Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Erasing a Culture
Story by Mark Howell
A huge part of San Francisco's Japantown is up for sale and it already has a potential buyer. The buyer is an family-run company based out of Southern California called 3D Investments. After 40 years of ownership, Kintetsu Enterprises of America is finally calling it quits and selling its properties to an American Industry. A deal between these two industries can happen in the next two months.
The plan to sell the properties, which is two hotels and the only two malls in Japantown, does not go well with the Japantown community. In a story I did for my news bureau class, many of the residents of Japantown had some trust issues with the new buyers. Residents were told by the city of San Francisco that the potential buyers will keep the Japanese culture theme going around the community, but the residents aren't buying it. During my interviews with some residents, I was told that this same situation happend 60 years ago before the Japanese were interned at the concentration camps. Redevelopers told residents that when they get back, their community will be as good as new. But when WWII was over, the Japanese came home to find their community completly sold off to American Industries, which made Japantown residents not trust what redevelopers say.
Now it looks like it is happening again and Japantown might lose it's cultural identity. The community wants this deal to be stopped and they want to be the ones to decide should be done with the properties that are up for sale. San Francisco's Japantown is one of three J-towns left in the country, the others being L.A. and San Jose. Now there might not be a J-town in San Francisco anymore because residents believe that redevelopers, like 3D Investments, are going to come in and change everything. They might not even care what the community wants and it seems like they don't because they have not disclosed any plans of what they want to do with the properties once they purchase them. I guess it's going to be a surprise for the community when one day they are going to wake up and their community will not be "their" community anymore.
Atleast some city officials are trying to be more involved with this deal between 3D Investments and Kintetsu Enterprises. Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi has proposed a legislature to make Japantown a special-use-district. This legislature basically says that if anybody wants to buy a district, like Japantown, will have to go through the city first and present to them their ideas on what they plan on doing with the property. In other words, this legislature will help preserve Japantown communtiy and help keeps the Japanese tradition alive in San Francisco.
I feel that this is a good idea because the city is saving a community that is a shadow of what it once was. This six-square-block community is all that is left after WWII, and now after the potential buyers close in on deal, there might be nothing left. Japantown is slowly being eaten away and if nobody trys to stop it, there is only going to be two J-Towns left in the county.
Save Japantown Rally
A huge part of San Francisco's Japantown is up for sale and it already has a potential buyer. The buyer is an family-run company based out of Southern California called 3D Investments. After 40 years of ownership, Kintetsu Enterprises of America is finally calling it quits and selling its properties to an American Industry. A deal between these two industries can happen in the next two months.
The plan to sell the properties, which is two hotels and the only two malls in Japantown, does not go well with the Japantown community. In a story I did for my news bureau class, many of the residents of Japantown had some trust issues with the new buyers. Residents were told by the city of San Francisco that the potential buyers will keep the Japanese culture theme going around the community, but the residents aren't buying it. During my interviews with some residents, I was told that this same situation happend 60 years ago before the Japanese were interned at the concentration camps. Redevelopers told residents that when they get back, their community will be as good as new. But when WWII was over, the Japanese came home to find their community completly sold off to American Industries, which made Japantown residents not trust what redevelopers say.
Now it looks like it is happening again and Japantown might lose it's cultural identity. The community wants this deal to be stopped and they want to be the ones to decide should be done with the properties that are up for sale. San Francisco's Japantown is one of three J-towns left in the country, the others being L.A. and San Jose. Now there might not be a J-town in San Francisco anymore because residents believe that redevelopers, like 3D Investments, are going to come in and change everything. They might not even care what the community wants and it seems like they don't because they have not disclosed any plans of what they want to do with the properties once they purchase them. I guess it's going to be a surprise for the community when one day they are going to wake up and their community will not be "their" community anymore.
Atleast some city officials are trying to be more involved with this deal between 3D Investments and Kintetsu Enterprises. Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi has proposed a legislature to make Japantown a special-use-district. This legislature basically says that if anybody wants to buy a district, like Japantown, will have to go through the city first and present to them their ideas on what they plan on doing with the property. In other words, this legislature will help preserve Japantown communtiy and help keeps the Japanese tradition alive in San Francisco.
I feel that this is a good idea because the city is saving a community that is a shadow of what it once was. This six-square-block community is all that is left after WWII, and now after the potential buyers close in on deal, there might be nothing left. Japantown is slowly being eaten away and if nobody trys to stop it, there is only going to be two J-Towns left in the county.
Save Japantown Rally
# posted by Phil Deez @ 11:38 AM 