Your city's Chinatown

[Docere]

I'm talking about urban Chinatowns - so not Monterrey Park, Cupertino or Richmond BC.

Where is it located? What is the land area? What's its population and Chinese population? How has it shifted over time? Is it undergoing a lot of gentrification?

I will start with Toronto. It covers 4 census tracts (tracts 36, 37, 38 and 39) and about 1.5 sq km/0.6 square miles.



Population is 18,500 and Chinese population is 7,500, or 40% of the population.

Population density is 12,168 per sq. km or 31,348 per square mile.

One important thing to note about Toronto's Chinatown is that it overlaps with Kensington Market. The Alexandra Park housing project is also in one of the census tracts. So it is quite a mixed area.

Toronto's Chinatown used to be right behind where City Hall is today. The old Chinatown was demolished to make room for City Hall in the 1960s. Chinatown moved west to Spadina Avenue after they were displaced. Spadina Avenue until the 1950s was the heart of Jewish Toronto.

The Chinese population grew through the 1970s and even more in the 1980s. Since the 1990s the Chinese population has probably been pretty stable - many have moved onto other city areas or the suburbs, but their numbers are replenished by new immigrants.

Extensive gentrification has occurred in the southeast quadrant (census tract 36), where incomes have risen significantly. It's extremely close to the CBD and entertainment district, and the Art Gallery of Ontario and Ontario College of Art and Design are there. This is the least Chinese tract and whites outnumber Chinese in the tract.

The other three tracts are still heavily Chinese and have low average incomes. Kensington Market (tract 38) has also seen some gentrification, but Chinese are by far the largest ethnic group there, and the increase in incomes hasn't been dramatic. In the other two tracts, incomes have stayed about the same over the last 20 years.

[the urban politician]

Shanghai has a pretty huge Chinatown

[Centropolis]

the old chinatown was downtown and was demolished for busch stadium 2.

stltoday.com


stltoday.com

the "new" chinatown is in an inner suburb called university city along a multi-mile stretch of a 1930s-1950s neighborhood. proto-stripmalls and 1960s big-box stores taken over by giant seafood markets.

http://goo.gl/maps/rwZp6

[ColDayMan]

Cincinnati's is now...umm..."in transition" for the past 80 years.

[Cirrus]

DC's Chinatown is tiny, and totally gentrified. But also one of the city's most vibrant places. So it's a neat, fun place, but absolutely the most inauthentic Chinatown in the universe.

Location:

It's basically a small part of downtown DC.




Character:

The main drag is 7th Street and it's very busy. It's dominated by national chain stores with Chinese glyphs on their signs, but that otherwise are the same as you'd see anywhere.




There's Urban Outfitters, McDonald's Chipotle, Radio Shack, Fuddruckers, Starbucks...


by eva ho on flickr


7th Street got this way starting in about the 1990s, when the new basketball and hockey arena opened right on the street. It's very well integrated with the neighborhood and is fully urban.




The other main street, H Street, also has a lot of chains but also still has a fair number of Chinese restaurants and shops, and 1 or 2 big apartments that are still full of Chinese people. It's a pale imitation of any other Chinatown, but it's not completely devoid of actual Chinese.




Where 7th and H meet, there's a giant friendship arch. One of the city's main Metro stations is right at this corner.

[Tom Servo]

Chicago's Chinatown:



Home to ~20,000 Chinese, split between two zip codes.

All the restaurants and Chinese shops are split between two areas.

Old Chinatown, which runs up and down Wentworth and down 22nd



quirkytravelguy.com
c2.staticflickr.com/6/5046

And Chinatown Square, which is an outdoor, Harry Weese designed mall that runs along Archer (this is where the best restaurants and shops are IMO)



cookingforengineers.com
ppmapartments.com
farm4.static.flickr.com/3209

[pdxtex]

portland has two chinatowns but only one of them has any economic value. old town/china town in downtown portland was the traditional chinatown but its really just sro's, soup kitchens, a few missions and a few dim sum places, tong gambling dens and knick knack shops. oh and a ton of sleazy bars. unfortunately, the sleaziest of them all and a city favorite, the magic garden shutdown after 50 years in business. RIP. the area is bound to be mowed down and replaced with tall infill once the far gets raised. currently height limits are 7 stories and its the lynchpin in any additonal density progress in downtown. the real action is out along 82nd avenue where asian people actually live. the area around 82nd and division is being rebranded as the "jade district" so its currently getting some spin from the city as the new center of asian commerce.

[Beedok]

One thing I like about Hamilton (Ontario) is that it doesn't have a China town, or a Little Italy, or any of those things. Instead everyone's just scattered everywhere all across the city.

[Docere]

Originally Posted by Beedok

One thing I like about Hamilton (Ontario) is that it doesn't have a China town, or a Little Italy, or any of those things. Instead everyone's just scattered everywhere all across the city.

Uh, they are in Toronto, NYC, LA, San Francisco, etc. as well.

A small minority of Chinese North Americans actually live in Chinatowns and an even smaller percentage of Italians live in "Little Italy" districts.

Surprised Hamilton doesn't have a Little Italy.

[SignalHillHiker]

I think she lives in the green one.

[Docere]

Originally Posted by Tom Servo

Chicago's Chinatown:

Home to ~20,000 Chinese, split between two zip codes.

All the restaurants and Chinese shops are split between two areas.

That's quite large - maybe 20% of the Chicagoland Chinese population?

It's also pretty far from downtown compared to most Chinatowns.

[The Chemist]

I love how the Chinese name of Hooters ("Owl Restaurant") completely misses out on the innuendo present in the English name.

On topic, Shanghai obviously doesn't have a Chinatown, but it does have the reverse phenomenon - enclaves where foreigners tend to congregate, complete with more western style housing and shopping/restaurants/services.

[Docere]

What's the actual Chinatown population in San Francisco. I hear this "100,000" figure thrown around but it seems greatly exaggerated.

Looking at zip codes 94108 and 94133 I get 19,000 Chinese out of a total population of 40,000 (47.5% of the population). This covers a 1 square mile area.

Should any other zip codes be included?

[Beedok]

Originally Posted by Docere

Uh, they are in Toronto, NYC, LA, San Francisco, etc. as well.

A small minority of Chinese North Americans actually live in Chinatowns and an even smaller percentage of Italians live in "Little Italy" districts.

Surprised Hamilton doesn't have a Little Italy.

I'm not saying they aren't mixed around in other cities.

I just like that there's no homogenised areas. (Of course Ottawa's China town is about 1/3rd Vietnamese and 1/4 other things and I'm sure other towns have minority Chinese China towns).

As for a Little Italy, with the city being so Italian you could almost just say the whole city is the Little Italy. (Maybe Toronto's Little Italy? )

[Docere]

Toronto's actual Little Italy (along College St.) is barely Italian at all - maybe 10% of the population. There are more Chinese and yuppies in Little Italy than there are Italians.

It was still an Italian area in the 60s and 70s - not so much anymore.

You'll find far more Italians in the more authentic Corso Italia along St. Clair West or in Downsview and Vaughan.

[Tom Servo]

Originally Posted by Docere

That's quite large - maybe 20% of the Chicagoland Chinese population?

It's also pretty far from downtown compared to most Chinatowns.

Chicago's Chinese population is ~40-45,000 people. And Chinatown is 2 miles south of The Loop, or "downtown" if you will.

By comparison, NYC's Chinatown is about a mile north of Wall Street or about 3 miles south of Midtown, whichever "downtown" you prefer.

[BnaBreaker]

Lao Sze Chuan....

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Docere

What's the actual Chinatown population in San Francisco. I hear this "100,000" figure thrown around but it seems greatly exaggerated.

Looking at zip codes 94108 and 94133 I get 19,000 Chinese out of a total population of 40,000 (47.5% of the population). This covers a 1 square mile area.

Should any other zip codes be included?

The actual Chinatown district makes up only about 25 city blocks and is .16 sq. miles. There are around 11,000 residents in that area.

[10023]

The traditional one in London is centered around Gerrard St between Soho and Leicester Square. There are a bunch of restaurants, but few Chinese people actually live there.

[MolsonExport]

Chinatown, Montreal


Wikipedia

Still going strong:

anea-asna


Wikipedia


chrishenschel


yulorama


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