Chinatown Is Being Taken Over By White, Wealthy Gentrifiers, City Report Says

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — Chinatown is being gentrified by white, wealthy and college educated residents.

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A report from city comptroller Scott Stringer lists the neighborhood and the rest of the Lower East Side as the only lower Manhattan neighborhood considered to be "gentrifying."

It looked at the spurt of business growth outside of Manhattan's central commercial core, focusing particularly on lower-income neighborhoods.

Chinatown and the Lower East Side saw about 8,561 new businesses between 2000 and 2015, an increase of 25 percent, according to Stringer's analysis.

Here's what else changed in Chinatown and the Lower East Side between 2000 and 2015:

• The number of residents with an annual income of $75,000 or more doubled; 12,396 individuals were making that much money in 2000, compared to 24,797 with that paycheck in 2015.
• There are fewer lower-income residents in the neighborhood today than there were in 2000. The number of residents earning between $25,000 and $50,000 decreased by about 24 percent.
• The black, Asian and Latino populations of the neighborhood all dropped, while the white population increased by about 19 percent.

The overall population of Chinatown and the Lower East Side dipped slightly during the period examined by Stringer's office.

Stringer's broader report, which looks at the distribution of jobs and new businesses throughout the city, terms the spurt of development and accompanying jobs as "good news," but notes that the benefits are unevenly distributed.

The newer residents of low-income neighborhoods — that is, the gentrifiers — reap more of the benefits than the long-term residents of the neighborhoods, Stringer's analysis noted. The comptroller's report included policy recommendations that it said could help long-term residents stay in their communities.

Image via Chris Hondros/Getty Images News/Getty Images.