July 29, 2008 by Chinatown Blogger.

Chinese Immigrant Memorial at Mount Hope Cemetery, Mattapan, MA

The oldest Chinatown in the U.S. is in San Francisco, founded in the 1850s (Chinatowns exist in many other countries). Boston Chinatown was established in the early 1870s after a group of 75 workers were brought to work in the Sampson shoe factory in North Adams, MA and eventually migrated to Boston. These first Chinese who came to the U.S. were no different than many other immigrant groups. They faced hardship and discrimination but also persevered and founded communities. Many of them came seeking work and to start a new life. Others had planned on saving enough money and going back home.

However, some of these pionneers never made their way back home and died as bachelors. Without families and descendants, family associations paid for their burial. Their bodies were buried in several lots at Mount Hope Cemetery in Mattapan. Many had just a simple marker to note their passing, but these early Chinese settlers formed Boston Chinatown’s identity and history. This past weekend, the Chinatown Blogger visited Mount Hope Cemetery.

Many early Chinese settlers died without family in the U.S. Buried at Mount Hope Cemetery, their tombstones fell into disrepair over time.

George Yuen, Nov. 28, 1882 - Sept. 22, 1953. Yuen was born in the year the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed. The Act restricted the immigration of Chinese to the U.S. for over 60 years. “Any Chinese who left the United States had to obtain certifications for reentry, and the Act made Chinese immigrants permanent aliens by excluding them from U.S. citizenship. After the Act’s passage, Chinese men in the U.S. had little chance of ever reuniting with their wives, or of starting families in their new home.”(Wikipedia)

Over time, the the graves had fallen into disrepair. Many of the markers were knocked down and broken, possibly by vandalism. In 2007, the Chinese Immigrant Memorial was built to commemorate these pioneers’ journey. The Chinese Historical Society of New England spearheaded the project with the goal to: 1) build a new memorial altar, 2) create landscape improvements, 3) restore and replace crumbling tombstones and catalog the names.

The Chinese translation for the inscriptions:
“Remembering those who came before you”
“Long rivers flow from distant origins”
“Abundant leaves flourish from deep roots”

Mount Hope Cemetery
355 Walk Hill Street
Mattapan, MA 02126
(617) 635-7361

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July 28, 2008 by Chinatown Blogger.

(Photo by John Tlumacki/Boston Globe Staff)

A Sense of Chinatown : History, family, food, tradition make for a rich mix in one of the city’s oldest and yet ever-changing neighborhoods
By Tom Haines, Boston Globe, Travel Section, July 27, 2008

In the Boston Sunday Globe is a review of Chinatown in the Travel Section. Writer Tom Haines deserves credit for the research he had done so check out the article.

“For more classic atmosphere, and the relentless lists of dishes, including seafood from the tanks by the door, settle into Peach Farm Restaurant, or East Ocean City. Compare the fried squid, excellent at both restaurants, though Peach Farm’s spicier version wins for tenderness and taste.”

The Chinatown Blogger likes the East Ocean City version of the fried squid. Peach Farm while very good, is a little too heavy on the oil for the Blogger and makes the fried squid look more golden than the East Ocean City counterpart. A matter of personal preference.

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July 25, 2008 by Chinatown Blogger.

The last time we had written about the bilingual ballot question was when the Boston City Council passed a home rule petition back on May 14, 2008. We will summarize what the issue is and what is happening now.

The Chinese Progressive Association had filed a complaint in 2003 with the Department of Justice (DOJ) that some voters in Chinatown had their rights violated while inside the polling booths. (The Blogger had heard stories that ballots were altered by poll booth workers, taking advantage of the limited-English skills of some voters, or the elderly being coerced to vote for a certain candidate.) The City of Boston and the DOJ reached a compromise to include Chinese, Vietnamese and Spanish ballots available to voters if requested at the polling booth. The agreement was to end in 2008.

In 2007, Secretary of State Galvin opposed continuing bilingual ballots. Galvin claimed that the translations were inaccurate and would increase  costs to the state. The Chinatown community petitioned the City of Boston, the City Council and Mayor Menino to request a home-rule petition from the state. The home-rule petition would allow for bilingual ballots to exist in the City of Boston, but not statewide. The City Council passed the bill unanimously and was signed by Mayor Menino.The bill is currently stalled in the State House of Representatives in the Rules Committee. Time is important as more delays will mean there will be no bilingual ballots for this election year. The past 2 weeks, some Chinatown residents and activists have been waiting outside Chinatown Rep. and House Speaker Sal DiMasi’s office in the State House as well as holding all-day vigils outsides to get the bill moving. While Speaker DiMasi has expressed support, Secretary of State Galvin has also gathered his supporters against the bill.

State Senator Dianne Wilkerson, who represents Chinatown and has been an advocate for the community is seeking to broker a compromise. A possible scenario may involve having bilingual sample ballots available, but the sample ballots cannot be used to vote and can only be used as a reference.

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July 25, 2008 by Chinatown Blogger.

Have to give credit where credit is due. Found this article through John Keith’s Real Estate blog. He posted a link to an article published by the Banker and Tradesman on the Rex Sox interest in purchasing Boston Arts Academy building in Fenway. Now some of the dominoes are starting to fall in place. The Chinatown Blogger suspected there was more to the story than the Boston Redevelopment Authority saying that moving the Arts Academy to Parcel 12 made sense because the site was in the Theater District.

The Red Sox gets the building on Ipswich Street. The City and the BRA gets paid $13.2 million. The school gets a new building and will be nearby Emerson College, one of six colleges that helped found the academy. The community gets a library. Janet Marie, Boston Red Sox staff architect said, “We are watching this with great interest, but the last thing we want to do is appear as though we are pushing the school out.” Is this a win-win situation?

The the entire text of the Banker & Tradesman article has been pasted here:

“Sox Have Eyes On Another Fenway Parcel
By Thomas Grillo
Banker & Tradesman Reporter

A plan to move a Boston performing arts high school from the Fenway to the Theatre District could give the Red Sox a chance to expand their real estate holdings around Fenway Park.

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino wants to build a new Boston Arts Academy on a city-owned parking lot wedged between the Doubletree Hotel and the Tufts Medical Center at Tremont and Washington streets. If approved, the city would sell the high school now located at 176 Ipswich St., behind Fenway Park, and put the proceeds toward the new $100 million school. The 157,146-square-foot Fenway building is assessed at $13.2 million.

“We don’t have anything official to say about it,” said Janet Marie Smith, the Boston Red Sox staff architect. “We are watching this with great interest, but the last thing we want to do is appear as though we are pushing the school out.”

The Red Sox have been buying property around the park since a consortium headed by John Henry bought the team in 2002 for $660 million. Under the name of New England Sports Ventures, the team has purchased the former Sophia’s Latin Bar and Restaurant at 1270 Boylston St., a warehouse at 160-170 Ipswich St., the Town Taxi garages at 154-156 Ipswich St., WBCN’s former headquarters at 1265 Boylston St. and McDonald’s at 1282 Boylston St.

In addition, Michael Dee, the team’s chief operating officer, told Banker & Tradesman last fall that the ball club intends to purchase the parking garage behind the park at 49-67 Lansdowne St.

William Richardson, president of the Fenway Civic Association, said the Sox would be the likely buyer of any real estate on Ipswich Street. “My guess is that the Sox would create office space which would allow them to move people out of Fenway Park to make way for more ballpark-related uses at Fenway,” he said.

Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2008 (Archive on Thursday, August 28, 2008)”

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July 24, 2008 by Chinatown Blogger.

Kairos Shen, Chief Planner for Boston Redevelopment Authority

The Boston Redevelopment Authority hosted a meeting in Chinatown last night to move the Boston Arts Academy to Parcel 12, a site adjacent to the Double Tree Inn and YMCA. The proposed design includes about 220,000 sq/ft on a lot that is roughly 20,000 sq/ft and includes a community library. Shen emphasized in his opening remarks that this is “not a done deal” but is here today to start the conversation with the community. Shen added that the BRA has looked into other sites in the Theater District but did not name any other sites.

Linda Nathan, co-headmaster of the Boston Arts Academy, talked about the history of the school. The academy was founded in 1998 by a pro-arts consortium of 6 colleges including Berkelee College of Music, Emerson College, and Museum of Fine Arts School. The school is currently located in Fenway on Ipswich Street.

Nathan said the school has 435 students with the student population make-up being 48% African American, 30% Latino, 17% White, 3% Asian, 2% Other. Currently, there are no students from Chinatown attending the Academy, but once the school moves in, Nathan said she will work with the admissions director to increase the Asian student enrollment. By locating the school within the Theater District, this will allow the school close proximity to Emerson College, the nearby theaters,  and easy access to public transportation.

The school received a $400,000 grant from the City to conduct a feasibility study on relocating the school. The estimated financial cost of building the school is estimated to be $100 million which will be funded through a combination of private and public grants. The academy has raised $7 million so far. Scott Butler, architect for the academy, described the layout of the proposed design. The school has been working on this “design for a year now.” The design would allow the school to expand its current facilities and allow for the creation of a theater and stage.

Scott Butler, Architect, for Boston Arts Academy.

Michael Boll(?) from the Boston Public School Operations was invited to attend and talk about the current status of the Josiah Quincy Upper School, which needs funds to finish renovations. BPS explained the process of how funds are allocated for school renovations. Each year a list of schools are submitted for funding and unfortunately the Quincy Upper School was not awarded any funds. He also talked about the complications of finding “swing space” in order to renovate the Josiah Quincy Upper School. Swing space is a temporary space used by the BPS to relocate the students during construction. The Upper School has 660 students. The nearby Quincy Elementary School has 826 students. Combined with the future Arts Academy there will be a total of about 1921 students between Washington and Tremont Street.

(Note: Thirteen million dollars are being held in escrow by the BRA for the Josiah Quincy Upper School renovations but is entangled in the mire called Hayward Place.)

Some notes about the meeting:

1. The Boston Arts Academy has a good mission and purpose to promote arts. The academy has a need for a larger space because it shares its facilities with the Fenway School.

2. Building another school in Chinatown is not a priority for the community, especially when the Josiah Quincy Upper School question is still not solved. (How would neighborhood parents feel: Their children going to a school that is lacking money from the City to renovate the facilities while the City puts up money for a brand new $100 million school next door? Are you kidding me?)

3. Placing the academy in Chinatown seems more of a desire by the City, BRA, Emerson College and the academy than from the community. Also, the Academy does not have a strong relationship with the Asian American community as evidenced by the low-enrollment rate, but to the school’s credit headmaster Nathan promises to work towards increasing Asian student enrollment.

4. BRA is holding $13 million in escrow from the sale of Hayward Place on Washington Street. The $13 million was intended to help with renovating the Josiah Quincy Upper School. Why not transfer Hayward Place from Millennium Partners, who is not doing anything with the site anyways, to the Boston Arts Academy?

5. Logistical challenges to integrating the library needs to be addressed further. For example: how to ensure the safety of students that shares a building where adults will utilize the library?

6. If the Academy really intends to share their theater/performance stage with the community, this could help other Chinatown groups that need the space to perform.

7. Despite Kairos Shen saying this is “not a done deal”, one gets the feeling that by the time the community meetings are held, the deal is already done? State Senator Dianne Wilkerson came out and spoke in support of the Academy and one assumes that Mayor Menino has given the green light. These community meetings may be all just song and dance. Refer to this Boston Globe article on Shen.

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