Museum of Chinese in America

CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities is a nonprofit community outreach organization dedicated to empowering poor and working class Asian immigrants and refugees in New York City. In this interview, four high school-aged summer interns at CAAAV describe their contributions to a map project that documents the Chinatown landscape. Through excursions in Chinatown, interviews with local residents, and extensive research, these students analyzed the force of gentrifications in New York Lower East Side. Although urban development has made the Lower East Side more safe and attractive, the students express concern for Chinatown long-term and low-income residents who are increasingly priced out of the neighborhood. They go on to consider how the lack of affordable housing and rent-stabilization is threatening Chinatown residents and why it is important to preserve the local community.