From The Peopling of New York City
Last week, me, John, and Wei checked out our neighborhood for Chinatown. Even though it is an Asian community, there was a large amount of diversity. We were there that week to check out the overall atmosphere and ambience. It was cold but there seemed to be many excited tourists and shoppers. We also saw the NYPD signs posted on newly- shut down stores; the police had raided stores selling illegal merchandise.
So far, we have done an overview tour of Chinatown, so what I can add now is solely based on observations. Again, though Chinatown is constituted of dominantly Chinese, there was much diversity added to the area by tourists. However, there seemed to be an impersonal atmosphere. Relations in the neighborhood only seem to be established based on economic ties- a link is established when perhaps, one makes a transaction with a vendor. Also, in general, people seemed to be in each other's presence, but not in each other's company. This adds an isolationist feel to the area.
Conclusions about Chinatown: Several conclusions could be drawn from our preliminary visit. First of all, judging by the volume of people that filled up the streets around 10:00 AM, it was clear that Chinatown still is a tourist attraction. Furthermore, mixed diversities of people, not what I would have assumed as dominantly Asian, made up the community that was bustling about. This leads to the prediction that the Chinese are spreading outwards, and settling into other neighborhoods of New York City, even as fresh immigrants.
