NYC’s Chinatown recovery is ‘not going to be something that’s forgotten’

Yahoo Finance’s Brian Cheung, Julie Hyman, and Myles Udland speak with Welcome to Chinatown C-founder Vic Lee about how the organization is helping Asian-owned small businesses recover from COVID-19.

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JULIE HYMAN: Well, New York City's Chinatown was one of the areas worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic and a lot of efforts underway to help revitalize it. One of the groups that has been very active in trying to do so is called Welcome to Chinatown. And we are joined now by Vic Lee, who is the co-founder of that organization, along with our Brian Cheung. Among other things, Vic, your organization has given grants to various businesses in the area. You know, now that we are sort of trying to make our way out of the pandemic, talk to me about the challenges that still exist for Chinatown and for a lot of the small businesses there.

VIC LEE: Sure, thanks, Julie. There's a lot of recovery that still needs to be done in Manhattan's Chinatown. When we polled our small businesses, 85% of our survey respondents said that they saw a decline well before paused in New York City. So you can see how prolonged that impact is with the shuttering of businesses, shortened business hours because of the anti-Asian hate, and then all of the restrictions that are on top of these Chiantown small businesses. So there's a lot of focus that we need to think about the recovery efforts, as well as sustainability for the neighborhood, to ensure that this is not going to continue to happen again if there are other economic challenges that arise.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Hey Vic, it's Brian Cheung. Great to speak with you. So share with us a little bit more about some of the initiatives that Welcome to Chinatown is doing and how it kind of underscores those needs that you just laid out. So you have longevity fund, where you're trying to provide some of those small grants to those businesses, but based off of your conversations on what's happening on Doyers Street or on Canal Street, I mean, what beyond those grants are going to be needed from these entrepreneurs as we start to reopen the economy and try to hopefully get things back to normal?

VIC LEE: Yeah, we started the longevity fund as the first exclusive grant program for Manhattan's Chinatown because it was to address equitable access. When PPP loans were first released, 75% of Chinatown-- of Asian-owned restaurants were unlikely to qualify for a PPP loan based on the Center for Responsible Lending. So that's where we launched our grant program. And the situation, it's still not looking great in that 75% of our respondents said they still owed back rent. And the back rent was an average of $32,000.

So that's why we started the longevity fund, where our goal by the end of 2021 is to distribute a million dollars in grants back in Manhattan's Chinatown, where this can aid business recovery. We want to be able to give these businesses peace of mind, a clean slate, so that they can focus on sustainability. And then some of our other initiatives are still the focus of small businesses because where-- we believe they're vital to Chinatown. But we want to think about the broader impact to the community and its ecosystem and its residents.

BRIAN CHEUNG: Yeah, and you mentioned, though, that the picture still isn't great. And when you do walk down Chinatown, you could see that some businesses are permanently shuttered. They've got the grates up. And even some of the businesses that are still operating, apparently, they're unable to open later than, say, 6:30. I was at one restaurant, Tai Wong, that they weren't even open past that point in time. So it does seem like there's still a lot of struggle there. Do you think Chinatown looks different in this post-pandemic period because of some of the scarring, if you want to call it that, businesses having closed down? And how do you think that's going to affect the future of Chinatown, let's say, in the next few years?

VIC LEE: There's definitely-- in fact, we were trying to help a couple of small businesses participate in a photoshoot for Fashion Week. And one memory stood out to me. This was maybe just about two months ago, where we asked the jewelry store owner, are you-- would you like to participate in this? And even though there's a sizable amount of money, they've said, is it going to be past 6:30 PM? Because I have to be concerned about my workers, particularly because they're closing up a jewelry shop. And if it's beyond that, she said, I can't participate. So it really tells you about the emotional turmoil right now that is going on for business owners, where you have the prolonged impact of the pandemic and xenophobia, where you saw the impact hitting Chinatown a lot earlier than other neighborhoods, on top of what's been going on with the anti-Asian hate.

So, Chinatown, I am starting to see it come back to life, which is amazing. There's a ton of people out now with the outdoor dining set up. And you're starting to feel a little bit more of that vibrancy. But what's sitting in the back of our mind as an organization is, we don't want to see this repeat. Our goal is if we don't have to exist in a few years because there is equitable access, there is language access, there is technology access for these small business owners, that's what we hope to see.

JULIE HYMAN: Vic, following up on that point, I'm curious what kind of support your organization is getting. I know that we've seen a lot of reports of community solidarity around fighting back against Asian hate, right? And I wonder what you're seeing from outside of the Chinatown community and also support from the city itself.

VIC LEE: The work that we're doing, it has been really endearing to see the support that we are getting. When we started our organization, there was this outpouring of, what can I do for Chinatown? And as an organization, we're able to give some tangible support behind that, whether it's being transparent about where your money is going, or it's creating this network for people to get involved. We scaled up to an organization of 70 plus AAPI-- well, mostly AAPI volunteers-- that are millennial and Gen Z. So we're really bridging this cultural and generational gap.

That being said, I think what's really important is to recognize that this outpouring of support, it should be beyond May, which is AAPI Heritage Month, and that this is not going to be something that's forgotten, like a one and done. The partnership with the city was a little challenging at first because our organization did some advocacy work, where 50% of Manhattan's Chinatown was left out of a $37 million recovery program because of its zip code in that it was shared with higher income SoHo. So that was incredibly problematic. We've addressed this with the city. And now we're part of an Asian Community Task Force. And hopefully, that leads to systemic change.

BRIAN CHEUNG: And then lastly, I just want to ask about how you think the reception has been in Chinatown to maybe some of the changes. I mean, you go down Doyers Street, you can see that restaurants now have these kind of outdoor dining set up. So a lot of these multigenerational owners were kind of grappling with whether or not they wanted to spend the time and resources to do that kind of thing. In your conversations with them, do you think that even just the landscape and how people are approaching entrepreneurship in Chinatown is changing within some of these families that have owned these businesses for over 100 years in some cases?

VIC LEE: It's changing, but it wasn't easy. Well, we actually started Welcome to Chinatown as an e-gift card platform. We were trying to go door to door, onboard these businesses into some type of gift card platform so that during pause, people were able to give cash revenue. And it didn't work out because business owners, it's not just the technology, it's trust. We're talking about things like financials, and who are you? Even though you live in this neighborhood, I don't know who you are and why you want to help us.

So we have really been now thinking about how we operate in our operating principles. We're partners, we're not saviors. And we listen before we deliver. So we operate with empathy. And that's been really key for these multigenerational businesses that we don't want to change who they are because that's why they've been so successful. But let's give additional tools to help you to succeed.

And an example of this, KK Discount, a family-owned general store that has everything you need, and we talked with the father, who said, he's been seeing a lot of younger business owners. They-- I'm sorry-- a lot of younger patrons. They don't have a social media, but our organization, we kept spotlighting them. And he really attributes to these new generation of patrons to the work that we're doing.