Talk:Chinatown, San Francisco, California
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where are your sources for san fran being the 3rd largest chinatown? many sources contradict your claim for new york having the largest chinatown in north america. http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=largest+chinatown&fr=FP-tab-web-t&toggle=1&cop=&ei=UTF-8 new york is nowhere in sight —Preceding unsigned comment added by Chinoiserie (talk • contribs) 14:59, 19 February 2006
A web search isn't the most scientific of methods, but here goes:
If you have been to both original SF and Manhatten Chinatowns, the physical size difference is not hard to see. The Manhatten one is MANY times larger in physical space - it's 2 square miles. As a comparision, if you took the northeast corner of SF, bounded by California Street at the south and Laguna street on the west is approximately 2 square miles. It's an area that encompasses original SF Chinatown, North Beach, Russian Hill, Fisherman's Wharf, Nob Hill, Embarcadero. eg. It's big. For populations, Census data is not subjective. SF Bay Area and California has much more Asian (and Chinese) population but it's much more dispersed outside of the Grant Street area Chinatown. Dyl 12:10, 12 March 2006 (UTC)
Below is Official City of San Francisco website. This page states that NYC's Chinatown is the largest and SF is 2nd largest. Dyl 12:34, 12 March 2006 (UTC)
lol. it's quite hilarious how 5 out of your 6 sources are ny websites. do you have citation on ny's chinatown being 2 sq mi. also where is your citation on how big sf's chinatown is? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Chinoiserie (talk • contribs) 00:32, 28 May 2006
Do you expect Cleveland or San Diego websites to have in-depth info on NYC? Of course not. What's more amusing is how people keep propagating urban legends like this. What reliable sources do YOU have that SF Chinatown is the largest other then tourist websites? Answer - none, because it's not fact. Here's a source for the 2 square miles [7], yes another NYC-based site, so what. The Manhattan article states that 41% of lower Manhatten's demographics is Asian due to Chinatown. Before I mentioned it on wikipedia, I measured the distances on a map. You are certainly free to do that yourself. Area-wise SF Chinatown, is about 0.4 miles in the N-S direction (Bush to Columbus) and 0.25 miles in the E-W direction (Kearny to Powell) . Eg. 0.10 square miles, actually pretty small. Spend some time walking around both places before making further ill-informed comments. If you have spent any time at all in both places, there would be no need for these long-winded debates/replies. Also, leaving comments without signing is bad wikipedia etiquette. Dyl 21:55, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
I finally found a reference that listed the Chinese population of SF Chinatown (as opposed to all of San Francisco). It's from a book (remember those?): Asia in the San Francisco Bay Area by Matt Orendoff ISBN:1566917433, published in 2004. Page 4 states that SF has a Chinese population of 160,000 total and only 8% of that (12,800) lives in the original Chinatown region. Compare that number to estimates of NYC Chinatown population that you'll find on the web - 50,000 on the low side up to 300,000. Dyl 01:54, 20 October 2006 (UTC)
It's subjective. Many people are too easily blinded by their own worldview, prejudice, and amount of experience. If you’re from New York City, of course you'll say the Chinatown there is the largest and greatest and other Chinatowns take a backseat. If you're a native of Houston, that person will make a similar claim about its Chinatown. Someone from Toronto will say the same thing. It's called boosterism. Many people are loath to give it up. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.193.250.14 (talk • contribs) 19:00, 4 March 2006
You should take a look at that search again New York is obviously in there. It seems like SF's is most popular and famous, while Manhattan's has grown to more in population and in Queens is even larger. But most SF Chinese are in the flats —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.177.34.169 (talk • contribs) 12:28, 8 March 2006
Similiarly, when people have only been to SF Chinatown or only heard that it's the largest, without being to other bigger locations. As the person making the claim, I have spent appreciable time in both SF and NYC Chinatowns. Also, I have visited Monterey Park, Toronto, Boston, Vancouver, Philadephia, Boston, Houston Chinatowns. Dyl 16:57, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
From my own estimation, the largest Chinatown in North America is in Toronto. It has the advantage of cheaper real estate, fewer geographic barriers, and more liberal national immigration policies. In the 1990's, there was a huge influx of Chinese to Canada because of the imminent handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic in 1997.
By the way, both San Francisco and New York still have larger Chinatowns than Shanghai's. That's right. Shanghai has a Chinatown; it is officially called the "Old Market," but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.... Chippos 09:22, 3 June 2006
- I just did a quick web search - estimated 400,000 Chinese in Toronto, 100,000 Chinese in "original" Chinatown. Yes, with these numbers your claim might be true. If you update the various Chinatown articles, you won't get any argument from me. It depends on what the real population counts are for Toronto, Flushing and Manhatten. At least for the NYC locales, these numbers are difficult to get due to low participation in the US census (language barrier, illegal immigration). My previous fervor was due to the obvious B.S. that SF Chinatown is the largest. Heck, even the Chinese section of SF Richmond district is much larger. Dyl 13:49, 3 June 2006 (UTC)
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[edit] Does info on other Bay Area Chinatowns belong in this article?
It would seem there needs to be a separate article on suburban Bay Area Chinese communities, as well as about San Francisco's New Chinatowns. These would be linked to from this article, but would not be part of this article. This is supposed to be an article about the specific SF neighborhood called Chinatown. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.148.113.32 (talk • contribs) 21:25, 26 May 2006
[edit] Happy Happy Happy
You may have seen him around in Chinatown, (yes, he's the Happy Happy Happy man.) and I would like to know whether it is OK to put this image on the Chinatown article. See below right: Goodshoped35110s 04:54, 7 October 2007 (UTC) 
It would be inappropriate to put Mr. Happy on the Chinatown page.
==Tong war period
Asking for a discussion on returning the mention of Tong violence in the history section. The following sentences were deleted without a how-do-you-do, no talk page, no citation tag, no NPOV, nothing.
"Not unlike much of San Francisco, a period of criminality ensued in some tongs on the produce of smuggling, gambling and prostitution, and by the early 1880s, the white population had adopted the term Tong war to describe periods violence in Chinatown, the San Francisco Police Department had established its so-called Chinatown Squad.
I believe this information, however cliched, represents among the most well-known facts about Chinatown. I suggest they be restored. Hank chapot 01:06, 31 October 2007 (UTC)
[edit] 1980's Chinatown Plan & Downtown Development
What about a section about the 1980's & potential encroachment of downtown office buildings that resulted in lower heights & the "Chinatown Area Plan"? 208.121.64.37 21:08, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Someone fix up the Golden Dragon reference please...
Golden Dragon closed in 2007 and has reopened as the Imperial Palace.
Kschang77 (talk) 23:02, 9 January 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Any one want to mention the fight over City College Chinatown Branch?
There's this huge bruhaha about how tall the building should be, or how short, or how each side is spinning the numbers to scare the public...
Kschang77 (talk) 23:05, 9 January 2008 (UTC)
[edit] Street Names
As you know, I have removed the list of street and alleyway names in this article as they are encyclopedic. The streets listed don't only go by Chinatown, but by other neighborhoods as well. Any comments? diff. —BoL 01:20, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
