Chinatown: the community mobilizes against gentrification

Thursday morning, Chinatown, usually teeming with life, was abnormally deserted. A kind of tension reigned there. The neighborhood is again at a dead end, stuck in the face of speculators. Concern is growing in the face of property buyers, who threaten to destroy this neighborhood, whose area is shrinking year after year.

‍

“If everyone starts buying in Chinatown, there won't be any more, Chinatown! ”

‍

‍

Mr. Yang, who prefers not to mention his first name, is among those who are outraged. With his wife, he has owned Yiren Canada, a traditional Asian clothing store, since 2013. He is afraid of being the victim of the same fate as other buildings in Chinatown. “If foreigners buy my store, that would be bad, of course. If everyone starts buying in Chinatown, there won't be any more, Chinatown! declares the owner in his shop. But I agree with people who are interested in investing in Chinatown to maintain the unique characteristics of the sector.”

‍

For Mr. Yang, the preservation of Chinatown is an existential question. Since his store sells traditional clothing, doing business in a non-Asian sector is impossible for him, due to the lack of customers.

‍

On the walls of his small store hangs his specialty: Qipao — a traditional Chinese dress style often worn by women on special occasions. “My reputation goes beyond Montreal. I have lots of customers who come from Toronto or Vancouver and who tell me that, in these cities, there is no such store,” says the merchant, who immigrated to Quebec in 2001 with his children.Benny Y.W. Shek is the manager of the Kim Fung restaurant.

‍

For him, the cause of this phenomenon is economic. He's tough on Chinese investors who don't see the value of the neighborhood. “If newly arrived Chinese investors wanted to improve Chinatown, it would become a much more interesting place,” he said. But they don't want to, which keeps the neighborhood from being at its best.”

‍

‍

Contemporary gentrification

‍

‍

‍

Recently, the purchase of the oldest part of the neighborhood caused an uproar. The place, located only one block from Mr. Yang's business, was purchased by Investissements 1000 Saint-Urbain. The Montreal Chinatown Working Group called for immediate action to protect this historic sector from the passage of French, Scottish, Jewish and Chinese communities. This latest development is part of a long series of real estate projects that have reduced the area of the neighborhood over time.

‍

The gradual gentrification of Chinatown did not go unnoticed for Qing Shu, a mother. She has been a cashier at the Kim Fung restaurant since 2017. “It's true that over the years, I noticed that Chinatown had shrunk,” she tells us. Alone in the big restaurant emptied by COVID-19, she prepares take-out orders and does not have much time to breathe.

‍

Arriving in 2002 in Quebec, where her husband, who had immigrated in the 1990s, was waiting for her, she initially worked as a seamstress before turning to the restaurant business in 2010. Like many restaurant workers in Chinatown, who spend a lot of time working and are not comfortable speaking French or English, she was not really aware of the recent real estate purchase. Upon learning of this, the mother of two exclaimed: “I think that, if there are people from outside who buy Chinatown, we Chinese people will have nowhere to go!”

‍

The Chinese Family Service of Greater Montreal is a support organization that serves the Chinese diaspora. According to her executive director, Xixi Li, Ms. Shu's profile is typical of recently arrived Chinese immigrants — economic immigrants in their thirties who were able to settle in Canada thanks to their university education, but who are unable to find work in their field because of systemic racism that forces them to start from scratch. The Chinese Family Service of Greater Montreal is currently renting one of the buildings that were purchased.

‍

Because of the building's numerous structural problems and the precariousness of the tenant status, Ms. Li decided to move four years ago — long before the building was purchased. “We will be at 1088 Clark Street, a building that we purchased. It's still in Chinatown, and our customers will be able to find us there.

‍

We plan to stay at this address for a very long time,” says the woman who has been working at the Chinese Family Service for over 20 years. However, this move seems to make Xixi Li sad. She is worried about the future of the neighborhood, which is rich in stories for the Chinese diaspora in Montreal, she tells us in her office.

‍

The long history of excluding Chinese people from real estate

‍

‍

The situation Ms. Li describes is also the situation experienced by several members of the Chinese diaspora who have lived in the neighborhood for more than 50 years. “The owners of commercial buildings no longer have the means, they have to sell,” explains Winston Chan, a leader of the Chinese community. In addition to the cost of repairs, homeowners have to pay high municipal taxes and often struggle to make money with their property due to a lack of renters.

‍

Mr. Chan explains that, often, because they do not have sufficient income, they have to sell. “If the space is vacant, they have no money; they have to get it out of their pocket just to remain the owners of their building,” says Mr. Chan. The gradual destruction of Montreal's Chinatown began during the 1950s, as the value of downtown properties began to rise. The speculators took the opportunity to demolish the buildings in the neighborhood and replace them with parking lots. The neighborhood continued to shrink.

‍

Major real estate projects reduced the area of the neighborhood by a third in the 1970s. A school, two churches, several businesses, many homes and cultural associations were destroyed, despite the courageous resistance of the Chinese community at the time. According to Donny Seto, a professor of urban planning at Concordia University and a specialist in Chinatown, this failure was due to the fact that the government lacked transparency about its urban renewal plans and that there were communication and language barriers with a large part of the Chinese population.

‍

He believes that several factors have made Chinatown an easy target for real estate developments. “In our culture, we don't necessarily want to talk about our concerns and problems. We are very discreet people”, explains the professor.

‍

1. Seto adds that today, large real estate owners around Chinatown are selling their homes to a more affluent population, which has resulted in an increase in the cost of neighboring homes.

‍

The consequence of “discriminatory laws”

‍

‍

According to May Chiu, a member of the Chinatown Working Group and a lawyer by profession, the gentrification of Chinatown comes from the same source that has intensified discrimination against the Chinese community since the start of the pandemic. According to her, urban speculation and real estate development that target Chinatown are symptoms of widespread systemic racism against Chinese people.

“Why can't we control the land in Chinatown? Because we have been so victims of discriminatory laws!” underlines Me Chiu. “As the dominant population thought that we were not organized enough, they thought it would be easier to expropriate Chinatown to build their land there,” she believes. Despite all their resistance, the community did not have enough political power to prevent the expropriation of the neighborhood. Community workers ended up bargaining by asking for the construction of a community center, social housing and a cultural center.

‍

‍

Heritage to save facades?

‍

‍

To save this colorful neighborhood, the Montreal Chinatown Working Group is asking the City of Montreal to designate it a “historic district.” This designation would protect buildings in the area from destruction — a measure that saved a Chinese Catholic church in the 1970s. With this designation, the unique cultural heritage of Chinatown would be protected.

‍

However, this status comes with several constraints, according to Chinese community leaders. “I want it to be protected, but the owner has responsibilities, which complicates things,” says Winston Chan. In particular, he cites the construction and maintenance work necessary for heritage conservation. “It is very expensive, there are owners who do not have the money for it. The city must be able to help these owners,” he says. At the time of writing, the City of Montreal did not wish to comment on this subject.

‍

Florence Yee, a member of the anti-gentrification group Friends of Chinatown Toronto (FOCT) from Toronto (FOCT), does not believe that this measure is serving the population. “I observe other Chinatowns that may have had this status. It can be good for a community that no longer exists, where people no longer live,” explains the activist, who believes that a “historic district” designation refers to a dead place. “[From a logistical point of view], it means that buildings cannot change, cannot be renovated. It doesn't protect the community, the people, the residents, the small businesses, all of which can be evacuated and replaced.”

‍

Florence Yee's group turned to a long-term, multi-pronged plan to protect Toronto's Chinatown, for which heritage status was not requested. To reduce the inaccessible nature of information about public consultations and the language barrier, Friends of Chinatown Toronto translated information into simplified Chinese and produced posters to encourage public participation across Toronto. FOCT also disseminated the information on Chinese social networks, including WeChat. Using these methods, instead of the usual 10 people, the group managed to get 100 people to come to the first public consultation on a real estate project in Toronto.

‍

FOCT has also established close relationships with long-standing local activists and urban planning experts. Thanks to these people, the group was able to research the median wage of residents of Toronto's Chinatown — which is around $28,000, which is very low for Toronto — as part of its demands for affordable housing in the area. He used this data to present to municipal authorities a definition of “affordable housing” that was more grounded in people's reality than the one that had prevailed until then.

‍

FOCT has been successful thanks to a close-knit team and systematic procedures for teaching knowledge to new volunteer members who join the group. It also has a good number of direct action kits that people can use. “We really want to focus on the health of the community. Our super long term project is to have a solidarity land organization. [That means] the land where the building is acquired is going to be in the community permanently and is never going to come back on the market,” says Florence.

‍

Having lived in Montreal before, Florence believes that Chinese activist groups in Montreal could be more effective and improve their chances of success by building relationships with other groups and developing a long-term strategy rather than being reactive to problems.

The Chinatown Working Group plans to adopt these strategies. He is looking for fans of social networks who can raise awareness on WeChat, Facebook and Instagram in Montreal. He also needs people who can design posters in French, English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Vietnamese. For her part, Me Chiu strongly encourages the Chinese to participate in the next municipal elections.

‍

“The Chinese need to participate, like all other communities, and ask candidates what they propose to protect Chinatown, to fight against gentrification, to ensure that there are more services and to protect residents,” she said.

Professor Seto sees a potential solution in the future of urban planning.

Last week, its urban planning students presented urban development plans for Chinatown that preserve the heritage of the area and allow the people who live, work, and use it to have a good quality of life. These emerging urban planners have already sent their plans to the City of Montreal.

‍

1. Yang, on the other hand, does not want the neighborhood to lose its heritage. “If my store is bought, and I am forbidden to reopen it, I will be super disappointed. I think all the small businesses in the neighborhood would be disappointed! he exclaims with sadness and frustration. We would lose the character and culture of this neighborhood. As long as Chinatown exists, people will know about the neighborhood and enjoy beautiful things here.”

‍

To go further...

‍

‍The Montreal Chinatown Working Group will hold a meeting this Sunday at 8 p.m. to discuss a mobilization strategy. The organizers strongly encourage those who speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Taishanese, and Vietnamese to participate. If you want to attend, you can send them a private message Here.