APAs Want a Seat at the Table for Rebuilding Efforts

NYC community groups fear that they will continue to be overlooked

By Shirley Lin
Special to AsianWeek

With the removal of the last steel girder from Ground Zero this May, New York symbolically completed its nine-month recovery and cleanup effort, and entered a rebuilding phase in Lower Manhattan, one that the city hopes will quickly revitalize a region devastated by the terrorist attacks of last September. But a number of groups, including residents of the heavily affected Chinatown, fear that rebuilding efforts will overlook long-term issues of job development, affordable housing and community integration.

According to Asian Pacific American community leaders, if federal and local relief efforts immediately after the attacks are any gauge of Chinatown’s visibility in the rebuilding process, then present conversations around long-term plans for the area may leave the residents’ concerns unaddressed.

Residents of Chinatown, the immigrant hub just nine blocks north of the Ground Zero site, say they were unable to receive immediate assistance in the months after the attack because relief agencies failed to recognize the full impact of Sept. 11 on the community. Many assistance programs originally limited eligibility to residents below Canal Street, the thoroughfare that marks the center of Chinatown. Only some programs, like the September 11th Fund, have since extended the boundary to the neighborhood’s northern limit.

The civil rights group Asian American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (AALDEF) held a protest on July 16 outside the downtown office of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) due to concerns that families in crisis were not receiving assistance.

According to Margaret Fung, executive director of AALDEF, “Their families have really suffered as a result of the Sept. 11 attacks. A lot of the money for rebuilding and transportation comes from federal funds … There are Chinatown garment workers on unemployment, at risk from being evicted from their apartments, and FEMA has not helped them find affordable housing.”

Chung-Wha Hong (far left) of the New York Immigration Coalition demands tangible assistance for the unemployed at a Labor Community Advocacy Network press conference before “Listening to the City.”

In Chinatown, the effects were even more pronounced since residents spend a higher percentage of their income toward housing than average. According to an economy impact study released by the Asian American Federation of New York earlier this year, the community’s backbone industries — garment, restaurant, retail and tourism — were hardest hit. Over 40 of Chinatown’s garment factories were shuttered, and nearly 8,000 residents were laid off. Weekly wages in those industries fell between 40 and 80 percent.

The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. (LMDC), the agency formed to coordinate rebuilding in the area, has understandably focused rebuilding efforts on the Ground Zero site. When the agency revealed six concept plans for the area last week, however, community groups were quick to identify a blind spot.

“In the dialogue on the rebuilding of Lower Manhattan, I saw the environmental perspective, the preservation perspective, but in the LMDC’s initial blueprint, Chinatown was barely mentioned,” said Christopher Kui, executive director of Asian Americans for Equality (AAFE). “That’s when it sparked off in our minds that the community needs to voice its concerns. We don’t want to see Chinatown further impacted by the rebuilding.”

To guide officials and policymakers, AAFE recently launched its own revitalization effort, the Rebuild Chinatown Initiative, for which it has hired its own architectural planner. The group is also continuing social service programs to help those affected apply for unemployment insurance, subsidies and Medicaid.

Other concerned citizens had an opportunity to comment on the rebuilding process at the July 20 event “Listening to the City,” a public hearing coordinated by the Civic Alliance to Rebuild Downtown New York, the LMDC, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to garner input into the planning. Over 4,000 people attended the forum, which focused on the creation of a memorial to remember the lives lost on Sept. 11, the evaluation of the six concept plans for the World Trade Center site released earlier that week and the economic revitalization of Lower Manhattan.

Due to extensive outreach efforts by the Civic Alliances, APAs were well represented at the forum, comprising 13 percent of participants. They included small-business owners, unionized seamstresses, community activists and family members who lost loved ones on Sept. 11.

Siu Lan Lee, a retired garment worker and resident of Queens, attended the forum because she “appreciated the opportunity to provide input.” Lee’s son, who worked in the financial industry, was one of the 2,832 people who died in the Twin Towers collapse. She wanted not only to comment on the memorial plans, but also to “talk about affordable housing.”

Skepticism toward the LMDC stemmed from the fact that the agency originally assisted the more affluent west side of Lower Manhattan, and only recently expanded housing assistance to Chinatown. Other participants were troubled by the scope of the conversation and disappointed by the lack of commitment to the concerns of immigrant and low-income communities.

Said Chung-Wha Hong, advocacy director of the New York Immigrant Coalition: “It’s been almost impossible to get the government to approach rebuilding in a comprehensive way that addresses human and social impact. From the amount of time they devoted to that aspect, they have been doing everything they can to limit the debate to the physical reconstruction of the site.”

Officials countered concerns that the rebuilding was overly driven by commercial interests by reminding attendees that the Port Authority still had contractual obligations to Silverstein Properties and Westfield America, the two legal leaseholders of the site, to replace the space destroyed. All six concept plans presented contracted 11 million square feet of office space, 600,000 square feet of retail space and 600,000 square feet of hotel space. Nearly a third of the audience called for a renegotiation of the lease.

According to the LMDC, $306 million of the $2 billion in aid from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has been allocated as residential grants and job training. An additional $350 million has been set aside to retain and attract businesses to Lower Manhattan. Officials would not comment on whether the residential component of the rebuilding would include affordable housing.

“It’s not just about acknowledging the issues, but connecting the concerns with the resources,” said David Kallick, director of the Labor Community Advocacy Network. The group, which includes AALDEF and the New York Immigrant Coalition, has lobbied New York Gov. George Pataki since early this year to address infrastructure and make the decision-making process more inclusive. Of the rebuilding plans unveiled, he said, “They’re not giving people choices — they’re giving people six variations on one choice.”

Last Saturday’s forum was the second and largest of a series soliciting public input, and APA leaders have pledged to ensure that Chinatown is included in Lower Manhattan’s renewal. Said Fung: “Whatever is built on the site itself is going to have an impact on Chinatown and elsewhere, and if there is a recognition of these needs, then there’s a responsibility that these will be addressed in the plan … Now is the time for members of the community to contact [decision makers] to make sure Asian American concerns are addressed.”