San Jose Viet Biz District: What’s In A Name?

SAN JOSE — Residents near Story Road recently held a community meeting at the Tully Community Branch Library for a proposed Vietnamese business district.
The meeting was meant to be a brainstorm for ideas for the design of streetlamp banners, but it quickly escalated to resentment and anger from some community members over the district’s name, which many believed would be a variant of “Vietnamese American Business District.” Many in the area prefer the district to bear the word “Saigon” in its name.
San Jose is teeming with the largest concentration of the Vietnamese population in the country, with an estimated 100,000 people. Members of the Vietnamese American community have been pushing for increased recognition of the one-mile span of Story Road, a strip estimated to house more than 160 Vietnamese businesses out of the 200 total. Economically, this translates to $1.19 million in annual gross sales tax revenues, $250,000 of which is attributed to Vietnamese businesses. The approved development is expected to bring an additional 256 new businesses, owned and operated by Vietnamese in Fall 2008.
“We want to have an icon for visitors who visit the district — we would like to help merchants on Tully Road to reach beyond the Vietnamese community,” explained Madison Nguyen, city councilmember of District 7.
While the meeting was meant to solicit ideas for banners, few seemed interested in design, with many adamant about expressing their thoughts on the name and history of the business district, particularly on the term “Saigon.”
“The feeling is very strong and political on the proposal of this business district because the Vietnam Communist government had mentioned that there are investments in this business district from the investors in Vietnam,” explained Barry Do, the former Vietnamese American Council president. “The Viet community in Northern California wants to draw a significant line between the name Vietnam —which could be understood as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam — and Saigon — which was the former free South Vietnam. By naming the district ‘Saigon,’ the Vietnamese American community in San Jose can show the identification of political refugee, not the economic investors from current Communist Vietnam government.”
Minh Duong, also a resident of San Jose, stated, “Coming from where I am today, the name ‘Little Saigon’ represents the hard work and hardships that my parents went through. We should recognize the successes of Vietnamese Americans and remind people of how we have contributed to the economic success of the city.”
Armed with “Little Saigon” signs to display and tout throughout the meeting, community members similarly chimed in by chanting “Little Saigon, Little Saigon!”
In spite of the excitement, Councilmember Nguyen explained in her closing comments that ultimately the name of the business district would depend heavily upon the ideas proposed and voted by Story Road businesses and residents of San Jose living within 1,000 feet of the proposed district. This angered many attendees to the meeting, who began to shout “Madison, down!” in unison.
“The Vietnamese community has contributed so greatly to San Jose economically as a whole that we want to solicit input about a name of the designation for the area,” Nguyen said.
According to Do, the Saigon Business District issue is “getting hotter now in our community and may lead to a recall campaign of Madison.”
As a next step, the city of San Jose must poll Story Road businesses and local residents on their thoughts and ideas for the proposal, before the city may move forward with creation of the banners for display.