New Chinatown Redevelopment?

[ricco67]

According to the article mentioned in today's Chron.com there is going to be considerable construction in the near future including a hospital! Do you think this will assure the survival of what's growing to be a heavily asian area?

[Jeebus]

The article was referring to this already heavily discussed development: Park 8

Do you think this will assure the survival of what's growing to be a heavily asian area?

I think the fate of the New Chinatown/New Saigon area has already been sealed with all the low-density development over the last ten years. There are too many Asian's in the Houston region for this area to fail. I expect to eventually see some decline in new development and a few grocery store closings, but as long as more Asians move into the struggling neighborhoods and boost their values (as they are now), then we'll continue to see this area prosper.

[TheNiche]

I think the fate of the New Chinatown/New Saigon area has already been sealed with all the low-density development over the last ten years. There are too many Asian's in the Houston region for this area to fail. I expect to eventually see some decline in new development and a few grocery store closings, but as long as more Asians move into the struggling neighborhoods and boost their values (as they are now), then we'll continue to see this area prosper.

Actually, if you look carefully, a lot of new retail centers are two-level--more along Bellaire Blvd. than just about anywhere else in our metro area. Bellaire Blvd. doesn't have nearly any population density right up against it in that stretch, but the density of retail shops is ever-increasing.

Also, each of those grocery stores targets a different Asian ethnicity and draws from people of those ethnicities from throughout the whole region, not just the neighborhood. So the rules of American-style retailing don't apply in their entirety.

The only threat to the New Chinatown/New Saigon area as far as I'm concerned is that there gets to be enough of an Asian population throughout the metro area that newer smaller clusters start popping up in places like Spring, Clear Lake, or out northwest.