Caucasian populations are growing faster in the Chinatowns of Boston, Philadelphia and Manhattan than in each city overall, according to research by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund in New York.
The character of Manhattan's Chinatown is changing as new hotels and luxury condos open and the white population grows faster there than in other parts of the city, a new study shows.
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White populations in the Chinatowns of Boston, Philadelphia and Manhattan are growing faster than in each city overall, according to a new report released Wednesday by the Asian-American organization and local universities.
Researchers analyzed decades of U.S. census data and went block by block and floor by floor to collect information.
In Manhattan's Chinatown, luxury condos like Hester Gardens - where a three-bedroom recently sold for $1.5 million - are sprouting, and nearly 20 new hotels have opened up, study researchers found.
The Chinese word for "gentrification" was found spray-painted on a boarded-up window as a new Canal St. coffee shop was built, surveyors said.
Some of the condo developers are catering to wealthy Chinese-Americans — but the changes bring in more young professionals, squeezing working-class, immigrant families.
Boston's Chinatown has seen its share of Asian residents drop sharply — from 70% in 1990 to 46% in 2010.
Changes in Manhattan and Philadelphia have been more subtle. The Asian population in Manhattan's Chinatown has been stable, at about 45%, from 1990 to 2010, according to census data. The white population increased by 19% in the past decade alone, however, as the number of black and Latino residents fell.
Neighborhood dynamics also shifted, as 21.4% more singles moved in and the number of family households shrank by 13%, according to the report.
In Philadelphia's Chinatown, Asians' share of the population has also remained steady, but the neighborhood's overall numbers have skyrocketed during the last 20 years, and the white population more than doubled.