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CHINATOWN_REAL

                                             May 24-31, 2013

In Peter Kwong's account of "The
New Chinatown", there are periodic      THE_NEW_CHINATOWN
mentions of landlords, but very
little discussion of who they are,
how they make decisions, and so on.
This passage on p. 55 is one of the
most interesting to me:

      "... there are several factors that might
      spare Chinatown from destruction.  The core            Clearly, Kwong,
      area-- Mott, Pell, Mulbery and Bayard                  like myself wants
      streets-- is owned by Chinese associations.            Chinatown to
      So far, they've not been involved in                   survive, for all
      real-estate speculation, partly because                his criticism of
      members of these groups can not agree on a             it's labor
      common plan.  Second, a large section of               conditions.
      Chinatown consists of hundreds of units of
      rent-controlled housing.  Gentrification of
      these buildings is difficult, because they
      are fully occupied."

                                         I see that later in 2009, he
   I've also heard that much             discusses the problem of
   of the San Francisco                  gentrification nibbling
   Chinatown is owned by                 away at Chinatown:
   some sort of neighborhood
   associations rather than              http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/16/answers-about-the-gentrification-of-chinatown/
   private landlords.  This
   could be another example              He suggests the city needs to
   where non-profits trump               create a "'special district' zone
   the market.                           for Chinatown that includes strong
                                         anti-demolition, anti-harassment
                                         and anti-eviction provisions".
   I wonder how this can
   possibly work, though:                         But why just
   if a pale face such as                         for Chinatown?
   myself tried to rent a
   place in Chinatown,
   would he be allowed in?
   Keeping me out because
   I have the wrong ethnic         I've mixed feelings about asking
   background would be             that question too loudly, though:
   illegal racial                  it could be this is an area where
   discrimination,                 long-standing practice has been
   wouldn't it?                    very informally grandfathered in.
                                   This historical stability I
      This can't be a              admire might actually be a very
      public/private               unstable state.
      distinction: racial
      discrimination in
      housing is illegal,
      period, from what
      I understand.

      I would guess there has to
      be some exceptions though
      that let you control such
      things, e.g. university
      dorms, hospitals, etc.

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