NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – A year on from the start of the pandemic, Manhattan’s Chinatown is still dealing with a sagging local economy and a wave of anti-Asian sentiment.
It’s a neighborhood that prides itself on small businesses and tourism. Both suffered from a widely believed falsehood that Asians had coronavirus, even before the first case was confirmed in New York last March.
“We were warned early on before the pandemic, just as the pandemic was breaking out, that this was coming, that we had to put on our helmets,” said Wellington Chen, the executive director of the Chinatown Partnership.
“Xenophobia, anti-Asian hate, anti-Asian violence was really prevalent in our neighborhood,” Jennifer Tam said of Chinatown in early 2020.
Tam is the founder of Welcome to Chinatown, a local grassroots organization trying to help small businesses get back on their feet. She said foot traffic was already suffering even before the pandemic began.
Tam believes the waves of anti-Asian hate during the pandemic have set back the neighborhood considerably—and that it’s still happening.
“It’s still going to be a bit before we think tourism will be able to bounce back at the levels it was pre-COVID. I think also there’s still a pretty heavy sense of xenophobia and hesitancy to visit a neighborhood that really shouldn’t be receiving any of that sort of ill-feeling,” Tam said.
She said small businesses making it through the short-term financial impact of COVID is just one piece of the recovery puzzle.
“We’re also starting to think about, ‘What does long-term sustainability look like?’ And so that’s why we’ve been starting to build programs around that too,” Tam said.
She said another mission is preserving the cultural significance of Chinatown.
“COVID, it actually has accelerated gentrification and displacement of a minority community, and that’s just one we cannot risk,” Tam said.
Chen said foot traffic in Chinatown is starting to see a gradual increase.
“Every foot traffic coming into town means something to us, even if you just walk around,” he said.