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GOLDSEA |
ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Is Chicago the Most Underrated City for Asian Americans?
t may be the nation's third largest city but to many AA Chicago is terra incognita. The first question it provokes is, Why would an Asian American want to live there? They are surprised to learn that, in fact, the greater Chicago area hosts the eighth largest Asian American population. Of the area's 8.4 million population, Asians comprise 5.4% or 450,000.
Most underrated AA city?
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Chinese began settling the area in 1870. Most were railroad workers at loose ends after the last stretch of tracks were laid on the Transcontinental Railroad. More began moving out to escape the extreme anti-Asian racism raging out of control on the west coast until the mid-1940s. Their first visible community was the area now known as South Chinatown on Chicago's South Side. At its height this original Chinatown, centered around Wentworth and Cermak, was lively enough to support 170 restaurants. Now, that number has shrunk to about 43, in part due to various redevelopment projects that cut the area down to less than a quarter its original area.
The new wave of Asian immigrants that began arriving in the 60s and 70s has shifted the Asian action northward. A second Chinatown, populated mostly by Vietnamese Chinese, has grown up around North Broadway and Argyle Street. A few blocks to the west a Koreatown is emerging along Lawrence Avenue. Nearby Devon Avenue is home to thriving South Asian establishments. There's even a small Japanese enclave closer to downtown along Clark and Halstead, right alongside a budding Thai area. These ethnic enclaves give the Chicago area's Asian Americans a tangible connection to their heritages but they are home only to the newest of Asian immigrants. Most established AA have faded into suburbs like Skokie, Evanston and even Highland Park.
Enough young Chicago-area AA professionals and students cherish their cultural ties to support the nation's only Asian American Jazz Festival, a popular annual event that draws healthy crowds. Other AA organizations include the local chapter of the National Association of Asian American Professionals, the Asian American Artists Collective, an AA Film Festival and various student groups based in local university campuses.
Chicagoland AA have begun to recognize the need to organize if they are to avoid becoming political casualties and orphans as during the various redistricting battles of the early 90s. But the Asian population remains dispersed, lacking the concentrations needed to consolidate political power in the form of viable candidates. This lack of concentration is the factor most often cited to support the view that Asians remain irrelevancies in the Windy City's socioeconomic landscape.
Is Chicago really a cultural wasteland suitable only for Asians indifferent to their heritages? Or is it just the most underappreciated city among AA?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:09:29 PM)
PGY-2,
Auther Anderson is a reason to be in Chicago?
AC Dropout
Thursday, March 21, 2002 at 15:54:03 (PST)
Chicago is a city full of opportunities for Asian-American professionals.
It's the home of Northwestern University, U of Chicago, 6 medical schools, and several law and business schools.
In addition many companies are headquartered or have a major presence here: United Airlines, McDonalds, Abbott Labs, Baxter International, Arthur Andersen, Quaker Oats, Kraft, Motorola, AON, Argonne Nat'l Labs, etc.
Finally, it's #3 on Forbes Magazine's best cities for singles (behind Washington D.C. and Miami).
PGY-2
Wednesday, March 20, 2002 at 12:37:22 (PST)
Racial segregation is the first thing that comes to mind, when many people think of Chicago thanks to the number crunchers and the newpaper reporters with those same exact numbers. When in fact to the Chicagoans in the know, it is more like segregation by choice in the city and segregation by income in the subburbs.
Chicago is an old city, one of the oldest in this country, and was and still is a very popular among new immigrants. The Italians, Jews, Polish, Irish, Greeks, Germans, etc. and more recently the Hispanic and the Asians all settled here. These early immigrants each carved out a distinctive neighborhood that not only survived but is very much thriving today. This give Chicago a distinctive flavor not found anywhere else in this country and in the world, outside of maybe NYC.
Recently, Chicago was named the city with the most high tech jobs in the country, according to a study done by the U. of Minnesota. Chicago has everything NYC has to offer. The world class museums, symphonies, arts/entertanment, acrhitecture, education, food to die for, the magnificent mile, lake michigan, home of the skyscrapers, home of the best sport fans, and jumping nightlife. The job market is great, and so is the pay, plus you can still afford to buy a house unlike SF or NYC even more reasonable than LA.
Chicago, a world class city that has it all but still very much Midwestern friendly. Chicago, though not very often mentioned, but speaks volumes silently. A town that works hard and plays hard. It is a town without the snobbishness of LA or Miami, nor the attitude of NYC.
Chicago, for those who knows it, loves it. The uninformed, say it is segregated, i say you need to look deeper.
Azz kicker
Wednesday, March 20, 2002 at 11:46:17 (PST)
Okay, this is in no way bashing Chicago, or any other city on this site. However, the author states that Chicago has the eight largest Asian population, and Seattle has the eleventh largest. Where are all the rest of them? On the demographics, there is NYC, LA, SF, and Houston. Okay. that's four cities. Suddenly, you jump to number eight and eleven?
TSJ
Eric@KristinKreuk.net
Wednesday, March 20, 2002 at 11:40:04 (PST)
[Systematic is good, but we thought it might be nice to throw some non-California metro areas into the mix, if it's okay with you. --Ed]
I am a Japanese-American born and raised in Chicago. I was raised on the south side, in a black neighborhood, because after the war the whites didn't want us in their neighborhood. We all got along. There were a few Asian-Americans, and a few whites, mostly Jewish. Suprisingly a lot of the girls liked me, including the fine white girls. We used to have softball games in the school yard. My parents would play along with these bad looking gang members(Blackstone Rangers, precursors of the El Rukin and Stones). But since they knew us, they always treated us with respect.
When I got into high school I started hanging with the white hippies, and the whole drug trip happened. Most people mostly associate with their own, be it white, black, Hispanic or Asian, but in Chicago, I have associated in a major way with every racial group. This has given me a unique perspective.
Jeff Yaki
yakijy@aol.com
Tuesday, March 19, 2002 at 15:48:01 (PST)
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