via San Francisco Gate:Today, Zhihua Mo, 48, must get his bedridden father to a medical clinic, so h
via San Francisco Gate:Today, Zhihua Mo, 48, must get his bedridden father to a medical clinic, so he climbs the narrow staircase that leads to his father’s 8-by-10-foot apartment on Powell Street near Broadway in a Chinatown single-room occupancy building. Because there is no elevator, Mo puts his father on his back and slowly negotiates the staircase.Rev. Norman Fong, who helps run the Chinatown Community Development Center, a tenant advocacy group, helps the tenants fight for big and small victories – from individual mailboxes to enforced building codes.“People are living way below the poverty level,” building owner Amy Chung tells him. “Many seniors have to move in with their families, which makes it even more crowded.”Fong blames the cramped living conditions for many tenant problems. “Mental health issues and suicide are rising,” he said. “Our public library is the most utilized in the state because the students have no place to do homework (in the SROs).”San Francisco’s densely populated Chinatown is the largest such enclave outside of Asia. Population: 100,574, according to the 2000 census. That was about two-thirds of the overall Chinese American population in San Francisco.Size: About 1 mile long by 1.34 miles wide, centered by Grant Street.Age: About 160 years old, the oldest Chinatown in North America. The current configuration grew out of the total destruction in the 1906 earthquake and fire. -- source link
#chinatown#san francisco#california#asian american