The fight to keep Chinatowns from disappearing

Chinatowns across the United States have historically emerged out of necessity. They did not begin as tourist attractions or neighborhoods with affordable food spots. They were spaces for survival.

In the mid-19th Century, thousands of Chinese immigrants arrived in the United States, some initially drawn to the West Coast by the Gold Rush, and many later recruited to build the transcontinental railroad. Under the backdrop of decades of racial violence, discriminatory laws (like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882), and economic exclusion, Chinese immigrants clustered into dense, self-sustaining neighborhoods.

These weren’t just ethnic enclaves, they were neighborhoods with multiple blocks of affordable housing where Chinese immigrants could survive and build community, especially since they were excluded from many other places, often by law or sometimes by the threat of violence. Chinatowns were the only safe spaces for a population that had nowhere else to go at the time. And now in 2026, these same neighborhoods are among the most vulnerable within cities in the United States. A soccer stadium is planned outside of Chicago’s historical neighborhood, a “megajail” looms over New York’s Chinatown, and Boston’s has been chipped at for decades by city bills proposing hospitals and highways.

New York City: A looming megajail

New York’s Chinatown has roots in the late 19th Century. In the 1870s when Chinese workers were displaced by violence on the West Coast. Many migrated to the East Coast with clusters settling in small pockets of Manhattan and Brooklyn and worked in garment factories or laundromats.  

The Lower East Side was already home to some Jewish, Ukranian, and Italian immigrants so the area offered affordable housing. In the mid-1880s, the neighborhood now known as Manhattan’s Chinatown had a few hundred Chinese residents. By 1900, there were several thousand residents. Following the repeal of exclusion laws in 1943, and eventually the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, waves of immigrants arrived from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China. The density of the neighborhood increased, with multiple generations of families settling down within the square mileage of the ethnic enclave, making it densely populated with an incredibly robust history.

Today, the neighborhood faces a threat, with the city of New York proposing a large adult detention center to be built directly within the borders of the enclave. City officials claim that it is necessary to have a facility like this in Manhattan, where it will be closer to courthouses, thus ending transport to and from Rikers, which is isolated on an island in the middle of the East River. Community groups have been calling the project a “megajail.”

One of the fiercest voices in opposition to the detention center is Jan Lee, co-founder of Neighbors United Below Canal, a community-led organization. At a protest, Lee has declared, “We are not letting you put up these fences. We’re going to defend Chinatown. Any company that comes to Chinatown to profit off of the building of this jail is not welcome.”

Chicago: Kicked out

Like other Chinatowns, Chicago’s also expanded after 1965 as a result of immigration reform. New arrivals settled long term and the neighborhood thrived in the late 1900s, with many restaurants, gift shops, and grocery stores opening. It was a commercial hub, but also a multi-generational residential community.

Though it was bustling, redevelopment projects have long been threatening the core of the community. In the 1960s, highway construction destroyed blocks of nearby housing and cut the neighborhood off from major parts of the city. It’s now been weathered by decades of urban renewal and highway construction. Most recently, a development threat comes in the form of “The 78,” a 62-acre redevelopment plan that includes a proposed stadium for the Chicago Fire FC right outside Chinatown. Residents of the neighborhood are worried the development will trigger a rise in property taxes and an uncertain future for the locals.

“At this point, the main concern is the worry about displacement and maintaining affordability,” said Grace Chan McKibben, director of the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community, in a town hall meeting back in 2025 in front of community leaders.

Boston: A slow takeover

Boston’s Chinatown, similarly to New York’s, first emerged in the 1870s, when Chinese workers arrived from the West Coast. By 1900, there were about 1,000 residents, mostly men living in crowded spaces. The neighborhood had always been quite densely populated but after the arrival of more immigrants following the repeal of exclusion laws, necessity pushed population density higher, filling what little space remained.

Highways built in the 1950s and 1960s cut through the neighborhood, displacing families and severing connections to the main part of Boston from Chinatown. The construction of highway I-93 forced residents into even smaller pockets of housing. Later, the neighborhood was once again reshaped, as universities and hospitals, like Tufts Medical Center, expanded their footprints within Chinatown’s borders. Today, the neighborhood is under pressure from new private development that threatens to further displace low-income and longtime residents by building a luxury hotel.

Beyond displacement, these mega-infrastructure projects have worsened environmental health burdens, especially for a vulnerable and aging population. City officials claim that any new zoning proposals will prioritize affordable housing and the preservation of the historical neighborhood, but residents remain skeptical.

Philadelphia: A community of resilience

Members of Philadelphia's Chinatown community have fought many of these battles before. When a baseball stadium was proposed near the borders in the early 2000s, residents pushed back and eventually won. So in the 2020s, when the Philadelphia 76ers announced plans to build an arena directly adjacent to Chinatown, the neighborhood was prepared to organize yet again. 

What followed in the neighborhood was nothing short of remarkable—over two years there were hundreds of protests in the streets, several town halls packed with constituents voicing their concerns, and the neighborhood truly coming together to keep “hands off Chinatown,” which is the chant that rang through the neighborhood during this time. 

Unfortunately, regardless of this community organization, the City Council still voted to approve the arena in December 2024, and the mayor signed the bills to make the stadium a reality, which felt like a defeat to the residents of the neighborhood. 

Then, to everyone’s surprise about three weeks later, the Sixers walked away from this plan. With no explanation, the team decided to walk away and their arena was built on the opposite side of the city. Whatever the internal mechanics of the decision, Chinatown celebrated in the streets.