New York (March 20, 2008) Mike D from the Beastie Boys sported a red t-shirt with a green dragon licking an ice cream cone to the 2006 VH1 Hip Hop Honors. A regular customer of the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory here, he posed for a Wired magazine cover photo in the shop’s yellow dragon tee.
Jan who has been a long time customer and fan of CICF is also a well known community activist. He has always kept me in the loop of what is going on. So the latest news now is that there are plans demolish Chatham Square and complete redirect traffic flow on almost all the streets coming into the square. Why is this a big deal? Because the city wants to push through plans without getting consent of the people in the neighborhood. Many Chinatown organizations feel that the public hearings on the plans are being held so close to the release of the information and during the Thanksgiving and Christmas vacation times for many people, that there is not possibly enough time to review the data. In Jan’s words, “The way the information is being released is almost to keep people out of the loop of what is going on.” Construction in Chinatown is usually always terrible unless it is very well planned out. For the businesses as well as for the residents. As is, Chinatown has an overwhelming population with narrow streets. Many of our busiest streets are one lane. Several businesses in lower Manhattan, particularly around Ground Zero constructiuon sites have gone out of business because of prolonged street construction. Many waited for years for LMDC compensation which came too late, or was not enough to sustain them.
