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Learning From the Residents of Boston Chinatown
by Katie Li
Winter 2004
“Haaah??? Tai dai sang ah !!” yelled an elderly Chinese woman wearing a set of earphones with the volume obviously turned up too loudly. I rushed over to her, adjusted her walkman-looking machine, gave apologetic looks to the speakers at the front of the crowded room and finally sat down to view the rest of the presentation myself.
I was surrounded by a roomful of mainly elderly Chinese residents, each wearing a headset that whispered the Cantonese translation of what the official-looking, suit-wearing presenters were saying while they aimed their laser pointers at their flashy PowerPoint animations. The speakers were property developers and Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) land-use planning government officials, proposing to build a 30-story luxury apartment complex adjacent to an already thriving and crowded residential area. “Kensington,” they proclaimed, “will clean up the blight and add class to the neighborhood.”
Familiar with the ever-changing land developments surrounding their homes, this was not the first time that Boston Chinatown residents faced major developers seeking profit at the expense of the community. Just the year before, they had passionately fought and ultimately lost to another developer that now has the rights to build a high-rise luxury apartment complex opposite to Kensington Place, which, ironically is named Liberty Place.
Yet, the residents' hopes still remained high before the meeting as I marched in circles with them around the entrance of the meeting hall with a picket sign that read: “BRA: Bad Redevelopment Authority,” while chanting “BRA, Go Away, We don't want your PDA!” (PDA stands for Planned Development Area, a designation that would allow developers to build a high-rise building in an otherwise restricted area.) The residents present at the community meeting (with a few exceptions of nodding heads) attentively looked on as the developers presented slide after slide of what Kensington would look like if built. They waited patiently for the question and answer period in order to publicly support or oppose the development.
