On my third visit to Chinatown, I was determined to get an interview. I had previously been unsuccessful because of the language barrier that existed between me and all the business owners I had come across. I now planned to find an English speaking visitor and ask them what they thought of the gentrification I had read so much about in my research.

I intentionally decided to visit a tourist attraction in order to ensure that I would find some English speakers. It was a warm day, so I decided to go to the Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. The place is a small, slightly dingy establishment sheltered by a yellow awning with green dragon on it.

There’s no seating, but many people stand in or around the store as they eat their ice cream. I paid $5 for a single scoop, which seemed like a lot at the time, but the first bite I took was enough to justify the price. The ice cream is rich and intensely flavorful. The rose lychee scoop I had was exactly what rose and lychee should taste like, but made even better by the thick cream. I just stood in the shop for a bit as I ate it, and scoped out potential interviewees. A couple other customers walked in while I was there, but they seemed in a rush, so I let them pass. Finally, when I began to think that I should get going and try somewhere else, a group of three men came in who joked around a bit with each other and seemed like they were going to hang out there for a bit. I started off with a question about their ice cream, then asked if I could do a quick interview. They obliged.

The group was made up of two White men, Jake and Evan, and one Asian man, John, all within the age range of 26-35. They were coworkers at an office on Mott Street, and they came to Chinatown regularly for lunch. I wasn’t able to get a recording of the interview since they didn’t have too much time, so I quickly asked a couple questions and wrote down paraphrases of their answers after they left.

I first asked them how long they had been visiting Chinatown. I wanted to know if they would have had a chance to observe long term changes in the area. John had come to the neighborhood a lot as a kid, and Jake used to date a girl there, so both had known Chinatown for about 15-20 years. I asked if they had seen any changes, but they were confused by the question, so I specified that I was looking for signs of gentrification.

The guys were puzzled since they “thought this was the only neighborhood not getting gentrified, dude”. They claimed that the only difference they had seen was the increase in tourism along Canal and other main streets. I realized that a lot of the gentrification that was occurring, and that was evident in statistics was not necessarily obvious on the street level. However, as I walked to the train station on my way home, I saw a lot of new businesses that catered to a more modern and less traditional taste: bubble tea spots on ever block, fancy restaurants, bakeries with Western goods and multitudinous tourist souvenir shops. I think the process of gentrification happens  too slowly and steadily in some cases to be obvious. In Williamsburg, the coffee shops with mason jars and fancy roasts may stand out enough from the bodegas to be visible, but in Chinatown, the slow transition of businesses that were already there to cater to white middle class tastes will not be so apparent.