This article about Chinatown incorrectly said that the Golden Palace restaurant was torn down to make way for Gallery Place. The restaurant, which was across the street, was displaced by rising rent.
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Growth in Chinatown Exposes a Deep Rift
Chinatown Revitalization Council The upstart group, led by computer consultant Alexander Y. Chi, left, says that under the steering committee's watch, Chinatown has dwindled to "Chinablock." The organization supported the developer's plan.
(Photos By Kevin Clark -- The Washington Post)
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Gould apparently then decided to go around the steering committee. He redesigned the plans and cut the community space to 4,100 square feet. Instead of allowing the steering committee to operate the space, as they wanted, he specified that several community groups share it when the building is completed in about 3 1/2 years.
Gould also pledged $600,000 to the Chinese Community Church for roof repairs, a discount to Asian retailers who might want to lease retail space in the new building and $850,000 to a nonprofit group in Adams Morgan for affordable housing -- a couple of miles from Chinatown.
Last month, the D.C. Council approved the terms, 12 to 1. The dissenter was council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8), a longtime friend of Cheng. "I think Tony Cheng and the old-timers have been discarded," he said.
In the end, the deal satisfied neither side. The revitalization council, which supported Gould's plan, says that the affordable housing money never should have left Chinatown's borders and that the $600,000 given to the church should have been spread among more groups.
"As a community, we missed an opportunity," Chi said.
And no one seems to share Gould's vision of shared community space, either.
Chi and others are fighting to get it, saying Cheng and Wang monopolize the Chinatown Community Cultural Center, a 3,000-square-foot space developer Herb Miller gave the community when he built Gallery Place.
Cheng is the center's president; Wang is vice president. Cheng's daughter is executive director; Wang's daughter teaches English classes there.
Wang denies monopolizing the center and argues that it has been put to good use, emphasizing the table tennis and martial arts classes.
Dwan Tai, a former member of the steering committee, wants Gray to help other groups get use of the Gould community center.
Gray said his biggest achievement so far has been to get the two groups in the same room. He'd like to create an inclusive and neutral Chinatown Advisory Planning Council to divvy up use of the new community center and create a vision for Chinatown.
Wang said he knows the two groups must unite for Chinatown to survive and flourish.
"There's an old Chinese saying, 'When two fish fight, who wins?' " he said.
He paused, then put up his fists and hit them together to show their battle. "The fisherman."
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