Chinatown’s proximity to the World Trade Center fueled several of the community’s largest industries.  Ironically, this proximity financially crippled the neighborhood in the weeks, months, and years following 9/11.  First there were the immediate problems of street blockages and telephone power outages.  The area around the World Trade Center was essentially quarantined from the rest of the city.  Chinatown was also blocked off both metaphorically and in many ways physically from the city.  This resulted in the immediate closer of several businesses (particularly factories and restaurants) that relied on income from those who lived and worked in the financial district.

Within a few months thousands of workers lost their jobs.  Real Estate owners who had been waiting for leases to expire suddenly became desperate to renew these leases with the garment factories.  Most of the factories could no longer afford the fee.    In the years to come, ex-garment workers were forced to look outside of their neighborhood for work.  Unfortunately, without the necessary language skills in English (even ESL classes did not always help) they were mostly unsuccessful.  Most had never even completed high school, and had neither the resources nor the skills to easily transition into another industry.

On our tour of Chinatown we saw the direct results of this process.  Decades old store fronts were empty and many now had new businesses where family owned stores had once been.

-Victor Rerick