I ran across an interesting article by Ivy Lin in the Willamette Week talking about Chinatown past and present in Portland. She has made a documentary film called Pig Roast & Tank of Fish. She points out that the Old Town Chinatown in Portland in the early 19th century was the second largest Chinatown on the west coast. This area, part of the Old Town area, was a mix of Japanese and Chinese and has left its cultural mark on Portland. However, it has been a long time since it was a vibrant center of the Chinese community. She points out that the commercial center of businesses and restaurants has shifted out towards 82nd Avenue and is a multi-asian mix, rather than just Chinese. Indeed, you find similar mixes as you go out Powell Blvd as well.
When I was growing up in Portland, there still was a strong commercial presence in Old Town Chinatown, but very few Chinese people lived in the area, concentrating more on the east side near Washington and Cleveland High Schools. The China Gate was built in 1986 while it was the commercial district was still intact. The Lan Su Chinese Garden was built in 2000 but did not stop the decline. The area remains an important symbol of the Chinese community and the site of the Chinese New Year celebrations.
For me, I am fascinated how our buildings and places become imbued with cultural memories that are still potent long after the communities that created them move in response to demographic shifts and changing economic realities. The Old Town Chinatown was built using traditional urbanism that was more effective in creating place than modern urbanism has proved to be. Yet this stronger urban starting point has been challenged by the demolition of many existing buildings that became parking lots. The number of empty storefronts that sap commercial activity also underline, that for whatever reason, the Chinese community has moved on. 82nd Avenue will never be considered a successful “place” in the physical meaning of the term. Yet on a community level it is more a “Chinatown” than Old Town Chinatown. It is where the stories of today are being made.