City of Salinas looking for public input on Chinatown

The City of Salinas is working with homeless advocates, business owners and now even reaching out to the public with a survey as they move forward with plans to change the climate in the area.

“Chinatown was cut off from the rest of the city when the rail came in. The tracks separated the entire neighborhood from the rest of downtown. Today, most people bypass Chinatown completely,” said City of Salinas Planning Manager Anastacia Wyatt. It’s estimated that around 80 people are sleeping on the streets of Chinatown right now. “Everybody you see here are good people. They’re in survival mode. This is a very very hard life. It’s painful. It ruins your bod, it ruins your mind,” said Dorothy’s Place Executive Director Jill Allen. After 30 years in the area one business packed up and moved to Sand City. “We had a good business and we had a good reputation, but it got to the point where no one wanted to come to Chinatown any more, and I don’t blame them. Even the truck driver that came to deliver product to us and said this is worst than Oakland. There was a shooting on east lake street and our sons were there in the building and the whole street as shut down and it was frightening. This wasn’t the only time it happened. Then it started occurring more regularly. One of our sons left the business and left the state. He said I don’t want to live in Salinas anymore,” said former Chinatown business owner. The City has put out a survey to hear from the community about the changes they would like to see in Chinatown. “I think people want to see Chinatown improve, conditions improved. We’re actually the only Chinatown between San Franacisco and LA so this is a big opportunity if we could make it a cool Chinatown,” said Wyatt. Right now, there are several construction projects already in the works. “This neighborhood is going to re-develop. This neighborhood is going to get fresh businesses. The sidewalks will get fixed. It will look like a very nice neighborhood. Our job is to get the people that are camping here into their own permanent housing instead of just displacing them somewhere else,” said Allen.

The Salinas Chinatown Community Survey is open to the public until August 31st.