Boston moves up start of outdoor dining to March 22

High housing prices have pushed much of the Asian-American community out of Chinatown and into surrounding cities, particularly Quincy and Malden. They will drive in to patronize Chinatown businesses -- a 20 minute drive is far more convenient than the never-ending clusterf**k of MBTA weekend diversions on the Orange and Red Lines. If Chinatown is made car-free, it will push those people to patronize the Asian businesses that are springing up in Quincy and Malden. Businesses in Chinatown will be forced to leave for those places, taking the "China" out of Chinatown.

It's also important to note that Quincy and Malden are home to only the working and lower-middle class Asian-Americans. The upper-middle class ones live in the leafy suburbs of Newton, Wellesley, etc. For them, Quincy and Malden are arguably already easier to reach, and it'll be a no-brainer to switch to patronizing those businesses.

This is not just a hypothetical. If you were to examine the distribution of large-scale Asian supermarkets in the greater Boston area, you will find only three in Chinatown: Jia Ho, C-Mart, and Ming's. There is one in Malden (99), but an astounding five in Quincy (C-Mart, the other 99, New York Mart, Kam Man, and Good Fortune). What do these non-Boston locations all have in common? Free parking, and lots of it.

Now to the most important question: who will benefit? It's the highly-educated white gentrifiers moving into the new-build luxury units all around Chinatown, who will enjoy the "exotic" nature of the built environment, albeit one that is now complete with Starbucks, Whole Foods, and Amazon pickup lockers that will replace once-vibrant, minority-owned small businesses. Look no further than Downtown Washington DC for an example; there, the only Chinese are (a) the few seniors that live in low-income senior housing, and (b) the city-mandated Chinese-character gibberish on the signs of American businesses.