The Chinatown business district is within the boundaries of the railroad tracks, Freeway 99, Fresno Street, and Ventura Street – 18 blocks. While once a thriving business district throughout that area, the businesses are now primarily located along F Street, E Street, and Kern Street. Many remaining businesses are restaurants featuring an eclectic mix not found elsewhere in Fresno, California.
Purpose and Goals
The Chinatown property and business owners have formed the Chinatown Fresno Foundation with the purpose of “fostering civic pride and enhancing the quality of life by generating additional sources of funds to support the improvement of the social, physical, and cultural environment of Historic Chinatown Fresno within the meaning of 501(c)(3).”
In conjunction with the Chinatown Fresno Partnership, the operating goals are:
- Develop a strong, unified voice: Unite property and business owners to reverse neglect from the City of Fresno, local organizations, and foundations that have been going on for years.
- Create a vibrant and inclusive live-work-play environment: Improve the business environment, expand housing opportunities, and create events and activities.
- Provide business development and marketing services: Create programs that improve business opportunities, draw customers, and position the district as a restaurant and retail destination.
- Friends of Chinatown: Collaborate with community organizations, City of Fresno departments, and interested people to expand services and create a safe environment in the district.
- Manage TCC and other major projects: TCC monies projected to come to Chinatown include a housing project and a Complete Streets project with a neighborhood input component. Other major projects include TCC PBID funding and efforts to protect the historic built environment.
History
When Fresno’s original settlers located along a new railroad line in the 1860s, many were Chinese, expert brickmakers who began building a city. Soon, however, they were relocated to the west side of the tracks. Racially segregated residential enclaves were common in California in the 19th century. Chinatown was established here around 1872. Most of the cultural and ethnic communities in Fresno, CA, got their start here.
West of the tracks became a lively, thriving, and inclusive area that offered goods, services, and entertainment day and night. Outcast immigrants from around the world lived in Chinatown. They were entrepreneurs who ran shops, hotels, theaters, restaurants, and service businesses. They were farmers of figs, grapes, cotton, and wheat. From the late 1800s to the mid-1950s, Chinatown was a vibrant live-work-play environment.
On the other side of the tracks, life was different. It was a place with a firm hierarchy of political and social power. A select group of white men controlled City Hall, business, and the police. The wives of these men controlled the home and church. But these men were familiar with the Chinatown tunnels, an underground maze built to avoid the searing heat and house brothels, opium dens, and gambling parlors. Junk Removal Fresno
With urban renewal in the 1960s, Chinatown lost both businesses and residents. Historic buildings were demolished. Buildings became vacant. Vagrants began to assemble. Other attempts for improvement have been haphazard and poorly funded. As a result, Chinatown has suffered decades of neglect.
And now there are high-speed rail (HSR) being built, and Transformative Climate Change (TCC) monies providing almost $30 million of investment in Chinatown in the next three years. While some think of HSR as yet another nail in the coffin of Chinatown, property and business owners see it as an opportunity to plan for an influx of people in the neighborhood – people of the region here to hop trains for the rest of the state, and people coming here by train.
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