on Parcel 24.

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September 19, 2007 by Chinatown Blogger.

Saturday, September 22, 2007
11AM - 3pm

The Oak Street Fair is a community event where children and families come for fun and resources. It is open and free to the public. We discourage sales of any kind at the fair. For more informaton contact Carmen Chan at 617-635-5129 or carmen.chan@bcnc.net

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September 19, 2007 by Chinatown Blogger.

Last night the City of Boston, the Chinatown Library Committee, Boston Public Library and the architectual firm Miller, Dyer and Spears presented their initial findings on a possible new library in Chinatown. The last few years there have been an effort to bring back a branch library to Chinatown through a group called the Chinatown Library Committee. The committee made a breakthrough last year in 2006 when Mayor Menino authorized $35,000 to conduct a feasibility study on where a possible branch library may be built. Three firms competed for designation to work on the feasibility study and Miller, Dyer, Spears (MDS) was selected by a panel that included City and community judges.

The public meeting was the first meeting to update on the progress of the feasibility study and to explain the programmatic uses of the library. Daniel Cho, project manager from MDS gave an overview of the characteristics of the library. Their purpose was to ask what the community was looking for in programming usage and then to evaluate which sites could potentially serve those spaces.

There were over 60 people who came last night. Some of the participants, including the Chinatown Blogger, asked about the potential sites where a library may be built. Myron Miller, principal of MDS replied that this would be included in a second study to be done later. A spokesperson from the Boston Public Library, Carol Mahoney, said that the community should check out the bpl.org website to find out what other branch libraries had done with programming uses.

The Chinatown Blogger had a printed handout which he had asked MDS over month ago. This handout was not given to those in attendance last night and gave more details. In terms of scheduling, the handout estimates between Aug 2007 - Jan 2008 a Site Evaluation will be conducted, which will include information gaterhing, site and program tests, and a final site shortlist with layout and cost. A 2nd public meeting will be held sometime between Jan 2008 - Mar 2008 with the final program, layout and estimate and copies of the study to be distributed.

In the designs, there will be some general assumptions such as Wi-Fi through the building and a Large Meeting Room zoned for after-hours use and near the entry.

Program components were:(Abbreviated)

Entry/Circulation: Prominent signage, open feel, secure, touch-screen kiosk with library and cultura information in lobby, community bulletin, self-checkout stations

Meeting/Multi-Purpose Room: zoned for after-hours use, 120 capacity seating, A/V equipment, simultaneous translation, 20 seats in conference room.

Adult Services: include Asian Language and ESL instruction, books in multiple languages, total adult collection 26,836

Young Adult Services: college research center, separate class room, total young adult collection 9,045

Children’s Services: display arts and crafts, maintain security with librarian at checkpoint at entrance and separate restroom, spaces to for adults to read to children, total collection 19,965

Cultural Archive and Display: photography of community artifacts, exhibit preparations

Site Amenities: Garden/courtyard with chess tables and benches, adjacent to a privately owned cafe or tea house? (subject to cafe/tea house approval - my words), storage for landscape maintenance, bicycle storage for public

There are 11 preliminary potential sites for the library.

1. Parcel A - between Marginal Rd. and Washington St, site of Quincy Upper School

2. Chinatown Gateway Development - 20 acre land bordered by Kneeland St, South Station, I-90 highway

3. BRA Washington St. Lot - on Tremont St. next to Double Tree Inn Hotel

4. Tufts Parking Lot - Between Tyler and Hudson St. where the former YMCA bubble was

5. Harvard St. - Corner of Harvard, Tyler and Hudson St, adjacent to Tufts Parking Lot

6. Hudson St. - Next to the Chinatown Gate park and Ginza Japanese restaurant

7. Oxford St. - Parking lot where Hudson Group and Chinese Economic Development Council has proposed to build housing there

8. Teradyne Building - On Kneeland, Lincoln, Beach and Surface Artery. Sold to Millenium Partners last year.

9. Chinese Merchants Building - On Kneeland and Hudson with the “Welcome to Chinatown” sign

10. Original Quincy School - 90 Tyler St. owned by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association

11. Parcel 24 - On Hudson St., will be developed into housing by Asian Community Development Corporation in 2010

I had to leave by 7:15pm and could not stay throughout the whole meeting. If anyone was there and had anything to add please post it in the comments section. I thought it was a good start and my only suggestion was if handouts could have been made available for reading because trying to decipher the diagrams on the projection screen was somewhat difficult.

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