F I R S TP R E V745NEXTLAST

Empty Space, Chinatown
During the Mid-1800s immigration from China was spurred by not only gold fever but also by a series of disastrous floods in the Pearl River Delta of China. At its most crowded 70,000 people lived within Chinatown's 30 square blocks. Today at 20,000 residents, or 160 people per acre, it is still the second-densest neighborhood in the U.S. behind New York City's Chinatown. Half of Chinatown's current residents are elderly and three-quarters are foreign born, compared to 28% foreign born in the rest of the city. Since the 1970s new arrivals from China are less likely to settle in Chinatown, choosing other neighborhoods instead. One reason for this was the nullification of California's antimiscegenation law in 1948 and the striking down of racially-restrictive home selling covenants which allowed new immigrants to settle in many other parts of San Francisco.
[ MAP F-14 ]