Asian-American New Yorkers battle Chinese developers over a luxury complex in the city’s Flushing neighbourhood
- Gentrification, and the squeeze it puts on residents, comes to a Chinese-American neighbourhood in New York City – but the gentrifiers are themselves Chinese
- ‘We can’t live on condos alone – how a community gets built should be for the people who live and work there to decide,’ one opponent of the project says
Song Deping landed in the United States with little money and big dreams in 2004, settling in New York City’s Flushing neighbourhood.
The Sichuan native lived in a small apartment with strangers, in a bedroom divided in half with a shared toilet and small kitchen; he found jobs in an office, a gym and restaurants before tapping into American’s wellness craze as a licensed masseur. Yet he still struggles to get ahead amid rising prices as Flushing relentlessly heads upscale.
Gentrification in the US has traditionally involved whites displacing minority communities. But a battle in Song’s neighbourhood over the Special Flushing Waterfront District, a luxury development, is raising tensions amid concern that wealthy Chinese-linked developers are now muscling out Chinese-Americans who are barely getting by.
“I really have to tighten my belt to make ends meet,” said Song, who now lives with his wife and infant in a one-bedroom apartment but rents out part of his living room to meet his US$1,800 monthly rent.
“With these developers, land prices in recent years have exploded, affecting everything. I used to buy beef noodles for US$4 a bowl. Now they cost at least US$8 with almost no beef.”
Wealthier newcomers replacing long-time residents is hardly new to the city but Flushing, a traditional gateway for Chinese immigrants in the borough of Queens, stands out.