In a concerted effort to rejuvenate Chinatown, which for years has suffered from poor retail sales, stagnant property values and image problems, a group of business and property owners Thursday launched a campaign to revitalize the historic district.
Members of the Los Angeles Chinatown Business Council, a nonprofit group affiliated with the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, said they hope to create a business improvement district in which property owners would agree to a special assessment to make Chinatown safer, cleaner and more attractive to residents and visitors.
The group is circulating bilingual petitions to Chinatown's 200 commercial property owners to approve the proposal, which would require a special assessment to generate about $1.2 million a year to pay for sidewalk sweeping, private security patrol, tree and shrubbery planting, and other measures to beautify and to promote Chinatown as a tourist destination.
If the petitions show support for the proposal, the city will mail out what are known as ballots to all affected property owners, who will have 60 days to respond. The proposal needs a majority of property owners for approval.
"If we don't do something now, Chinatown will become dead town," said Patrick Lee, president of the council and a longtime Chinatown property owner and businessman.
However, the proposal is not sitting well with some family associations in Chinatown because they don't want to pay more taxes. The family associations own property in Chinatown that they use primarily for noncommercial purposes.
Deborah Ching, executive director of the Chinatown Service Center, said, the Chinatown Business Council has a "real sales job" to do to win over the family associations and others who are pessimistic about revitalizing Chinatown.
Public safety, street sweeping and marketing and promotion of Chinatown were high on the list of priorities for Chinatown property owners responding to a survey conducted in the last month by the council and New City America, the San Diego-based consulting firm handling the group's proposal.
With more than half of the property owners answering, 88% of the respondents said they believed that Chinatown has an image problem and 58% said that they support funding safety services for Chinatown. More than 70% of the respondents said they wanted to see street light pole banners and trees and shrubberies along the sidewalks. The survey also found that 84% of the respondents have owned their properties in Chinatown for more than 10 years, most more than 50 years.
