Your city's Chinatown

[Tony]

Love this topic. I visit every chinatown I can when I travel.

Hamilton doesn't formally have a Chinatown but it does have a cluster of supermarkets & restuarants which may qualify. Same thing for Kitchener.

BTW guys, I run this Flickr Group: https://www.flickr.com/groups/chinatownsoftheworld/

Feel free to join and add any photos you want (chinatown related).



Speaking of photos... Docere, if the photos you posted are not yours, please make sure you edit your posts and provide proper crediting. - thanks.

This applies to everyone in this thread.. please go back and edit your posts for proper crediting (Architect, Molson...)

[Tony]

Originally Posted by Minato Ku

There are several pocket of Chinese concentration in Paris.
The two biggest one are in the 13th arrondissement between Place d'Italie and Porte de Choisy and Belleville.

Where is this mall? I totally missed it on my visit.

[Docere]

Originally Posted by logan5

There's been quite a lot of residential development happening in Vancouver's Chinatown recently. I heard that Chinese are now calling it Western Town, I guess because it's going through a transition from being a Chinese oriented neighbourhood to a Caucasian neighbourhood. In any event, it's going to be a super cool area to live or hang out in.

There's a viaduct that's expected to be torn down that will pave the way for major residential development on the edge of Chinatown. Gentrification indeed.

Should have been clearer. I meant the Chinese population was shrinking. Maybe that'll stabilize with condos going up, but their percentage will continue to decrease.

Doesn't Vancouver has a second "Chinatown" along Victoria Drive as well?

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by Docere

Should have been clearer. I meant the Chinese population was shrinking. Maybe that'll stabilize with condos going up, but their percentage will continue to decrease.

Doesn't Vancouver has a second "Chinatown" along Victoria Drive as well?

There are businesses catering to the Chinese population in just about every urban neighbourhood, although there are notable concentrations along Victoria Dr. (this also includes a lot of Vietnamese) and along Granville in the Marpole area.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Vancouver has a very "urban" suburban Chinese district. The huge concentration of Chinese businesses along Number 3 Road in Richmond are all along a rapid transit line and many of the buildings (and almost all of the development since the opening of the rapid transit line) are multistory with entrances directly onto the sidewalk.

[Docere]

Report on the gentrification of Chinatowns in Boston, NYC (Manhattan) and Philadelphia.

It doesn't break down Chinese specifically, though the Asian populations are overwhelmingly Chinese.

http://aaldef.org/Chinatown%20Then%20and%20Now%20AALDEF.pdf

It puts the Asian populations at around 53,000 (45%) in Manhattan, 6,000 (46%) in Boston and 2,500 (42%) in Philadelphia.

[Minato Ku]

Originally Posted by Tony

Where is this mall? I totally missed it on my visit.

Massena 13 mall in the 13th arrondissement between Avenue de Choisy, Avenue d'Ivry and Boulevard Masséna.

[logan5]

Originally Posted by Docere

Should have been clearer. I meant the Chinese population was shrinking. Maybe that'll stabilize with condos going up, but their percentage will continue to decrease.

Doesn't Vancouver has a second "Chinatown" along Victoria Drive as well?

Yeah, Victoria Dr. is the closest approximation we have to our original Chinatown. No.3 Road in Richmond has a far different feel. I wouldn't even consider it "Chinatown". The Collingwood section of Kingsway and South Fraser Street are also more Chinatown like than Richmond. I never thought of Marpole as having a strong Chinese presence though.

I like Victoria Drive and would like to see some upzoning of the residential area in order to at least double the density. This would create a pretty interesting neighbourhood.

[Tony]

Originally Posted by Minato Ku

Massena 13 mall in the 13th arrondissement between Avenue de Choisy, Avenue d'Ivry and Boulevard Masséna.

Wow based on Google Streetview, this mall has terrible street presence. It's no wonder I missed it.

[Jonboy1983]

Originally Posted by photoLith

Pittsburgh doesnt have a Chinatown anymore, most of it got flattened in the mid 1900s for highways and on ramps. Theres like 3 buildings left from the old Chinatown. Plus Pittsburgh is like one of the least diverse major cities in the nation.

I'd like to think that the population is getting more diverse.

Pittsburgh needs to lose this whole "yinzer" attitude and get with the rest of us in the 21st century. Hopefully this will change as more people consider moving here especially given the city and region's economic turnaround.

Forget about a Chinatown. I think of the Strip District as a very diverse neighborhood -- and somewhat close to what you'd find in any typical Chinatown. For starters, you have 4 Asian grocery stores within a few blocks of one another.

[Minato Ku]

Originally Posted by Tony

Wow based on Google Streetview, this mall has terrible street presence. It's no wonder I missed it.

That's why I was not surprised when you said that you missed it
Almost no street presence, a little hidden between high-rises buildings.

Large part of the district is the result of 1960's 1970's planning.
There are a lot of things "hidden" that you will not notice.

[Docere]

For Los Angeles, I looked at 4 census tracts and get about 5,500 Chinese out of a total population of 11,000.

[Double L]

I love it when a cities Chinatown is close to the center of the city.

[Tony]

Originally Posted by Minato Ku

That's why I was not surprised when you said that you missed it
Almost no street presence, a little hidden between high-rises buildings.

Large part of the district is the result of 1960's 1970's planning.
There are a lot of things "hidden" that you will not notice.

I do remember dropping into that other mall you have a photo of. Not bad memory for 8 years ago.

[Docere]

I've pretty much gotten down to the single census tract Chinatowns.

Seattle's Chinatown is also known as the International District. Like Vancouver and San Francisco, it has a long history of an Asian presence, although proportionately it is much less Asian and the Asian population is less Chinese-dominated. Chinatown-International District is apparently more pan-Asian than explicitly Chinese, though the Chinese are the majority of the Asians (Vietnamese are second). It has 1,000 Chinese (40%) and 1,500 Asians (62%) out of a total population of 2,500.

[Nineties Flava]

Oakland Chinatown is almost as old as SF Chinatown; it was settled originally in 1850 in what is now Downtown Oakland. Today it is still a predominantly Chinese neighborhood dominated by Chinese businesses although there are also Vietnamese and Cambodian businesses in the neighborhood. The Chinese food there is widely considered to be much more authentic across the board than the food in SF Chinatown although SF Chinatown is very much still a functional Chinatown as well.

Some photos I've taken of Oakland Chinatown:

[tech12]

Originally Posted by Nineties Flava

The Chinese food there is widely considered to be much more authentic across the board than the food in SF Chinatown although SF Chinatown is very much still a functional Chinatown as well.

Oakland's Chinatown is nice, but I don't think you're being entirely fair to SF's Chinatown. The downtown SF Chinatown is way bigger than Oakland's, and is more heavily Chinese...so there's tons of authentic Chinese food there, and of course it's still "functional". It's not all tourists/tourist-oriented businesses, though it often gets stereotyped like that because people are most familiar with Grant Street, where all the tacky tourist shit is (which is only like 20% of Chinatown).

Nice pics by the way!

[Nineties Flava]

Originally Posted by tech12

Oakland's Chinatown is nice, but I don't think you're being entirely fair to SF's Chinatown. The downtown SF Chinatown is way bigger than Oakland's, and is more heavily Chinese...so there's tons of authentic Chinese food there, and of course it's still "functional". It's not all tourists/tourist-oriented businesses, though it often gets stereotyped like that because people are most familiar with Grant Street, where all the tacky tourist shit is (which is only like 20% of Chinatown).

Nice pics by the way!

I'm pretty familiar with SF Chinatown, overwhelmingly what I've heard and personally noticed is that a lot of the chinese food in SF Chinatown is worse than what you find in most of the rest of the City (i.e. the Richmond or Sunset districts) even on Stockton, Broadway or the sidestreets. SF Chinatown is certainly larger and livelier than Oakland Chinatown (not that Oakland Chinatown is remotely dead) but when it comes to eating I'd much rather be in Oakland Chinatown.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Nineties Flava

I'm pretty familiar with SF Chinatown, overwhelmingly what I've heard and personally noticed is that a lot of the chinese food in SF Chinatown is worse than what you find in most of the rest of the City (i.e. the Richmond or Sunset districts) even on Stockton, Broadway or the sidestreets. SF Chinatown is certainly larger and livelier than Oakland Chinatown (not that Oakland Chinatown is remotely dead) but when it comes to eating I'd much rather be in Oakland Chinatown.

Legacy Chinatowns attract tourists; Chinese neighborhoods don't. It therefore isn't surprising that Chinatowns will have worse food (or at least less authentic food) on average.

[niwell]

Toronto's chinatown certainly has good food (and some bad), but the best Chinese food in the metro area is in the suburbs. Chinese neighbourhoods in Scarborough, and more recently along highway 7 in Markham / Richmond Hill, which has almost become a suburban chinatown.

[Nineties Flava]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Legacy Chinatowns attract tourists; Chinese neighborhoods don't. It therefore isn't surprising that Chinatowns will have worse food (or at least less authentic food) on average.

I'm assuming your comment pertains to the Richmond and Sunset districts, Oakland Chinatown is a legacy Chinatown (i.e. one of the oldest in the country). Oakland Chinatown is considered one of the best spots to get Chinese food anywhere in the Bay.