Hughes

Erynn Hughes

Professor Aries

Peopling of New York City

20 May 2015

Chinatown’s Gentrification: Rising Rents Force Long-Time Residents Out

Slowly but surely, things are starting to change in New York’s Chinatown.

Demographically, economically, and structurally, the landscape of Community District 3 (or CD

3) is transitioning into a place wholly unalike what it has been for several generations—a haven

for Chinese immigrants that serves all their daily needs. It is now developing into a younger, and

increasingly high-priced community. “Chinatown is one of the last areas ungentrified,” said Peter

Kwong, professor of urban studies at Hunter College and the CUNY Graduate Center. He said

that this is slowly changing, as new businesses and entrepreneurs eagerly wait for zoning laws to

change so they can begin to develop high-rise residential buildings for professional and affluent

families (Pastor). Over the course of this semester, the culmination of assignments has stimulated

me to study residential and commercial rents in Chinatown. By finding out how specifically the

population is changing demographically, readers can understand why immigrants are leaving the

neighborhood. I have come to notice that due to the rising living costs in Chinatown, the white

Caucasian population in the age of the “hipster movement” is forcing many Chinese people and

other low-income immigrants out because they have the ability to afford the increasing rental

payments.

Delancey and Chamber Streets roughly bound the community on the north and south

fronts respectively, and it stretches from Broadway to the East River. The best entrance into the

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heart of Chinatown, Manhattan, is the Grand Street subway stop on the B and D lines. The area

is further divided by the different dialects Chinese people speak:

Depending on what street you’re on, Chinatown is Cantonese and Taishanese:

Mott Street, the historic center of the neighborhood, is home to these two

longstanding populations from Guangdong province. Or it is Fujianese, along East

Broadway, the more recently established main drag that emerged with the influx

of immigrants from Fujian province in the early 1990s. Mandarin, the official

dialect of China, is now the default everywhere at shops in between. (Tsui)

With so many Chinese immigrants living closely together, the neighborhood became self-

sustaining out of necessity because the City often paid little attention to their needs. Over time,

“Personal services like doctors and accountants, social services agencies, stores selling day-to-

day items, and social networks like family associations all formed … [and] has supported

generations of new and old immigrant families” (Li 7).

As of 2015, this community is the fourth highest racially diverse neighborhood in the

city, with a foreign-born population of 36 percent (NYCDCP 2). But in the most recent census,

which identified change between 2000 and 2010, the Asian population of Chinatown decreased

by 15.2 percent, or the same as 5,461 people. In fact, all races decreased in number during these

same years except for the white non-Hispanic demographic, which increased by 42.2 percent

from 5,496 people to 7,817. In addition, the number of family households decreased about 9

percent, while nonfamily households rose by 22 percent between 2000 and 2010 (“Chinatown”).

Not only are white people starting to move into the area, but also the so-called “hipster”

population has invaded Chinatown and claimed the territory for its own, displacing thousands of

immigrants who called this community home for many, many years.

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Chinatown is the only low-income neighborhood still left in downtown Manhattan,

surrounded by world-class communities like the Financial District, Greenwich Village, and

Tribeca. Between 2010 and 2012, a quarter of the people in Chinatown were living below the

poverty level (NYCDCP 1). In spite of NYC Department of City Planning policies that attempt

to accelerate gentrification, it has persisted as a shelter for individuals living in near destitution

“not only because of the continued need for affordable and culturally appropriate services and

goods, but also because of the many people fighting to maintain their existence” (Li 5). In recent

years, there has been a growing disparity between standards of living for high and low-wage

earners. As the Furman Center’s report titled State of New York City’s Housing and

Neighborhoods of 2013 indicates, approximately 30 percent of the residents have household

incomes under $20,000, while close to 20 percent earn more than $100,000. Figure 1 (found at

the end of this essay) is a visual representation of the distribution of household incomes in

Chinatown, taken from the NYU Furman Center report. It continues to be a challenge to provide

for the lower-income residents in this gentrifying district (NYCDCP 1-2).

The growing garment industry helped build New York City, and it reached its peak in

Chinatown during the 1980s. In the article, “A Makeover for Chinatown’s Garment Industry,” it

stated that close to 500 garment factories employed an estimated 20,000 workers, most of whom

were Chinese immigrant women. Margaret Chin, a sociology professor at Hunter College, said

that her own mother and aunts were garment workers. The author of Sewing Women, a book

about Chinatown garment workers, said, “The industry grew probably due to increasing

immigration after 1965 [when the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 and various other

laws opened the U.S. to Asian immigration]. People needed work, and family networks and word

of mouth led to the garment industry in Chinatown” (Chao). But as technology improved and

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these manufacturing jobs started to be outsourced to people in other countries, the garment

district began a slow downtrend in Chinatown, affecting the community’s economic status. This

decline was further accelerated by the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center: According to

Chin, “On the morning of 9/11, 250 garment factories employing 14,000 workers existed in

Chinatown. By 2004, 100 factories had shut down, and with them went 6,000 jobs” (Chao). Few

factories remain today, as “gentrification and rising rents put still more pressure on those that

remained… but large-scale garment manufacturing is virtually nonexistent in Chinatown”

(Chao). Chin interviewed about 70 workers in the two years following the 9/11 attacks, and they

all basically stated that the average household income nearly halved to about $16,000 per year.

The rise and fall of the garment industry could be said to be the single feature that both attracted

and drove away many Chinese immigrants and their families.

In conjunction with this once-valuable industry, the cost to rent living space in

Chinatown has skyrocketed in the past 15 years alone:

As the garment industry has shrunk post 9/11, developers have converted many

former factories into loft units that now sell for millions of dollars in the heart of

the neighborhood. Furthermore, tenement buildings have similar exteriors as

decades ago, but landlords flouting rent regulation laws are increasingly illegally

evicting low-income tenants in favor of residents who can afford rents closer to

$2,000 and $3,000 per month. (Li 9)

In recent years, New York City’s land values have risen, and with it the “historical and cultural

significance has been disregarded in favor of luxury buildings and upscale businesses that alter

Chinatown’s essential role as a home and center of community life for new immigrants” (Li 7).

Click here to see a map of the specific land use for each and every individual building in

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Manhattan CD 3. It gives viewers a greater sense of what areas of this district are used for

residential, commercial, or other purposes. The Furman Center’s report stated that the median

rent of CD 3, comprised of Chinatown and the Lower East Side, increased by 19 percent between

2006 and 2012, from $900 per month to $1,073 per month (NYCDCP 14). Families that have

been rooted in Chinatown for decades have been displaced from their homes because they cannot

afford their ever-increasing rents. Many luxury condominiums are primarily located between

Houston and Delancey Streets, and on streets closer to SoHo. The 2011 report on rent

stabilization from the Furman Center also shows that the percentage of rent-regulated units in

CD 3 declined from 66 percent of the rental stock to only 42 percent between 2002 and 2011:

That loss of affordable housing has tremendous repercussions because, in CB 3

alone, the median market rent in 2011 was $2,775.53 per month (2013 inflation

adjusted), while the regulated rent was less than half that amount, at $1,247.95 per

month (2013 inflation adjusted). (NYCDCP 16)

The luxury and high-end development that has followed with the influx of the white population

in Chinatown has “threatened both current residents’ and future immigrants’ ability to live, work,

shop, and participate in the community and cultural life…” (Li 8, 28). The largest remaining

piece of City-owned property in CD 3 is the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area, on which local

community boards and officials have agreed to build half luxury housing and the other half

“affordable” housing. “Yet, even the ‘affordable’ housing called for on this site largely falls out

of reach for many Chinatown and the Lower East Side families with low median incomes” (Li

10). Look at the residential uses map labeled Figure 2, taken from the Chinatown Then and Now

study report completed in 2013. As can be seen, a large majority of the residential infrastructure

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is tenement buildings or NYC Housing Authority properties. But a rising number of these

structures are luxury-type housing spaces.

Moreover, commercial rental payments have become extremely expensive for small-

business owners who try to maintain a foothold in the community. The District Needs Statement

for Fiscal Year 2016, written by Manhattan Community Board 3 (CB 3), states that “… local

mom and pop shops [are] rapidly replaced by chain stores, banks and destination bars and

restaurants… compromising the unique character of our neighborhood” (NYCDCP 4). The

growth of chain stores raises the overall rents in the neighborhood.

Rent, utilities and property taxes were identified as the biggest challenges faced by small

businesses in surveys conducted by CB 3. “Retail store owners that are no longer able to bear the

burden of the taxes are forced to close or relocate outside the district. This continues the cycle of

temporary storefront vacancies and closed shutters that ultimately hurts daytime retail

businesses” (NYCDCP 4). For example, a business located on Orchard Street had a property tax

increase from $1,170 in 2004-5 to $36,373 in 2010-11, which is 31 times higher (NYCDCP 5).

In addition, “the unplanned proliferation of nightlife destinations has put a tremendous

strain on CB 3’s infrastructure of police sanitation and transportation, as well as created the most

noise complaints of any community board in the city” (NYCDCP 4). The District Needs

Statement also stated, “Increasing numbers of hotels are being developed that include destination

nightlife businesses that create more nighttime noise. Some offer rooftop and other outdoor areas

that also add to the noise impacting residents” (NYCDCP 21). These noise complaints are an

additional reason for immigrants to move out of the neighborhood to places that are much quieter

and do not welcome reckless behavior at all times of the night. Rising taxes in the small

tenement buildings in a prime real estate location in New York City does not make the cost of

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rent worth it to live there any longer, so residents will live elsewhere and commute to Chinatown

because it is cheaper.

In an effort to ensure the community’s economic viability, a Business Improvement

District (BID) has been added to Chinatown. Its boundaries are Broome to Worth Street and

from Allen to Rutgers Street (NYCDCP 5). Property and business owners usually form BIDs to

improve and maintain commercial districts like Chinatown. Their assistance usually supplements

existing city services that are too expensive to purchase individually. They can provide daily

sanitation services, such as sidewalk sweeping, odor abatement, trash bagging, power washing,

and graffiti removal. There were opponents of the BID who feared that the “fees assessed on

each property would raise commercial rents and increase displacement and vacancies of

commercial properties. BID opponents also feared that the BID would facilitate zoning the

already-congested Canal Street for even bigger luxury buildings” (Li 10). As stated on the

website of the BID in Chinatown, this entity’s purpose is to improve the quality of life for all

patrons in the neighborhood, as well as reduce violations and fines. The ultimate benefits of the

BID are to increase the number of visitors and customers to the community in order to raise the

revenue of local businesses, further stimulating commerce and business activity. For access to

more information about Chinatown’s BID, go to http://www.supportchinatownbid.org/index.htm.

Despite this Business Improvement District being implemented in Chinatown, it does not

relieve small business owners of their preexisting costs that were once fixed but are slowly

rising, such as monthly rental payments and taxes. Take Janey for example, a woman in her late

20s who owns a Cricket Wireless store on the corner of Hester and Chrystie Streets. After living

in Chinatown with her parents her entire childhood, she stated that the increase in rent was a

huge contributing factor into why she no longer lives there (she now commutes from Chelsea to

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her business in Chinatown). While it is still cheap for a majority of shoppers to buy for basic

necessities and run errands here, businesses like hers are only doing “okay” because the cost of

commercial rent hinders total revenue. Even Janey had noticed the growing income inequality

that is prevalent in Chinatown, as well as the abundance of hipsters and businesses that cater to

them.

Chinese families that have been established here since the mid-twentieth century are just

now starting to be forced out because landlords are illegally evicting and removing low-income

tenants, renovating the space, and renting it back out at a much higher price. And it is not at all a

struggle to find an individual who will pay these exorbitant costs, given the alarming rate at

which the white and younger population are moving into this “hip” neighborhood; and therefore

they are willing to pay more money for an apartment in this location (especially if they have

comparatively high incomes to immigrants). It was not a matter of if Chinatown would become

gentrified, but when. The migration of high-income residents pushes former tenants to seek

housing in the other boroughs of New York, or even out-of-state (given there is relatively cheap

transportation that is readily available). Communities like Flushing, Queens, and Sunset Park,

Brooklyn, are already saturated with Chinese immigrants who once called Chinatown their

home.

The Chinatown Then and Now report raised this puzzling question: “At what point does

Chinatown cease to be Chinatown?” (Li 42). Based off of my observations and analysis of my

detailed research as stated above and in previous assignments, the community is quickly

approaching this line—soon to be blurred and just like any of those other gentrified districts in

downtown Manhattan.

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Figure 1

Figure 2

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Works Cited

Chao, Eveline. “A Makeover for Chinatown’s Garment Industry.” Open City. Asian American

Writers’ Workshop, 7 Jan. 2014. Web. 13 May 2015.

"Chinatown New York City Fact Sheet." Explore Chinatown. Chinatown Partnership Local

Development, 2015. Web. 16 May 2015.

"Chinatown." NYC Census FactFinder. New York City Department of City Planning, n.d. Web.

10 May. 2015.

Li, Bethany Y., et al. Chinatown Then and Now. AALDEF. Asian American Legal Defense and

Education Fund, 2013. Web. 16 May 2015.

Manhattan CD 3 Land Use Map:

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/neigh_info/land_use_map/mn03_landuse_map.pdf

New York City Department of City Planning. The City of New York Manhattan Community

Board 3. District Needs Statement for Fiscal Year 2016. By Gigi Li and Susan Stetzer.

N.p.: n.p., 2015. Community Portal. Web. 13 May 2015.

Pastor, Cristina DC. “As Chinatown’s Economy Changes, Residents Try to Keep Up.”

Economics. NextCity.org, 2 May 2012. Web. 12 May 2015.

Tsui, Bonnie. "Chinatown Revisited." New York Times 26 Jan. 2014: 1(L). New York State

Newspapers. Web. 17 May 2015.

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