Editorial: We ask Mayor Lurie and Supervisor Sauter to get involved in running San Francisco Chinatown night markets for all businesses

San Francisco Chinatown is not only the treasure of the city for economy, history and culture, but also historical for the global Chinese community as it is the oldest Chinatown in the United States. While many Chinatowns across the nation have been shrinking in recent years, Wind Newspaper calls for newly-inaugurated Mayor Daniel Lurie and District 3 Supervisor Danny Sauter to continue supporting the Night Market model and to transform the project by bringing in a fair and open process for all vendors as well as revitalization to help San Francisco Chinatown survive and thrive.

It is not a secret that many Chinatowns in metro cities in the United States are disappearing due to a number of factors, gentrification, urban development plans, economic hardship, and anti-Asian racism since the pandemic in early 2020.

According to a news report published on May 15, 2204 on the website of Pulitzer Center, a nonprofit journalism organization to fund more than 170 reporting projects every year on critical global and local issues, Philadelphia’s Chinatown marked the latest in a nationwide shrinkage of Chinatowns due to gentrification and urban development.

"Manhattan’s Chinatown is at risk of vanishing beneath the shadow of New York’s latest construction project: the world’s tallest jail, situated directly within the storied neighborhood. Los Angeles’ Chinatown is facing years of construction, noise pollution, and land loss to a proposed aerial gondola system meant to connect the district with Dodger Stadium," the report wrote. The Chinatowns in Seattle and San Francisco are no exceptions in facing the challenges of shrinking, economic hardship, anti-Asian hate and violences.

With respect to the economic hardship, many merchants in San Francisco Chinatown have told Wind Newspaper that they had experienced the worst scenarios in their businesses in 2024, fewer and fewer shoppers coming to San Francisco Chinatown because of the empty stores in Union Square which is located next to Chinatown, rising rents imposed by landlords, homelessness along the streets, lack of financial supports by government agencies directly to the merchants, and very few effective promotions of tourism for Chinatown.

District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio, who brought the idea of Taiwan's night market to the Sunset District in September 2023, deserved credits for motivating night market projects in many neighborhoods all over the city of San Francisco.

As a San Francisco Chinatown-based English and Chinese bilingual weekly news publication launched during the pandemic in 2020, Wind Newspaper suggested Lily Lo, Co-founder of BeChinatown, to host its first Chinatown Night Market on September 29, 2023 to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival to support Chinatown small businesses.

Wind Newspaper assisted in planning the first and second San Francisco Chinatown Night Market events to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival in September 2023 and Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in November 2023 respectively, bringing in vendors and covering multiple news stories on the night market events as a volunteer and supporter.

Lo on behalf of the non-profit BeChinatown looked for funds to host both Chinatown Night Market events in 2023. Civic Joy Fund, which was co-founded by Lurie and Manny Yekutiel, was among the donors for both Night Market events.

The huge success of both events in 2023 encouraged Civic Joy Fund to continue its support by offering $100,000 as the largest donor to host monthly night markets in Chinatown in 2024.

The 2024 Chinatown night market events were also very popular in the earlier months, but attracted fewer and fewer visitors in later months in the year. A number of vendors dropped out at later months for being unprofitable. Some popular vendors were still able to bring in major revenues for them.

The Chinatown Night Market events were managed by Lo who was granted an additional permit in April 2024 by the city under Mayor London Breed's administration to extend the venue of the monthly Chinatown Night Market from three blocks along Grant Avenue to five blocks, from California Street to Pacific Avenue, although there were complaints from merchants.

According to Chinatown merchants, BeChinatown did not inform the merchants and residents in advance in both English and Chinese languages about its application for 2-extra-block street closures.

A number of factors contributed to the decline of Chinatown Night Market in later months in 2024. The night markets were not well-managed; almost the same 30 vendors were invited to participate out of the total of 160 food and drink storefronts in Chinatown; the vendor application process was not open to the public and related information was not available online; the $250 vendor's fee for each night market was unaffordable; products sold in the night markets were not diverse mostly boba drinks and pastry foods; the closure of 5-block-long Grant Avenue led to traffic jams which heavily impacted nearby streets, while only two or three vendors were commonly seen in one block of Grant Avenue since May 2024 added with 2-extra-block street closures.

The Chinese community was thankful for Mayor Lurie hosting a night market and live community festival to support Chinatown as part of his celebration on the Inauguration Day on January 8, 2025.

The entire event was funded by Lurie's team and partnered with BeChinatown to manage the night market event. On the 2-block Grant Avenue venue for the inauguration night market, there were 18 vendors invited to sell their food and drink products, according to the flyer delivered to merchants by BeChinatown.

During the night, an empty booth and lots of open space were seen along the 2-block venue. There were rooms available for more vendors to be benefited.

The vendors participating in the latest Inauguration Day Night Market were mostly the same vendors in the 2024 Chinatown Night Market events. Some merchants shared with us that they tried to participate prior to the event and were told by Lo that all booths were sold out.

Wind Newspaper believes in the night market model which is a way for the city to support local businesses. That was the reason why Wind Newspaper suggested Lo of BeChinatown in 2023 to host night market events in Chinatown.

According to the data from the San Francisco Office of Economic & Workforce Development (OEWD) as of December 31, 2023, a total of 939 commercial storefronts were operated in Chinatown, in which 148 were eating places including restaurants, cafes, dim sum places, and 16 were drinking/social places. The food and drink shops represented approximately 17.5% of Chinatown businesses.

San Francisco Chinatown could not recover from recession and economic hardship if there were only about the same 30 businesses out of 1000 shops to be benefited from night market events. Most of the non-food establishments in Chinatown had not benefited from night markets, in particular the storefronts located far from Grant Avenue.

Wind Newspaper calls for Mayor Lurie and Board of Supervisors to take further steps to manage the night market events in Chinatown and all neighborhoods in the city by providing funds and bringing in more professional entities to manage and organize the night market events citywide to make them sustainable, fair and open for all businesses.

Accountability and transparency are also crucial for night markets to succeed. It should not be controlled by an individual or a group. Chinatown needs more night market events only when the process is fair, open, inclusive and creative with new ideas and opportunities for all businesses.