Tense Times in Chinatown

Ok. Times are tense in Chinatown: a city councilperson brokered a deal with the city, whereby she agreed to a 29 story new jail tower (to replace and expand an existing jail, part of the city’s plan to close Rikers), in exchange for $50 million in community aid, $35 million of which is going to MOCA (Museum of Chinese in America), a struggling museum with a pre-pandemic attendance of 50,000 a year that saw 85% of its collection compromised in a 2020 fire. The chair of MOCA’s board, Johnathan Chu, has also recently terminated the lease of Jing Fong, a vast banqueting restaurant that fed 10,000 diners a week and employed over 100 unionized employees, before revenue plunged 80% during the pandemic. A collection of artists, architects, and unionized restaurant workers see clear connections between these events, and not taking them sitting down. They would like to stop the jail, re-open the restaurant, and redirect the aid away from MOCA and to small businesses. The laid off restaurant workers are leading a daily picket line in front of MOCA, complete with drums. Art Against Displacement and citygroup opened an exhibit on Monday celebrating the community’s ongoing organizing effort against racism and displacement. As artists, architects, and passerbys filled the sidewalk and the gallery, the air was abuzz with calls to sign petitions, analysis of competing opinion pieces, and artists weighing how far to push the very system upon which they depend for a living.