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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, 06:09:28 PM)
Chicago now probably got the more going for it than any other cities in the States. The job market is excellent, housing is cheap comparing to the like of NY, SF and even more reasonable than LA, Seattle and the likes. Chicago was reasonly reported to have more high tech jobs than any other place in the country with 400,000. May be that's why Boeing chose Chicago over Denver and Dallas as its headquarter location. The average price of a new home is around $169,000, you can't even buy a basement for that price in SF. Average rent goes for around $850, you paid at least twice of that in NYC or SF. Chicago is probably only second to Boston when it comes to quality higher education with the like of U. of Chicago, Northwestern and others. Again, Chicago is probably second only to NYC when it comes to things like sports & entertainment, fine dining, shopping, museums/cultural activities, and jumping nightlife. On top of that, the people are as friendly as they come.
Azz kicker
Thursday, April 25, 2002 at 12:22:52 (PDT)
That's interesting that you mention Ellen Cho from MTV's Road Rules being from the Chicagoland area. The other Asian person on MTV, the Korean girl Janet (Real World Seattle) was from Elmhurst a suburb of Chicago. She also went to Northwestern. Maybe MTV likes to pick As-Ams from the midwest because they're more like "white" people and don't hang exclusively with Asians. Or maybe because midwest asians are the ones with the bigger identity crises. MTV always chooses the people with major issues.
Anyway, at Northwestern, many of the Asian-Americans were pretty twinkified. In fact, about 10-15% of the IFC fraternities and Panhel sororities were Asian. It was also not uncommon to see Asians serving as president. However, I think that many of us tried to deny being Asian. Many of us would actively choose not to hang out with people who were "too Asian." During the mid-nineties, an Asian fraternity called Lambda wanted to colonize. However, any attempts to colonize must first be approved by existing houses. The attempt to officially colonize was denied. Some of the biggest opponents that I knew of were Asian-Americans who were kind of embarassed at the thought of a bunch of Asian guys hanging out with each other.
Recently, I went with friends to the Bay Area. It was pretty weird. I'm so used to being the only Asian person around and now they were all over the place. I'm just not used to it.
dyche stadium
Tuesday, April 23, 2002 at 22:22:05 (PDT)
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