Realizing Our Vision for Chinatown, Together
45 Stories for 45 Years
Contributor: Tommy Wong, Co-Founder of Chinatown Improvement Initiative and Good Good Eatz
Oakland’s Chinatown, one of the oldest in the United States, remains today a hub for pan-Asian immigrants where community members come for healthcare, shopping, recreation and exercise, community and identity. It is also at the apex of Oakland’s development. Rising costs of living and a lack of affordable housing are pushing out younger residents, and community development has been stagnant for years.
The Chinatown Improvement initiative was founded as part of a vision to fortify the neighborhood against massive forces of gentrification. We quickly found a deep partnership with EBALDC who officially signed on as Chinatown Improvement’s fiscal sponsor in 2017. With their support and expertise in forming partnerships to affect real community change alongside community members themselves, we have been able to push progress in Chinatown over the past few years further than we had previously thought possible.
Given the strength and the flexibility of our alliance, we were ready to respond quickly when COVID-19 hit Oakland Chinatown in Spring of 2020. With their support and guidance, Chinatown Improvement immediately pivoted to connect Chinatown restaurants to residents struggling with access to food and set up a temporary food distribution site at the Asian Resources Center. For five weeks, our vendors served 1,000 meals a day to communities in need. Based on this model, we created five smaller sites that continue to serve meals to residents and communities. So far, we have connected 17 restaurants to continue to work with World Central Kitchen which has brought over $1 million to Chinatown in just over two months.
As the economic impact of the pandemic became more clear, EBALDC enabled our evolution into Good Good Eatz to focus onto relief and recovery efforts for small, underrepresented businesses to help bring them into the 21st century leading to greater financial resilience. In addition to providing an online hub to encourage the community to patronize Chinatown restaurants, we are also working with EBALDC tenants at Swan’s Market to transform the street adjacent to the historic marketplace into a series of parklets to support Swan’s merchants, and create an outdoor plaza where community members can gather safely.
Realizing our vision for Chinatown, and achieving the progress we have to this point in reviving the spirit of our community, would not have been possible without the encouragement and energy of the EBALDC team.
As EBALDC marks our 45th anniversary, we will be gathering more stories like this one from our friends, family, community members, partners and more stakeholders that have made our impact possible. We would be honored for you to join us:
- To contribute your own story, visit: bit.ly/EBALDC45Stories
- Follow us on social media: @EBALDC
Visit us online to read the stories: ebaldc.org/category/45-stories