April 15, 2000
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Immigrants bring city fortune of the dragon
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RON
BULL/TORONTO STAR
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AUSPICIOUS GATEWAY:
Dragon sculptures decorate Spadina
Ave. at Dundas St. This is the year of the dragon in Chinese
astrology, a sign linked to high achievement.
| Chinatown continues to thrive despite suburban exodus
By Nicholas Keung Toronto Star Staff Reporter
Chinatown is set to expand in
Toronto's core, carrying its Far East flavours all the way to the
waterfront and stamping its character more firmly on the city.
Sapped by an exodus of businesses and residents
heading to the suburbs in the early '90s, Canada's biggest Chinatown
- in the Spadina Ave.-Dundas St. W. area - is gaining fresh momentum
from new immigrants and new development, say community members and
observers.
``People feel that they belong to the old Chinatown,'' says
Fidelia Lam, who has lived in the area for nine years. ``The rundown
buildings, old Chinese signages and sidewalk shopping remind them of
their home (in Asia).
``Many of us are still drawn to the Spadina Ave.-Dundas St. W.
strips, because this is the heart and soul of the Chinese
community.''
Despite years of speculation that the downtown Chinatown would be
phased out by the booming new suburban counterparts, the area is
prospering, says York University geographer Lucia Lo.
``As long as there are people coming in, downtown Chinatown is to
stay on,'' says Lo, who along with Ryerson University professor
Shuguang Wang, has studied the settlement patterns of the Chinese
community.
In their study published last year, Lo and Wang concluded that
new immigrants from China are filling in the vacuum left by people
headed to the suburbs and that ``the old ethnic enclaves in the core
are still thriving.''
The real estate market has certainly noticed the rebirth: Two
pieces of commercial real estate, both low-rise buildings, closed at
$2.94 million and $2.38 million, sales that real estate broker
Hung-Kwan Sit calls ``remarkable'' because the market has been
sluggish in recent years. At least two new condominium projects have
sprouted up in the area in the past two years.
``The Spadina corridor is the gateway to the city core. A
revitalized Chinatown means a healthy downtown Toronto,'' says Sit,
61, who has worked in the area for 30 years. He says it is much more
difficult to find vacancies now and predicts the area will only
grow.
According to Statistics Canada, ethnic Chinese make up 3 per cent
of the Canadian population and are the country's fastest growing
ethnic group in recent years, due mainly to accelerated immigration.
They are the largest minority group in Greater Toronto - making
up 380,000 or 5 per cent of the region's over-all population.
Chinese is the third most common language spoken in Canada, just
after English and French.
The growing population has helped Chinatown flourish, moving from
a handful of tiny Chinese grocery stores and chop-suey restaurants
on Elizabeth St. about 50 years ago, spilling into the
Spadina-Dundas area and, in the past 10 years, into the 905 areas.
`The Spadina corridor is
the gateway to the city core. A revitalized Chinatown means a
healthy downtown Toronto.' |
- Hung-Kwan Sit Real estate
broker
| There are six
established Chinatowns in Greater Toronto - the downtown
Chinatown;East Chinatown at Gerrard St.-Broadview Ave.; Agincourt in
Scarborough; Highway 10 and Dundas St. in Mississauga, and along
Highway 7 and 16th St. in Markham and Richmond Hill.
Two others are emerging at Willowdale in North York and
Burnhamthorpe Rd.-Central Parkway in Mississauga.
The two Chinatowns in central Toronto were hard hit during the
recession of the early '90s, losing out to new subdivisions that
lured many businesses and residents to the suburbs with lower
property taxes.
Coupled with agonizing traffic gridlock and parking problems,
downtown growth was stagnant. For-sale signs were up at retail
stores, Sit says, and many landowners scrambled to reduce rents to
keep their occupants.
Between 1991 and 1996, the former city of Toronto's Chinese
population increased by only 20 per cent and its role as an
immigrant reception corridor was superseded by its suburban
counterparts where the community there exploded in enormous rates -
Scarborough (47 per cent), Markham (109 per cent), Richmond Hill
(165 per cent) and Mississauga (86 per cent).
The draw of the suburbs was stronger for another reason as well.
The first Chinese migrants more than a century ago were poor
rural peasants. They used downtown Chinatown as a settlement centre
where they could make their transition into Canadian society.
``New immigrants are often intimidated by the change of
environment and prefer to stick to something they are familiar with.
It gives them a sense of security,'' says Benson Wong, who settled
in Toronto from Guangzhou, China, in 1950.
But the first substantial wave of postwar arrivals were the
middle-class from Hong Kong who left in fear of Communist China
during the Cultural Revolution, which started in 1966 and lasted for
a decade.
That was followed by the second influx of Hong Kong immigrants in
the '80s and early '90s before the island's handover to China in
1997. At that time, Hong Kong was the primary source of Chinese
immigrants to Canada.
Instead of settling in Chinatown, most Hong Kong immigrants chose
the suburbs, where they found new, spacious houses at much lower
prices than downtown, says Tonny Louie, vice-chair of the 400-member
Toronto Chinatown Community Development Association.
``Toronto Chinatown was very vibrant until these immigrants
settled down and moved on to other parts of the city,'' says Louie,
45, whose family arrived in 1965 and has run all kinds of
businesses, from noodle manufacturing to taverns and real estate,
along Spadina Ave.
But recent immigrant demographic changes have breathed new life
into the downtown area. In February, 1999, 66 per cent of Chinese
immigrants were from mainland China, up from only 1 in 4 in 1995.
And with those changes came renewed growth in downtown Chinatown,
Lo's study found.
The most concentrated settlement of mainland-born Chinese is in
the Dundas-Spadina area, the study found, while most Vietnam-born
Chinese choose to settle in East Chinatown at Gerrard St. and
Broadview Ave. Those from Hong Kong and Taiwan mostly pick
Scarborough, North York, Markham and Richmond Hill as home, it
found.
The communities are diverse in terms of spoken languages - mainly
Mandarin and Cantonese - cultures and history, Lo says.
``They all live differently; some of them don't even talk to each
other.''
Tu Ji-Sheng, who moved into downtown Chinatown from the city's
east end two years ago, says the mega Chinese-theme malls are too
spread out in the suburbs and cater primarily to Cantonese-speaking
customers from Hong Kong or Southern China.
``They are very much westernized and don't really give you the
flavour of the Chinese culture,'' the 50-year-old man from Hubei,
China, says in Mandarin. ``Everything is so concentrated in downtown
Chinatown and you can shop, eat and go to work all within walking
distance.''
Lo's study found distinct differences in socio-economic
characteristics between Chinese downtown and in the suburbs.
The Chinese in the core were relatively less educated and skilled
and made less money.
Without the financial resources, education and skills of their
Hong Kong counterparts, migrants from China are willing to take
low-paying manual work and live nearby to save on transportation.
But ``these people are motivated to work hard and succeed,''
notes William Wen, owner of the 43-year-old Sai Woo Restaurant on
Dundas St. W.
``Tough times make people strong and that's what makes Chinatown
able to carry on over the years.''
Dong Zhao, his daughter, son and wife have all been working in
Chinatown's restaurants and grocery stores since they came as
refugees from Shanghai in 1995.
``We are trying to save enough money to run a little business of
our own soon. We don't know much of English or Cantonese, and
downtown Chinatown will be a good location for us,'' says Zhao, 60.
Earlier this year, the City of Toronto approved a rezoning bylaw
to convert the industrial area on Spadina south of Dundas into a mix
of commercial and residential uses, allowing development heights to
a maximum five times the area of the building lot - up from 2.5
before.
That will open the door for more high-density residential
development along the Spadina corridor, says Sit.
Councillor Olivia Chow (Downtown) predicts continuing growth in
the area. ``I am confident that Chinatown will remain as prosperous
as it has ever been.''
Wong, who until 1995 ran a photo developing store on Dundas St.
W., agrees.
``To me, there is only one Chinatown across the entire Greater
Toronto. It's right here at Dundas St. and Spadina Ave.,'' he says.
``It's the crowd, the cyclists, the smell of the air and the
sidewalk shopping experience that make it the Chinatown.''
Council demands OPP probe of port deal |
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