{"id":71275,"date":"2025-03-06T13:56:57","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T21:56:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=71275"},"modified":"2025-03-06T13:56:57","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T21:56:57","slug":"oakland-chinatown-looks-for-new-leaders-to-survive-fear-of-crime-a-top-priority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=71275","title":{"rendered":"Oakland Chinatown Looks for New Leaders to Survive \u2014 Fear of Crime a Top Priority"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Peter Schurmann<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Fighting persistent crime and a struggling economy, Oakland’s Chinatown is looking to new leadership with an upcoming election for a seat on the City Council.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Charlene Wang speaks during a March 4 candidates forum in Oakaland, California. She is among six candidates vying for a seat on the City Council. (Credit: Peter Schurmann)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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OAKLAND, Calif. \u2013 When Charlene Wang visited Oakland\u2019s Chinatown recently, she was greeted with a racial epithet and then chased by a vehicle that forced her to leap out of harm\u2019s way. \u201cOakland is at the epicenter of anti-Asian hate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Kanitha Matoury has been robbed four times and is struggling to keep her small business in the area insured due to the high crime rate. \u201cNothing is working here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair are among six candidates vying to represent District 2\u2014which includes Chinatown\u2014on the Oakland City Council in a special election slated for April 15. The winner will represent one of the nation\u2019s most diverse communities and one desperate to turn the page on the past few years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very sad,\u201d said Matoury, an Air Force veteran, restauranteur and small business owner who came to the US at the age of 13 from her native Cambodia. Gesturing to the neighborhood outside, she noted, \u201cEverything closes at 4PM\u2026 without safety, we don\u2019t have a town.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matoury and Wang spoke during a March 4 candidate\u2019s forum organized by the Oakland Chinatown Coalition, a network of Community Based Organizations, businesses and churches serving Chinatown\u2019s 4,000+ residents.<\/p>\n

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Kanitha Matoury (fore) addresses the audience during a March 4 candidates forum in Oakland\u2019s Chinatown. (Credit: Peter Schurmann)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The area, one of the nation\u2019s oldest Chinatowns\u2014established in the 1850s\u2014is today home to sizable Asian and Latino communities as well as significant Black and white populations. Poverty rates remain high and are especially concentrated among elderly API residents and children.<\/p>\n

Businesses, meanwhile, continue to struggle with persistent crime, as well as rising costs. The neighborhood has seen some 15%-20% of its small businesses shutter permanently since the Covid 19 pandemic, further eroding the city\u2019s tax base.<\/p>\n

Oakland, whose last mayor was recalled in November and later indicted on corruption charges, is staring down a $130 million budget deficit, prompting sweeping cuts to a wide swath of services, including housing, mental health and law enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want a pre-Covid level of business and safety,\u201d said Alfred Lee, board member with the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, one of the groups that organized Tuesday\u2019s forum. \u201cIt\u2019s a big puzzle. How do you bring all these resources without raising taxes on the struggling businesses that we have?\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to come up with some very creative ideas to keep the city going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harold Lowe\u2014an Oakland native, like most of the candidates\u2014is a financial planner. He told the audience, many of them elderly Chinatown residents, that he has a 10pt. plan for how to revive the district that includes investments in things like improved street lighting, slowing down traffic, and increasing access to affordable housing.<\/p>\n

Oakland is required by the state to create over 10,000 units of affordable housing by 2030. Voters approved Measure U in 2022 creating an $850 million pool to fund construction, including a 91-unit development for low-income residents that broke ground late last year. The city, however, remains well behind its targeted goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Chinese population in Chinatown is declining,\u201d said Lowe, who is African American. \u201cWe need to build Chinatown again.\u201d He then cited grim statistics, including the fact that 20% of residents in the neighborhood lack internet access in their homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere used to be 500 Chinatowns across California,\u201d Lowe noted. \u201cI worry about Chinatown 100 years from now.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Community members, many of them elderly Chinatown residents, turned out to hear the candidates\u2019 ideas on how to revive the neighborhood. (Credit: Peter Schurmann)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Oakland Chinatown\u2019s challenges are not unique. Nationwide, these historic enclaves\u2014communities that reflect the ongoing struggle of immigrants working to gain a foothold in the US\u2014have been battered by social, political and economic headwinds.<\/p>\n

Tourist traffic to\u00a0New York\u2019s Chinatown<\/a>\u00a0has fallen by some 50% since the Covid 19 pandemic, even as the city squares off with residents over the construction of a massive new prison facility there. In\u00a0Philadelphia<\/a>, Seattle, Los Angeles and\u00a0San Francisco<\/a>, community members are similarly seeking ways to preserve their neighborhoods\u2019 cultural integrity without sacrificing economic growth.<\/p>\n

Lee noted that for the first time in recent memory there is no API representation on Oakland\u2019s City Council in a city where Asian Americans account for one-third of the population. But he said when it comes to representing Chinatown, \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter the color of your skin\u2026 it\u2019s the policy that is more important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from Wang and Matoury, all four of the other candidates are African American.<\/p>\n

Paul Seto, 78, is a retired chef from Hong Kong who has lived in Oakland Chinatown for the past 15 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy main concern is safety,\u201d he said, speaking in Cantonese. \u201cI would like to see less burglary and make sure people feel safe when they walk the streets.\u201d He added, \u201cRight now, in Oakland, there is a lot of violence. I hope maybe the candidates tonight will take care of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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For Paul Seto, 78, crime and safety are top priorities. \u201cI would like to see less burglary and make sure people feel safe when they walk the streets.\u201d (Credit: Peter Schurmann)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

All the candidates on stage acknowledged the challenges around public safety and appeared to agree over the need for more and better policing, though the city\u2019s financial constraints would make it hard to hire new officers, explained Kara Murray-Badal.<\/p>\n

Touting her record working around issues of public safety in cities including Baltimore, Boston and New York, Murray-Badal\u2014who grew up in District 2\u2014suggested Oakland needs to look to the hiring of more District Attorneys and closer coordination with Alameda County.<\/p>\n

She also noted that efforts to keep people who are struggling to stay housed in their homes would be a more cost-efficient way of combating homelessness in the area. \u201cThe city has a big role to play in promoting stability to keep people housed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Other candidates include Paula Thomas, who built a successful media business in Sacramento before returning to her native Oakland, and Reverend Kenneth Anderson, pastor at the Williams Chapel Baptist Church.<\/p>\n

The winner will have just two years to accomplish their goals, a tight timeline even under the best of circumstances, as they finish out the term for former District 2 Representative Nikki Fortunato Bas, who vacated her seat after being elected to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see sparks of hope,\u201d said Murray-Badal, offering a note of optimism. Addressing the audience, she praised the community\u2019s efforts to care for one another and to fight for the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Calling Chinatown a \u201ctrue hub of culture and identity,\u201d she continued, \u201cI want those sparks to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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