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Blueprint
Unveiled for Chinatown Development
From The World Journal
April 17, 2004
Asian Americans for Equality released yesterday the blueprint
for Rebuild Chinatown Initiative II. One of its designers, Robert
Weber,
the association’s director of policy, said East Broadway
has become another booming area in Chinatown, but that it is not
up to its potential. Weber called for development of East Broadway
to revitalize Chinatown.
The initiative includes a series of proposals,
such as building more commercial, residential, entertainment and
recreation facilities.
It also calls for turning the neighborhood into “America’s
Chinatown”: a revitalized cultural and tourist boomtown,
which is connected to the waterfront and the Financial District
and has financial, manufacturing, fashion and commercial functions.
Weber
said yesterday the initiative has three goals. The first is to
promote cultural and commercial exchange between the East
and the West by creating a shopping center that attracts customers
with quality goods and services. A special cultural zone will also
be built, offering performing and visual arts. The Chinese American
Museum will be expanded, and a Pacific Ring Office District will
be created, complete with restaurants, office buildings and department
stores.
The second goal is to connect Chinatown with the Financial
District and the East River waterfront, and turn the area between
the Brooklyn
Bridge and East River Park into boulevards with new piers. The
initiative calls for stronger ties with Lower Manhattan in terms
of pedestrian traffic, rapid transit and commerce. One of the proposals
involves reconnecting Bowery Street and Water Street so that people
can go from Chinatown directly to Lower Manhattan. Another proposal
calls for redesigning Pearl Street and Chatham Square into public
meeting venues.
The third goal is to keep property prices stable
and maintain Chinatown’s
ethnic diversity. creating a healthy real-estate market for people
of different income levels and ensuring the safety and cleanliness
of the neighborhood.
The initiative will be completed in the next
10 years, said Christopher Kui, executive director of Asian Americans
for Equality. By then,
Chinatown will have become the commercial, art, catering, fashion
and tourism center for Chinese-Americans across the country.
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Translated from Chinese by Shasha Dai.
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