October 9, 2009 by Chinatown Blogger.

Second-round of vision casting for Chinatown Masterplan 2010
Oct 9, 2009
By Samuel Tsoi

In a follow-up to this past summer’s kick-off community forum for the Chinatown Masterplan 2010, a group of community stakeholders gathered in the Metropolitan community room on September 30 to reaffirm the plan’s goals and further understand neighborhood concerns and desires.
Approximately one-hundred Chinatown residents, business owners, employees, and community stakeholders participated in the meeting, and reviewed the recurring themes from the three months of data gathering, community meetings, and individual interviews. One significant underlying concern emerged from the public - the sustainability of the neighborhood over time.

Over the past decades, Chinatown has been a regional hub for the many growing satellite Asian American communities, as well as a gateway for new immigrants to find services, education, childcare, and cultural familiarity.

Many of the participants in the surveys and meetings expressed the concerns of the weakening sense of community and cultural identity due to the recent changes in population, demographics, and land use.
The Chinatown Masterplan 2010 seeks to galvanize those concerns and craft a vision for the future of Chinatown to move forward in protecting the vital role of Chinatown to its residents and the many who visit the district.

Besides strengthening Chinatown’s function and communal identity, the plan also aims to identify the guiding principles of improving community organization, increasing political involvement, and interaction and integration with greater Boston.

Population in Chinatown grew from 5,000 to 8,500 in the last twenty years, while those of Asian descent only grew from 4,680 to 5,100, representing a seventy percent increase in the general population and a nine percent increase for the Asian population. In other words, Chinatown has become denser and significantly less Asian in recent decades.

The number of high-value condominium developments such as the Ritz Carlton and Archstone has also raised land value, changing its usage, and lowering the stock of affordable and low-income housing.

Meanwhile, a recent survey showed that many immigrants still come to Chinatown for gatherings and health and social services that are catered to their linguistic and cultural needs. Five out of six clients at South Cove Community Health Center are non-Chinatown residents, as well as eighty percent of the congregants at the Boston Chinese Evangelical Church and students at the Oak Street Youth Center.

The Oak Street focus group surveyed teenagers on their view on the future of Chinatown. The youth who participated visited Chinatown at least twice a week, ranging from visiting relatives, volunteering, participating in church or youth group, patronizing restaurants, or using medical services.
Some of the negative aspects listed by the teenagers included pollution, trash, lack of green spaces, lack of a library, and lack of single-family housing units. They then suggested placing bilingual signage around the neighborhood on the history of Chinatown, more recreational and social spaces, using environmental-friendly methods and building materials for new developments, and installing recycling bins, speed bumps, and more pedestrian-friendly walkways.

Daphne Politis, a consultant for the plan from city-planning firm Community Circle, presented the findings, and proposed questions for the break-out small group discussion sessions. Housing was identified as the top need for Chinatown. “In fact, how can [Chinatown] be a neighborhood without residents?” Politis asked rhetorically. “However, there was not a consensus on the type of housing desired,” she added. The group was then asked to prioritize types of housing: elderly, family, mixed-income, low-income, middle-income, or market-rate.

Currently, almost all of Chinatown’s housing stock is rental, of which rates have gradually increased since the 1980s. About half are subsidized units and half of those qualify for the Section 8 Rental Voucher Program. About a quarter of 1,300 housing units proposed within the studied zone will be subsidized, including Parcel 24 (more than half), Dainty Dot (less than ten per cent), and Hong Lok (fully-subsidized units for seniors).

The discussion groups were also asked to explore the limits of Chinatown, whether there are needs of the community that should not, or could not, be met.

Four Chinese-speaking groups and two English-speaking groups then voted on the priorities of housing needs, as well as reviewed the vision of the plan, and unpacked the concerns that were raised. One English-speaking group shared opinions on how Chinatown should or should not be integrated with other Boston districts, the practical implementations of the plan’s principles, and the balance of strengthening business and residential communities.

One group of young professionals of diverse ethnic backgrounds discussed the difficulties of integrating newer residents characterizing as having the traditional immigrant cultural fabric – such as the lack of outreach, apathy, linguistic barriers, and the condo associations’ lack of effort to inform residents of community happenings.

Several of the Chinese-speaking groups supported low-income and elderly housing as priorities, while voicing their desire for green spaces and more cultural and educational facilities.

Results from the small group activities and subsequent outreach and interviews will be presented at the next meeting. All interested parties are invited to participate in the final meeting on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009, 6:00 - 8:30PM, at the Metropolitan Community Room on 38 Oak St. It will be the conclusion of the first phase of establishing goals and vision before moving into the plan’s second phase of implementation.

Samuel Tsoi is a Sampan correspondent.
Article Reference: http://www.sampan.org/show_article.php?display=2110

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October 9, 2009 by Chinatown Blogger.

Setting up the library before the opening on October 14, 2009.

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