The Chinatown in Brooklyn
Avenue U is a street located in Brooklyn, New York. Its cross streets were named by numbers from west to east, such as East 15th Street, where the Q train station is located. It starts from Bergen Avenue in Bergen Beach near Jamaica Bay and is essentially cut off by Stillwell Avenue, one block after West 13th street. The neighborhood after Stillwell Avenue is 86th street, another area that has many Chinese stores. Avenue U is very long, but only the section between the Homecrest and Sheepshead Bay is considered as Chinatown. This part of the neighborhood covers areas from Coney Island Avenue (E 11th St.) to Nostrand Avenue (E 30th St.).
Avenue U is actually the boundary that separates Homecrest from Sheepshead Bay. Known as the second Chinatown of Brooklyn, Avenue U does not actually have clear borders. The Chinese spreads from Kings Highway to Sheepshead Bay, but they are densely populated near Avenue U. The Homecrest neighborhood is consisted of mostly white collar family households. The community makes up mainly by Italians. Sheepshead Bay’s occupational employment is mainly white collar as well. White people dominate the community, which makes up 75.4% of the population in the neighborhood.
With a large number of white people residing in the surrounding neighborhoods, how did the Avenue U turn into Chinatown? In fact, there had been racial tension during the late 1980s that the Chinese will take over the whole neighborhood. The history has to go back to the rapidly growing number of Chinese immigrants that were filling up 8 Avenue in Sunset Park. Congestion and the skyrocketing price of real estates in 8 Avenue during the 1990s had caused the Chinese to moved out from Sunset Park. The pouring number of Chinese into Avenue U led to the establishment of the second Chinatown of Brooklyn in the late 1990s, between the Homecrest and Sheepshead Bay sections.
Avenue U is an area that draws back a lot of my childhood memories. When I initially moved to the United States from GuangZhou, the first place I took a step on is E 26th Street between Avenue U and Avenue T. Back in time, I was surprised by the inexpensiveness of things. Though I was not familiar with currencies at the age of 11, I was still amazed by how you can get a product without even paying a dollar.
My father and I were the only two from our family who live in New York. My father immigrated three years before I did, and he initially resided at E 26th Street at a distant relative’s house. A one-bedroom house with a kitchen and a bathroom was rented for $400, which also included the fees for all utilities. The landlord thought that the rent might be too cheap and he imposed some additional requirements: my father needed to regulate and move the garbage cans to the edge of the street every week, and he had to shovel the snow during the winter. My father agreed to it and lived there for 9 years.
“Right at where we lived, the 26th Street, is actually an Italian neighborhood. When I first moved there around 2006, Avenue U used to be a lot quieter and has fewer people,” my father said. The Italians moved away probably because they were buying houses from other states. As a result, more and more Chinese immigrants have moved to New York and they choose to settle on Avenue U because their family members and relatives had already been living here. The neighborhood now is supported by the southern Chinese from GuangDong (Canton) Province. To be more specific, it is mostly populated with Taishanese.
My middle school friend, Christina, is one of the examples. She moved to New York in 2008 and settled at E 28th St until now. Her family is renting her aunt’s property and they are paying a lower-than-average amount. Similarly, they also need to keep the house in good condition because her aunt would occasionally come over for a spontaneous check. Christina grumbles, “sometimes it is annoying to rent your relative’s house because she complains a lot about what you do to her house.”
In recent years, as Christina’s mother recognized, there is a growing number of Fuzhounese moving into the neighborhood. This doesn’t seem to pose a problem to the younger generation because young people tend to focus more on schools and jobs. However, the older generation would sometimes complain that the Fuzhounese from 8 Avenue, Sunset Park is going to flood Avenue U in the future. Ironically, the Cantonese are now concerned with the same thing as the white people did twenty years ago. They worried that too many people moving in will increase the rent and turned Avenue U into an overcrowded and unclean place, just like 8 Avenue at Sunset Park.
Their concern is not necessarily a problem. Since the Great Recession from December 2007 to June 2009, the U.S. labor market lost 8.4 million jobs. The inflation rate reached its peak in July 2008, which was 5.6%. Though the rate was negative in 2009, but the average inflation rate remains positive after that, which means the prices are still rising. The rise in prices cannot be solely caused by a small group of people. Inflation occurs in the entire country, and Avenue U is not an exception to this. Price in general only gets higher and higher.
Joyce Situ, who is currently attending Hunter College, admitted that the price of housing increased. She noticed that a house that would cost you about $70,000 a few years ago is now going to cost you over a million dollars. However, she did not agree that the Fuzhounese pose the threat. Joyce said, “I don’t think the Fuzhounese is going to flood this area. There is an increase in the number of Mandarin speakers, but it’s only a few.” She believed that the neighborhood is nearly as perfect and there were no complaints she can make. Joyce’s family also settled in Avenue U because of its relatives. Her family originally resided on the first floor of her aunt’s house at Bedford Avenue. The rent was cheap, but the place was extremely small with only one bedroom for a family that has three people. After living there for two years, they moved to a new house across the street. Her family wanted to stay in this area because the Chinese community has made it a comfort zone. Her new home is on the first floor with two bedrooms including a kitchen and a bedroom. They are renting it for $1300 per month, which does not include electricity fee. I believe that is the average rent for a family. After living here for so many years, Joyce is familiar with her neighbors, especially people around the same age. Now, her biggest concern is not putting on makeup when she goes out to the street because her friends are everywhere.
Joyce’s mother, Yoyo, opened up a new hair salon last year on 12th Street. She took over Paul’s Hair Salon from her old boss and renamed it as YoYo Hair & Beauty Salon. Yoyo said, “I opened up this salon because it is near my home. I have been living here for almost ten years and I find it convenient to travel to work.” She recognized that her customers were not just Chinese, but they were a mix of different kinds of people. I observed that the salon has many white customers, and most of them specified Yoyo to be their stylist. The customers all left the salon with beautiful hair with great smiles on the faces and appreciation to the stylists. Yoyo’s talent has brought people with different ethnicities together.
My father, who doesn’t speak English, was also praised by many patients with different ethnicities. In 2006, he received a satisfying job at a clinic near the Avenue U Q train station as a physical therapy assistant. He found the transportation very convenient and worked there for 8 years. The clinic provided a comfortable environment for him to work in because everybody around knew how to speak Chinese. Often, there were non-Chinese patients who came to receive treatment, but he wasn’t afraid of the language barrier because he can always find someone to translate for him. Regardless of his language barriers, the patients always specified that they wanted Mr. Hu to assist them during their treatments. “The clinic had more and more patients over the years because people shared and spread the fact that the clinic has an amazing assistant who provides excellent health care,” my father said.
Cross from the clinic is the Health Star Pharmacy. It is the most populated pharmacy I have seen in Avenue U due to its location. There are three clinics around and it is very convenient for patients to come pick up their medicines right away. After that, they can shop for groceries in the supermarket next door, and get ready to prepare the night’s dinner. There have been numbers of grand open food markets and restaurants. Food markets seem to be most profitable business in this area. Lan, a 55 years old woman who has been living on Avenue U with her husband and son for twenty-five years, enjoyed shopping in the traditional Chinese supermarkets. She said, “These food markets sell fresh vegetables, fruits, and even fresh meats! I do not have to travel elsewhere to get my groceries. I can just buy it near my home.” Lan also liked the fact that she always bumps into someone while she was shopping. They would stop at the spot and gather for a short conversation.
Hang, who lives in Staten Island, opened a sushi restaurant on 19th street around Avenue U. “I took over this restaurant in 1998. The business is pretty good and stable throughout the years.” Sushi Bistro is very small and it only fits eight small tables, but customers were continuously coming in for take-outs, and some people waited in line to eat inside. My two friends and I sat down on a table, and right next to us was a group of white customers who were speaking in English. While I was waiting for the food, I asked Hang if he has any complaint about the neighborhood. His eyes rolled over and he thought about the question for a few seconds, then he answered, “No.” We ordered a party tray and we were enjoying the meal with nice cups of tea. The food was very delicious. No wonder why people are constantly coming back to order.
Now, my father is working at a different clinic in midtown. His eyes were full of nostalgia, and he griped that if it wasn’t the stingy and selfish boss, he would never leave Avenue U. He admitted that the neighborhood is undergoing expansion throughout the years and the economy is getting better. The depression in 2008 had struck many people’s hearts. But living in this neighborhood never gave him the sense of insecurity because he had made so many friends there and the Chinese community resembled a big family. We would introduce jobs and places to live to the ones who need help. Though many people do not speak English, the ones with more knowledge would never hesitate to help out.
The increasing number of stores opened on Avenue U has characterized its ongoing economic expansion. This Chinatown has practically everything. It has food markets, restaurants, 99 cents stores, banks, schools, Rite Aid, shoes and clothing stores, bakeries, Laundromats, train station, bus stops, bubble tea shops, electrical shops, phone stores, clinics, pharmacies, and salons. Many of these shops are owned by Chinese immigrants. Immigration has posed a huge benefit to the society. It has made the people living around a lot more convenient by providing a variety of services and resources. The whole community is working well. People with different ethnicities are getting along with each other. More importantly, Avenue U has also served to be a family for Chinese immigrants to reunite.
Source
http://stateofworkingamerica.org/great-recession/
http://www.yelp.com/biz/paula-hair-and-beauty-salon-brooklyn
http://www.city-data.com/neighborhood/Homecrest-Brooklyn-NY.html
http://stateofworkingamerica.org/great-recession/
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/
http://www.point2homes.com/US/Neighborhood/NY/Brooklyn/Sheepshead-Bay-Demographics.html
