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CHAPTER 2 Enter the Dragon: Economic Change Before the influx of Chinese immigrants, Monterey Park was a quiet, comfortable, and spacious bedroom community of treelined streets and modest single-family homes with expansive yards. It was seen as a safe and ideal integrated community in which to raise a family. The early 1970s, however, brought dramatic changes as the relative wealth of the new immigrant Chinese became apparent. Many of the newcomers purchased houses in the best neighborhoods. A few years later, the development of multiple-unit condominiums offered a popular housing option for many of the less wealthy Chinese as they began to spread throughout the community and were no longer concentrated injust a few affluent hillside areas. The city's original commercial district too had an old-town, Norman Rockwell flavor that was appealing to residents but economically inadequate for a changing and mobile suburban region. By the late 1970s, with political unrest in Asia, overseas Chinese investment interest in the community grew, and property values skyrocketed at an uncontrollable rate. During this time, with Chinese-owned and -operated businesses springing up rapidly in town, there was hope that Chinese investors would save the city's ailing economy. But though some individuals became rich, the community as a whole suffered greatly from runaway land speculation and never fully received the benefits of the increased development. This chapter examines the residential and commercial development in Monterey Park from the end of World War II to the mid1980s and the animosity-much of it with strong ethnic and class connotations-brought on by rapid change. Residential Development Before the stock market crash of 1929, Monterey Park was sparsely populated, and homes stood on one-acre or even larger lots. Residents were concentrated in the flatlands located in the northern and southern portions of the city. The surrounding hills, too steep for farms and 35 36 C HAP T E R 2 used primarily to graze cattle and sheep, were regarded as natural barriers to further development. The end of World War II saw a revived growth trend, however, and as explosive population gains began to take place, many new housing tracts reached into the previously undeveloped hills. Home Ownership During the 1950s, according to the Monterey Park Building Department , 6,136 housing units were built in the city. Of those units, 4,695 (76.5 percent) were single-family homes. This trend continued, though at a slower pace, throughout the 1960s: of the 2,303 housing units constructed during this decade, 1,552 (67.4 percent) were single-family homes (see Table 7). Since 1970, the highest percentage of home ownership has been among Asians; according to the 1970 census, 74 percent owned their homes. This figure dropped to about 66 percent in 1980, but Asians still had a higher rate of home ownership than any other group in town (see Table 8). Throughout the period of the Chinese influx, the median value of owner-occupied homes showed a dramatic increase: from 1970 to 1980 it soared from $26,600 to $96,400 and by 1990 to $238,800.1 In 1970 the median family income in Monterey Park was $12,381, an increase of 61.8 percent from 1960, whereas the figure for Los Angeles County was $10,970, a 55.7 percent increase over the same period. A 1973 report, Monterey Park, California, Population and Housing Profile, lists figures by group-"Negro," $11,332; "Spanish American," $11,270-but does not include Asians.2 By 1980 the city's median family income had risen to $22,568, as compared with the Los Angeles County figure of $17,563. The group breakdown shows wider disparities : for whites (non-Hispanic), $28,242; for blacks, $16,364; for Hispanics, $21,595; for Asians, $30,119.3 From the 1960s on, Monterey Park was generally considered a well-integrated community. But looking at 1970 census data, Charles Choy Wong discovered that 70 percent of all Asians (mostly Japanese Americans at that time) were then clustered in just three of the city'S ten census tracts and represented 30 percent of the population in these tracts, located in the city's newer and more affluent hillside housing developments on the western and eastern ends of town.4 By 1980 the increasing Asian population accounted for slightly over 50 percent of the residents in the three census tracts, but Asians living there accounted for just under 50 percent of the total Asian population in...

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