A new study from AALDEF is warning that luxury condos and chain stores are threatening the very existence of Chinatowns nationwide, reports Raw Story.
The Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund studied Chinatowns in New York, Boston and Philadelphia.
It found that since 1990, the white population in those communities has increased despite declining in those cities as a whole. Foreign-born residents in all three communities are no longer the majority.
“There is still a very real need for the neighborhoods in terms of the resources and the networks that they offer both for new and older Asian immigrants,” said Bethany Li, a staff attorney at the fund and an author of the report.
Li said the danger is more Chinatowns could look like the one in Washington, DC–where almost no Chinese Americans live.
The report called for more low income housing in Chinatown as a way to bring residence back and revitalize the neighborhood.
You can read more about the report in Raw Story.
