Bien au-delà des immeubles abritant des bureaux tantôt sophistiqués, tantôt délabrés, des rues bondées de commerces en tous genres et de marchands ambulants, se trouvent des trésors infinis… Une immense palette aux couleurs chatoyantes, symbole des scènes de vie port-louisienne au quotidien.

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For about the last three months I have been working with the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side. There is a rezoning plan for the East Village that is currently under "public review." The plan protects a small, "historic," mostly white and affluent, section of Community District 3 with height caps on buildings. Unfortunately, no one thought to protect the rest of Community District 3 - Chinatown, the Lower East Side, the Bowery, and a lot of NYCHA housing. This will only increase the pressure on these parts of the neighborhood for new, luxury, high rise developments which have now been banned from the East Village.

These neighborhoods are working class and poor and are home mostly to people of color - Asian, Latin@, and African-American. That means that this plan is RACIST - that it disproportionately, unfairly, and unnecessarily puts a burden on people and communities of color. The coalition id demanding that the plan been stopped and amended to protect all the people of CD3.

This rezoning is not an isolated incident but part of a city wide pattern occurring under Bloomberg's administration - Harlem, Sunset Park, Willets Point. Now is the time for all working class New Yorkers to come together to fight rezoning policies which benefit real estate, developers, corporations, and the rich. We need responsible development - responsible to our communities and the lives and well being of our people.

Current rezoning policies in NYC threatens to displace thousands of restaurant workers and small restaurants as well thousands of their working class and small business neighbors.  Our communities, our families, our homes are the center of our humanity and of our spiritualities.  Defending the health and character of OUR neighborhoods is a defense of our human and sacred rights over and against corporations and big business.  It is a task that we must undertake prayerfully and LOUDLY!

Cross it off the list - Jonathon ate duck - and he has blurry phone photos to prove it!

And for all of you who are thinking 'ok, it's on his plate but did it get down the hatch?'

Why yes it certainly did, in true chinese fashion - chopsticks and all!

A set of design proposals created by The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment to help London's Chinatown become more authentically Chinese have been presented for the first time.
Prince Charles has previously spoken of his desire to find ways to encourage the use of traditional Chinese craftsmanship and architectural practices using both UK and Chinese expertise to help transform Chinatown.

Within the recommendations are plans for Chinatown town to embody more traditional design and craftmanship through the creation of a timber pagoda, screen garden, and gold lanterns as well as a series of monthly crafts markets showcasing Chinese creative talents.

Chinese mythology and Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese system of designing buildings and arranging objects to ensure a favourable flow of energy will play a major role in the designs.

The proposals, developed in conjunction with Westminster City Council, have been submitted following a series of design workshops with the local Chinese community in Chinatown in May of this year.

Hank Dittmar Chief Executive of The Prince’s Foundation said: “Chinatown will be adapting to the challenges of the 21st century using the best of both Chinese and British craftsmanship to ensure the area retains its distinctive mix of both traditions. "

“The traditional buildings and street pattern of this part of Georgian London have adapted incredibly throughout the last century to accommodate the emerging Chinese life and culture and now plans are underway to make it even more vibrant.”

The full report is not due to be published until September, but Westminster City Council and The Prince’s Foundation have presented the initial findings to the London Chinatown Chinese Association, local landlords and developers and English Heritage.

Councillor Robert Davis, Westminster City Council’s Deputy Leader, said: “We are working towards the goal of making London’s Chinatown the best in the world, and although it clearly has its own distinct identity, these plans will help to make it become more authentic.

"These would form part of the next exciting phase for Chinatown following the multi-million pound programme of improvements already carried out in the area."

Other ideas which have stemmed from the May workshops include designating the nine entrances and exits into the Chinatown district with the names of the nine ancient Chinese dragons which are symbols of cosmic Chinese Chi energy - Yazi, Baxia, Jiaotu, Haoxian, Pulao, Suanmi, Bixi, Qiuniu and Chiwen. This will help to make Chinatown more visible to visitors.

The full report which is due to be published in September, is also expected to include calls for the opening of Leicester Square tube station’s closed entry point on the corner of Little Newport Street and Charing Cross Road for the first time since 1978 allowing Chinatown to have its own tube entrance.

It is hoped that a new pagoda for Newport Place should fulfil the aim of drawing on the expertise and skill of traditional Chinese craftsmanship as it will be created by Chinese craftspeople in a workshop in Chinatown which will be open to the public, allowing everyone to feel involved in its creation.

The design strategy for Chinatown intends to build on the multi-million pound make over by Westminster City Council, which has seen the main streets of the district, Gerrard Street and Lisle Street completely repaved and new lighting installed.

The improvements to Chinatown are part of Westminster’s One City Renewal programme which aims to improve the quality of design for buildings and spaces across Westminster. Westminster aims to compete with the other great cities across the globe in terms of the quality of its built environment.

Best Gastropub: The Anchor & Hope - If you happen to be near Waterloo station, walk down The Cut, lined with the Old Vic and Young Vic Theatres, and find The Anchor & Hope. The homely atmosphere and deliciously rustic food is what attracts and fills seats at this award winning gastropub. It's all about fresh, healthy portioned British food and what's in season. The dishes for sharing are a big hit!

[caption id="attachment_14" align="alignright" width="87" caption="The Place Below"][/caption]

Best Veggie: The Place Below - Hidden below ground in the Bow Church crypt, away from the City's hustle and bustle is one of my favourite spots for lunch. Food is always fresh so the menu always changes, and if you can't wait until you get there to see what's on offer, they post 'today's menu' online. I highly recommend the quiches which come with roasted potatoes and salad, yum!

Best Fish: Fish in a Tie - This yummy fish restaurant serves favourites like swordfish steak to lemon sole at bargain prices. The value for money makes this restaurant 'Best Fish', though the place may feel a bit crammed in, the experience is still well worth it. The below quote from Time Out pinpoints the atmosphere:

Walking into this endearingly entitled, eccentrically decorated little bistro in Battersea is like entering a friends living room: except theres a few more chairs and tables. A lot more chairs and tables, in fact so many that getting back to your seat can present a problem if you've overindulged, which you could be forgiven for doing, as the food is great (Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide, 2008).

Best British: Hereford Road - On the road with the same name this experience will not be forgotten! As you enter you can glance into the open kitchen and breathe in the best of British cooking. This fairly small restaurant benefits from the big light source in the ceiling, and the simple interior allows for a relaxing experience. If you want great food guaranteed this is the place to go with someone you hold dear.

Best Taiwanese: Leong's Legends - If you're wandering through the streets of London's Chinatown but you fancy something that's not a Chinese you should try this place. The dumplings are to die for! The menu expresses wide choices, not all Taiwanese but all delicious!  

I hope you find these places as inspirational and eye opening as I have, enjoy tasting your way through London!

Whether these politicians and investors realize it or not building a casino at this location is institutional and environmental racism against the many minority populations in the Chinatown community.

Read
•Philadelphia Inquirer Article, Chinatown Residents Fear Lure of Gaming by Jennifer Lin
•"Environmental Racism, Chinatown and the Gallery Casino" by Helen Gym
• angryasianman.com picked up the news

I googled around looking for related things and found these links
• Great Asian American Resource page at the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services

From an interview with Dr. Timothy Fong (whose name comes up in every search on this subject), Director of UCLA's Gambling Studies Program. He said this in his findings,

What did the focus groups reveal?
Number one, gambling was a common thing that a lot of community members did. Number two, it was very socially acceptable. And number three, almost everyone knew one or two people that they knew had a gambling problem. It was a very common thread that they also didn’t know what to do about that person; where to send them, what to say to them, what to do about it.

What was also very interesting was that the casinos were very aggressive in marketing toward Asian communities. But they didn’t blame them for that. They didn’t say that that was a bad practice. This is just a reality. We learn about a lot of bus tours that were marketed for Asian communities. Fliers that were marketed toward that community.

Sign the Petition

Tonight I attended a public forum as a representative of my church regarding a proposal to place casinos courtesy of Foxwoods at The Gallery in Philadelphia which is right at the entrance of Chinatown. This has gotten some press and after tonight's meeting I'm sure it will get some more. There were some very angry people there. Typically you don't find many Chinese folks speaking up about things much less political things but they were out in force tonight. In fact I'm very impressed with this gathering because it's much more diverse than I had anticipated. There were many voices. Among them were educators, students, long time residents, church goers, business owners and community leaders. They weren't just Chinese either. There were many non-Asians in the crowd.

Our church (CCCNC) officially took a stance of opposition against this proposal a couple of weeks ago and we're trying to prayerfully handle this with much grace, wisdom and peace. We know we need to be a voice for the many aliens and poor in our community. We know first hand the effects of gambling among the Chinese as we counsel many compulsive gamblers and the families devastated by their habits. This is probably one of the most important things we've been involved in for our community.
Please pray for us.

Representatives from Mayor Michael Nutter's office (Terry Gillen), Councilman DiCicco and State Representative O'Brien were receiving comments and arguments tonight at the Holy Redeemer School. It was not a good night to be in their shoes. If we want to build the next great American city, this is definitely not the way. The cost will be greater than any economic gain. This is institutional racism.

For More Info:
Asian Americans United for facts, petition, links and more.
Casino-Free Philadelphia, dedicated to say no to any casinos in the city of Philadelphia
Foxwoods Casino PA

Articles
PlanPhilly - City Set to See Foxwoods Design
PlanPhilly - City Sees Foxwoods Design

Other Resources
Gambling, Addiction and Asian Culture
Casinos Aggressively Market to Asian Americans, But Few Services Help Addicts
California Provides Glimpse Into Asian Gambling Culture
Resources from The Conference on Assessment & Treatment of Compulsive Gambling Among Asian American held on October 26, 2007 via AsianMentalHealth.org

“There’s this interest in gambling among the Chinese that transcends anything you see in any other socioeconomic or ethnic group" - Gary Loveman, Chief Executive at Harrah's

Sign the Petition

(Deliciously ironic photo from BlogTO)

Now, we wouldn't bet the farm on that being a rat. Or maybe we just don't want to even think about it—look at the freaking size of that thing, whatever it is. We've seen smaller creatures on leashes. But, as the Star dutifully reports, the city's health inspectors have shut the place down pending a full investigation. (The Board of Health is one Toronto outfit that works very well, we should add. We were once served a plate of Thai food with a cigarette butt in it—the proprietor suggested we'd planted it in order to obtain a free meal, which nearly led to fisticuffs—and they were on it within hours. And its online inspection database is extremely handy.) But there's at least one Star reader who felt the story was written in a wholly inappropriate manner.

Rat caught on camera in Spadina restaurant

Thank you for covering THIS story and perpetuating negative stereotypes about Chinese people and their food. The stereotype of an unscrupulous business owner and a culture who eats cats and dogs is lurking behind this story, seemingly about poor health inspection. Why not find a story about a dirty fast food restaurant or an upscale French restaurant? I didn't think vermin were that fussy. After seeing the way that multiculturalism was portrayed so well on the front cover of your morning edition ("Meet Your GTA Candidates")this story really was a really unfortunate choice. Racist stereotypes run deeper than we realize I guess.

Posted by doit2julia at 2:30 PM Thursday, October 09 2008

What do you think, Megapundit readers? Is "doit2julia" for real, or is he/she taking the piss?

Here is a photo I snapped this morning of the finished product.

As you man know, these murals are not actually Banksy himself. However, it has been confirmed that Banksy is in New York.

(Photo by Wooster Collective)

Wooster Collective published the following today:

"While New Yorkers have been consumed by the stock market meltdown, a tiny little pet store quietly opened four days ago at 89 7th Avenue between West 4th and Bleeker Street in the West Village of New York City."

From Banksy:

“New Yorkers don’t care about art, they care about pets. So I’m exhibiting them instead. I wanted to make art that questioned our relationship with animals and the ethics and sustainability of factory farming, but it ended up as chicken nuggets singing. I took all the money I made exploiting an animal in my last show and used it to fund a new show about the exploitation of animals. If its art and you can see it from the street, I guess it could still be considered street art."

(Video by Wooster Collective)

Learn more about one of the world's most notorious street artists here...

It's one of Toronto's most popular Chinese restaurants, but on Wednesday those walking by Happy Seven were given plenty of reason to feel sad - and scared. Despite passing a health inspection just days earlier, the Chinatown establishment and fixture of the Spadina strip was home to a least three rats, running free inside the dining room.

Happy Seven management wouldn't speak to CityNews on camera, but Toronto Public Health was notified and promised an investigation. Should their people find any proof of rodent infestation the restaurant would be closed immediately.

"If you find rodents walking around the kitchen with rodent droppings possibly contaminating cooking surfaces that is an immediate potential health threat and we would shut a restaurant down," promised TPH Chair John Filion.

But that's not an option Filion and his crew has. They scoured the restaurant late Wednesday afternoon and reportedly found no evidence of a rat infestation, meaning they have no authority to shut the place down even after watching our video evidence.

"No rat droppings, no problem whatsoever with compliance with public health standards," Filion told Andrea Piunno Wednesday night. "It's kind of a mystery."

And until that mystery is solved with the official discovery of some vermin on the premises, the restaurant and countless business around it remain open to the public.

Of course in the big city the threat of rats, mice and issues of general cleanliness lurk around every corner.

If you see a health code violation in any restaurant, you can report it to Toronto Public Health.

read and see the video | digg story

my windows face allen st. and my backyard is chinatown. i fall asleep to the neon characters flashing through my closed lids, the street cleaners trying to get the smell of gash off the streets and the click clack sound of cars zooming over manholes. it's now 1:30 am. i can't help but run through all of these potential reasons why i cant sleep that i read earlier this afternoon on a swissmiss posting. i thought i might spread the word so that i'm not the only one with bags under my eyes. you've been warned.

suzzzz

Hip Sing and similar tongs formed in New York, San Francisco, and other major cities to protect Chinese immigrants from the racism and exploitation they encountered upon arriving in the U.S. in the late 1800s. (Exhibit A: the Chinese-American Exclusion Act of 1896.) But they eventually became violent gangs that ran prostitution rings, gambling dens, and drug rackets.

Al día siguiente nos marchamos a Nueva York durante tres días, alojándonos en el corazón de "Times Square" con el ajetreo de la gente de un lado para otro y todas las luces de colores de la calle. Disfrutamos de los sitios más turísticos y de las vistas de Nueva York por la noche desde el Empire State. Otro día aprovechamos para coger unas bicicletas y pedalear por central park, a través del laberinto de caminos, puentes y lagos que se esconden en su interior. Para terminar visitamos el barrio chino aunque preferimos comer con los vecinos de "Little Italy". 

Los dos días siguientes los dedicamos a recuperarnos de la paliza que nos dimos en Nueva York y ver la ciudad de Boston que la habíamos dejado a un lado. Como buenos turistas intentamos hacer el camino marcado en el suelo con una línea roja aunque fracasamos en el intento y decidimos disfrutar de la calma y las vistas del parque "Boston Common", los alrededores de Harvard y el museo del MIT.

Para rematar, el fin de semana teníamos preparadas dos excursiones. La primera a Cape Cod, un lugar turístico donde va la gente de aquí de vacaciones y la siguiente a Newport (RI) donde están las mansiones de los ricos y famosos, con sus playas privadas y yates, que envidia... que mal repartido está el mundo.

En fin, que se me ha pasado la semana volando. Que verdad es cuando dicen el tiempo pasa más rápido cuando se está disfrutando.

Die Bilder von unserem Ausflug in die Healesville Sanctuary sind übrigens auch online. Video folgt. Leider hat mein Akku irgendwann schlapp gemacht (schon blöd wenn man vergisst ihn vor nem Ausflug aufzuladen) Ich hoffe aber ich bekomme bald noch Bilder von Bianca.

Nice Green Bo (formerly New Green Bo)

66 Bayard St.
Between Mott and Elizabeth

Then there are the most awesome movies in the world, with a simple formula: Jason Statham + improbable situation where he has to do something before a certain deadline or else he blows up while needing to deal with a lot of sexual tension with respective hot chick in many awkward scenes that are sort of poorly acted but it doesn't really matter because they either end with him banging a girl in Chinatown or killing someone = my head just exploded with testosterone-y joy.

Behold, Transporter 3:

We began the day with a great lunch in Chinatown.  It is not everyday that I get to eat steamed dumplings!  Then we proceeded to Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Park for instructions on that day's activities.  The park was quiet retreat that honored both one of China's great 20th century leaders and the significant Chinese heritage in Vancouver. While we were there we gathered together and Amy Hunter (a Nieucommunities staffer) split us into groups of three and gave each of us a map.  For the next few hours we were to follow the map around the city to experience its diversity and culture through sights, sounds, tastes, and even smells (and there were many!).  Colletta was grouped with Amber and I and our journey began going back into Chinatown.  If you want to follow our exact route you can follow it on Google maps.  We went up Pender St., turned left on Gore Ave., left on E. Hastings, right on Abbott St., left on Water St. all the way to Canada Place.

The three of us probably spent 45 min. to an hour going up Pender St.  We had a blast!  It was so much fun going into the little Chinese bakeries and finding interesting and delicious things to eat.  I found steamed buns in one (actually in many), something that I would eat for breakfast every morning when I went to China.  Amber bought a puff pastry that she got everywhere because it was huge, flaky, and covered in powdered sugar! I do wish I had a picture of that!  Colletta got one of the best Chinese deserts I had ever tasted.  It was sort of like a canoli, only it had a lot of almond in it and it was dipped in chocolate on one side.  The areas was very busy and full of locals and tourists alike.  One thing that I did notice that stood out to me was that it seemed the local Chinese population was quite elderly.  It didn't seem like there were many younger people in the area.  Perhaps they have moved to different areas of the city.  In any case, it was just a curious observation.

[caption id="attachment_56" align="alignright" width="128" caption="Bringing the Kingdom to the DTES"][/caption]

when we were suppose to meet back together at Victoria Park.  Talk about coming back in a different mood. 

A couple of the girls were still crying because of what they had witnessed that day.  It was incredible, but we had to keep asking ourselves what is God doing here?  And realizing that God loves these people, he loves them more than we ever could!  The whole time in the back of my mind I kept hearing the song God of This City.  "And greater things are still to come in this city."  And we made that our prayer.