preserving the boundaries of chinatown

This is a pretty interesting New York Times article on the rapidly changing boundaries of New York's Chinatown, and how it's affecting the residents: Where's Chinatown? That's a Touchy Subject. Recent rezoning and a dwindling Chinese population have some residents concerned about how to save one of the city's oldest and most distinctive immigrant neighborhoods.

The recently formed Chinatown Working Group will focus on matters like zoning, preservation, affordable housing and the tricky question of how to define the neighborhood's ever-shifting outline, a key issue if any new rezoning is proposed. Can it really be only a matter of time before Chinatown loses its identity? Not if these concerned citizens have anything to say about it.

UPDATE: Related to this issue, I'm told that the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund has filed a lawsuit challenging the East Village/Lower East Side rezoning study alleging that it fails to consider the disproportionate impact that the rezoning will have on low-income communities of color -- specifically Chinatown and other parts of the Lower East Side: NY Chinatown and Lower East Side Residents, Business Owners Challenge Discriminatory East Village/Lower East Side Rezoning Study.