The End of the American Chinatown
LOS ANGELES—As a new immigrant to the United States, Li Zhong Huang knew there was only one place he wanted to live: the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles, where he could be surrounded by language, food, and people from his home province of Guangdong. In 2001, he found an apartment with a shared bathroom and kitchen for $390 and moved in, relishing the sunny weather and ample transportation options of his new neighborhood.
A decade after he arrived, though, the neighborhood started changing. Construction started on two new luxury apartment condos. One, Blossom Plaza, now offers two-bedroom apartments with amenities such as a pool, a shuffleboard court, and a fitness center for $2,600 a month. The other, Jia Apartments, features a pool, a spa, and black granite countertops, with two bedrooms starting at $2,500.
At first, Huang liked these developments. The new complexes were clean and attractive, replacing buildings that were old and run-down. But then, two years ago, his landlord said he needed to renovate the apartment; after Huang and his wife left for a few weeks and stayed with friends, the landlord raised the rent to $1,600 and changed the
