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12.22.2008

save riverside's chinatown

Some news out of Riverside, California... Community activists filed a lawsuit last month seeking to overturn city approval of construction of an office building over the city's second Chinatown on environmental grounds: Lawsuit targets Riverside council's OK of building over old Chinatown.

The proposed development site has been vacant for more than twenty years, but artifacts and the remnants of structures from Chinatown would be buried there. The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as a city and county landmark, and as a state point of historical interest.

The lawsuit was filed by the recently formed Save Our Chinatown committee, which says the City Council improperly granted variances for the project and failed to evaluate an alternative location for the building that would minimize the project's environmental impacts. To learn more about the committee's efforts, and find out how you can help, go here.