Viewing page 9 of 27

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

Transcription: [00:33:15]
[woman} ....accomplishments, but I don't remember if there was any kind of news coverage or, you know, I mean, back in those days there was no, you know, social media, you can't share anything, and so there's very little record of people's reactions, but it was up there for many, many years. Twenty years I'm thinking. So it was up, what, 1977. So, ten years... Maybe not quite twenty years. I really, you know, don't remember when it was taken down, but when was that big order for construction in Chinatown?

[man] It was actually....

[woman] when they built that bridge? That gate? Yeah...

[man] So that was built, it was finished in 1956.

[woman] Nineteen what?

[man] '86

[woman} oh

[man] Yes, I think this was actually down by that time.

[woman] So this is not long then.

[man] No, I think, I remember someone saying that it was up for a few years...

[woman] It was '86, and then '77, so I think by the time February '77, by the time they did this it would've been up

[man] I think it was up in '76, by the bi-centennial...

[woman} That's right

[man} I think by '86 it was down, just by having seen photographs of that corner. So it was already down by '86.

[woman] So to me that was a long time, but then, you know, it's like Chinatown was just like a block, and people move out to the suburbs no one goes back to Chinatown anymore because, you know, we have Chinese restaurants are in the suburbs and it's just more convenient to go there than, whereas we always felt that, I mean after a while, with Tony Chan's on the corner that we felt was more catering to tourists, and, to be honest, when I saw those little signs with Chinese characters on it, I'm like 'You know, this doesn't feel like Chinatown at all. There's no.... It's like, everyone's gone, basically.' I don't know what they're doing with what [look?] Are they thinking of, like, tearing that down?

[man] There was some rumors.....

[woman] yeah

[man] ....that it was going to be sold, but...

[woman] prime real estate, yeah, that's the thing. So, I mean, forty years ago you couldn't give away real estate over there

[man] .....yeah, which is basically how they got that land, the CCBA

[woman] It's like, you've come a long way, you know. In....