A major cause which forced the Chinese movement into was the increasing rent in the Manhattan Chinatown. Due to the influx of immigration and foreign capital, this enclave has become a “battlefield” for developers. As a result, poor immigrant families were priced out and forced to move to different areas, such as Bensonhurst. A case in point would be the 300% increase in rent during the first half of the 1980’s. Furthermore, many businesses were converted to apartments. Instead of collecting rents for two businesses, a building could be converted to an apartment which would yield 12 rents. As a result of this decrease of businesses in Manhattan’s Chinatown, many new stores and businesses opened up in Bensonhurst’s Chinatown, where affordable housing proved to be easier to find. Combined together, all of the previously mentioned facts caused the Chinese population of New York to shift from Manhattan’s Chinatown to Bensonhurst’s.
