Chinatown Calls for Preservation of Historic Row Houses

Community Fears Loss of Housing and History of Working Immigrant Families

Current and displaced Chinatown tenants, landlords and small business owners, Chinese Progressive Association, Chinatown Resident Association, City Councilor Ed Flynn and other public officials and organizing a rally for Chinatown’s row houses. We are calling for the preservation of historic row houses for working class families and end speculation of people’s homes.  Current and former Chinatown residents will speak about the meaning and importance of their neighborhood.  Displaced and former residents will hold a photo lineup of memories of their home.

Chinatown’s historic row houses have housed and continue to house generations of working class immigrants for over a hundred years.  For many new immigrants, it is their gateway to Boston where they can be part of a tight knit ethnic neighborhood.  Today there is less than one hundred of these 19th century Greek Revival and Federal Style brick rowhouses and they are being snapped up by speculative investors.  Following passage of short-term rental regulation in Boston, investors are implementing a new financial model of condoization.

Currently, the community is opposing the expansion and condoization plans for two of these row houses, 29 Oak Street and 9 Johnny Court.  Overseas investors bought 9 Johnny Court, emptied out tenants and plan to more than double the number of units in the building.  Residents fear it will continue to change the makeup of the community and affect the integrity of the adjacent buildings.

The community is also calling immediately for an Interim Planning Overlay District to protect Chinatown row houses against demolition, major expansion and rampant speculation.  Activists say that this is a matter of racial equity. Chinatown is the only neighborhood without guidelines or protection for row houses and do not share the same type of zoning subdistrict and dimensional restrictions that Bay Village and South End row houses enjoy.