A night market started in San Francisco during last year’s APEC conference to bring conference-goers into the neighborhood will soon be returning.
NBC Bay Area reports Chinatown’s night market, a fixture in many parts of Asia, proved so popular it will become a monthly event.
“I walked away from that thinking we need to help make this happen more consistently,” said small business owner Manny Yekutiel.
It appears others thought the same thing. The non-profit the Civil Joy Fund this week announced it’s awarded a $100,000 grant to Be Chinatown, a coalition of business leaders and community members promoting the city’s Chinatown.
BNN reports the night market will return on Friday March 8 and will run for three blocks beginning at 700 Grant Avenue and going all the way to the 900 block. It will occur the second Friday of every month.
The Civil Joy Fund is a partnership between Manny Yekutiel and Lily Lo.
“Isn’t that what makes San Francisco so amazing? A Chinese grandmother, a young gay Jew from the Castro can work together on helping small businesses thrive,” Yekutiel said to NBC Bay Area. “Chinatown is squarely in the middle of our downtown. The narrative around our downtown is that it’s empty. But Chinatown is its beating heart, and so, I just think it’s important that we support it as much as possible.”
New York’s Manhattan Chinatown has also turned to night markets to revitalize businesses there. It is held once a month during the summer months and is organized by another civic group, Think Chinatown.
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