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Legacy business program implementation in American urban immigrant neighborhoods: a case study of Little Tokyo and Chinatown, Los Angeles

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Legacy business program implementation in American urban immigrant neighborhoods: a case study of Little Tokyo and Chinatown, Los Angeles

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Legacy Business Program Implementation in American Urban Immigrant Neighborhoods:
A Case Study of Little Tokyo and Chinatown, Los Angeles

By

Xiaoling Fang

A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF HERITAGE CONSERVATION /
MASTER OF URBAN PLANNING

MAY 2023

Copyright 2023 Xiaoling Fang
ii
Acknowledgements
When I visited Los Angeles Chinatown for the first time three years ago, I felt like I was
in a time machine because the neighborhood landscape looked exactly like the town that I grew
up in. The people, the environment sound, and the items displayed at stores, made me feel
connected with this place. As a Cantonese speaker, I naturally felt I was already a part of the
community. When I returned to Chinatown this spring to celebrate the Lunar New Year,
however, I was shocked to find that many buildings long the Broadway, the heart of Chinatown,
were replaced by construction fields. Development projects sprang up throughout the
neighborhood. Standing in the East Gate of Chinatown Central Plaza, facing the black fabric
fence across the street that implies a luxury complex will soon confront the Central Plaza, It is
the moment when I knew that I was going to stand with the Chinatown community.
Throughout the journey of learning and understanding the community, I gradually
realized that although we speak the same language and have similar taste on foods, Chinatown
community grew its roots in Downtown Los Angeles with wounds and tears fighting against
racial inequity. The issues she is facing, as well as her stories, is a part of American history and
should be examined under the American context. The future of the community would be
contingent on how we percept the past and how we carry it to next generation. During this
process, innovative heritage conservation strategies would be necessary to adapt to the complex
urban context in Los Angeles. My research, therefore, focuses on the intersection of heritage
conservation and urban issues.
No acknowledgement would be complete without thanks to my parents and my sister
first. I have not been home since the COVID-19 pandemic began three years ago and missed a
lot of important moments with my family. I thank them for always sending love and energy
across the Pacific Ocean.
I would like to thank my beloved grandma, Chunlan Miao, who left us during COVID. I
hoped I was there by your side. I always love you.
I am deeply indebted to Trudi Sandmeier, my professor and thesis committee chair, for
her guidance during this work and generous support when I encountered problems. I am likewise
grateful to Katie Horak and Dr. Meredith Drake Reitan for their endless patience and thorough
comments on my drafts.
Many thanks to my friend Enyu Li for her believing in me all the time.
iii
I would like to extend my sincere thanks to people who generously offered me assistance
and shared their thoughts and experience during the journey, including:
Lindsay Mulcahy from the Los Angeles Conservancy, for her introduction to Dorothy
Fue Wong and the Los Angeles Conservancy’s Legacy Business Program.
Dorothy Fue Wong for her willingness to introduce me to the community, to the
Chinatown Community for Equitable Development (CCED), and to her incredible views about
Chinatown’s future.
Eugene Moy from the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California for sharing his
childhood memories in Chinatown and important historical archives.
Peter Ng, the CEO of the Chinatown Service Center (CSC), for taking the time to share
his valuable insights about the community and directing me to important stakeholders.
Jon Lin, Community Economic Development Manager at CSC, for giving me a
comprehensive introduction about small businesses in Chinatown and the community dynamics.
Janis Yue and Sophat Phea, leaders of CCED’s Small Business Community, for helping
me contact legacy business owners and other CCED members and sharing important community
survey data. I cannot finish this thesis without your support!
Sabrina Chu, Elise Dang, and Kenia Sanchez Luviano, activists and volunteers at CCED,
for taking time to share their touching stories with Chinatown and their endeavor to help
community development.
Joyce, Isabel, Sasha, and Trinity, high school students growing up in the San Gabriel
Valley and dedicated to protecting legacy businesses in Chinatown, for sharing their family
stories.
Bill Watanabe, a respected community leader and the de facto mayor of Little Tokyo, for
taking time to share his moving stories about fighting for legacy businesses and affordable
housing for the community, giving me a food history tour at Little Tokyo, and introducing me to
the Little Tokyo Service Center. I was inspired by his spirit in promoting equitable development
for the community.
Michael Okamura, President of Little Tokyo Historical Society, for generously giving me
an introduction to Little Tokyo’s history.
iv
Rosalind Sagara, Neighborhood Outreach Manager of Los Angeles Conservancy, for
imparting her valuable knowledge and information about communities’ opinions and Los
Angeles’s legacy business program.
Desiree Aranda, former San Francisco Heritage employee, for sharing her experience and
insights about the iconic San Francisco Registry program.
Pauline, a long-time community activist in her 80s who has lived in Chinatown for 53
years, for spending a day with me wandering and dining in the Chinatown neighborhood.
Cindy Ho, a proud small business owner with Vietnamese-Chinese background, for
sharing her touching and inspiring family history from Vietnam to Los Angeles and her genuine
concerns about Chinatown’s future.
Michelle, a hard-working restaurant owner with Cantonese roots, for sharing her story
and fears about the future.
Ming, a restaurant owner who is proud of his business, for sharing his family and
business stories.
James, a giftshop owner who experienced multiple times of displacement, for talking
about how he escaped from Vietnam and how he pivoted his family business in Chinatown.
Ken Chan, one of the operators of Phoenix Bakery, for sharing his family history and
insights about the other legacy businesses in Chinatown.
Hing, a small business owner in Dynasty Center, for sharing his valuable business
insights.
And all residents and shoppers who I encountered in the Chinatown neighborhood for
kindly sharing their stories with me.

v
Table of Contents
List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ vi
List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ vii
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ viii
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1
Chapter 1 Legacy Business and Heritage Conservation ................................................................. 3
Cultural Significance and Heritage Conservation ....................................................................... 3
Legacy Business and Heritage Conservation .............................................................................. 8
Chapter 2 Analysis of Legacy Business Programs Based on Examples in San Francisco, CA,
Seattle WA, and Los Angeles, CA ................................................................................................ 15
Case study 1: San Francisco Legacy Business Registry ........................................................... 17
Case Study 2: Legacy Business Program in San Antonio, Texas ............................................. 23
Case Study 3: Los Angeles’s Legacy Business Registry .......................................................... 25
Conclusions ............................................................................................................................... 29
Chapter 3 Neighborhood-scale Case Studies Based on Little Tokyo and Chinatown in Los
Angeles, CA .................................................................................................................................. 32
Case Study 1: Little Tokyo ....................................................................................................... 33
Case Study 2: Los Angeles Chinatown ..................................................................................... 42
Conclusions ............................................................................................................................... 63
Chapter 4 Conclusions .................................................................................................................. 67
Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 72
Appendix A ................................................................................................................................... 78
Appendix B ................................................................................................................................... 80
Appendix C ................................................................................................................................... 85
Appendix D ................................................................................................................................... 89
vi
List of Figures
Figure 1.1: The Burra Charter Process.. ......................................................................................... 7
Figure 2.1: Maps and social media displayed in S.F. Registry website. ....................................... 22
Figure 2.2: Legacy Business logo.. ............................................................................................... 22
Figure 2.3: Legacy Business Plaque. ............................................................................................ 23
Figure 2.4: Maps and Business Categories of Legacy Businesses in San Antonio.. .................... 24
Figure 3.1: The First Street North block in Little Tokyo.. ............................................................ 35
Figure 3.2: Plaque issued by LTHS to recognize the site of first Japanese-owned business in Los
Angeles.. ....................................................................................................................................... 35
Figure 3.3: Ondo dancing in Little Tokyo during the Nisei Week Japanese Festival. ................. 35
Figure 3.4: Ondo dancing and Uchiwa fan in Little Tokyo during the Nisei Week Japanese
Festival.. ........................................................................................................................................ 37
Figure 3.5: A lion dance troupe moves through Old Chinatown on February 2, 1930 (Lunar New
Year).. ........................................................................................................................................... 43
Figure 3.6: Central Plaza in New Chinatown.. ............................................................................. 44
Figure 3.7: Postcard of Sun Mun Way (孫文路). ......................................................................... 45
Figure 3.8: Far East Plaza in New Chinatown.. ............................................................................ 47
Figure 3.9: Dynasty Center in Chinatown.. .................................................................................. 47
Figure 3.10: A gift shop operator and his shop in Dynasty Center. .............................................. 48
Figure 3.11: Chinatown Swap Meet before converted to an office building.. .............................. 49
Figure 3.12: Chinatown Swap Meet after converted to an office building. .................................. 50
Figure 3.13: An interactive feature on a developer’s website to showcase the before/after scene
of a project in Chinatown. ............................................................................................................. 50
Figure 3.14: The façade of Phoenix Bakery.. ............................................................................... 55
Figure 3.15: Cathay Bank in Chinatown.. ..................................................................................... 56
Figure 3.16: Dynasty Center. ........................................................................................................ 61

vii
List of Tables
Table 2.1: Summarization of characteristics of legacy business program in San Francisco, CA,
San Antonio, TX, and Los Angeles, CA. ..................................................................................... 29
Table 3.1: Part of existing legacy businesses in New Chinatown. .............................................. 52
Table 4.1: Legacy Business Conservation Process Based on Burra Charter Process ................... 70

viii
Abstract
Heritage conservation practice has a long history of focusing on the architectural aspects
of buildings or subjects and formal aesthetics. More recently, conservation practitioners have
expanded their focus to acknowledge the social context and the use of a place. Newly established
legacy business programs are one of the tools that conservationists developed to push the
boundaries of the heritage conservation field as many programs implement technical, marketing,
or financial assistance to legacy business owners or commercial landlords. The new conservation
tool, however, may fall short in identifying the cultural significance of the legacy business,
recognizing opportunities and threats faced by the business, aligning stakeholders and potential
partners in the community, and mitigating complex social issues in urban immigrant
neighborhoods.
This thesis focuses on the emerging legacy business programs in American cities and
attempts to identify the gap between existing measures of the programs and legacy businesses’
needs in urban ethnic enclaves by analyzing three representative legacy business programs: San
Francisco, California, San Antonio, Texas, and Los Angeles, California, and two neighborhood-
level case studies of Little Tokyo and Chinatown in Los Angeles, California. This thesis also
highlights both the limitations and innovations of commonly adopted policies by legacy business
programs. In Chapter three, by two case studies, the thesis demonstrates how ethnic legacy
businesses reflect and support cultural heritage conservation through analyzing histories of both
the community and businesses, goods and service provided by legacy businesses, relationships
between business operators, employees, and visitors, difficulties that legacy businesses are
facing, and bottom-up conservation practices in the community. While understanding that legacy
business programs alone cannot solve all the issues that are faced by legacy businesses, the thesis
proposes the Legacy Business Conservation Process to address the problems lying in existing
legacy business programs adopted by local governments. Finally, this thesis advocates for
collaborative efforts with community members to identify, document, and sustain community
and regional cultural heritage.

1
Introduction
Legacy business programs increasingly draw heritage preservationists’ attention as it was
used to counteract rising rents that might threaten long-standing, beloved community businesses
in more and more American cities.
1
Such programs often incorporate economic development
tools such as business performance consultation or education resources to equip legacy
businesses with business operational knowledge and skills.
2
One of the key components of this
type of program is massive, city-wide marketing promotions to raise public awareness about the
history and culture hidden in the corners that they encounter every day.
Almost all legacy business programs launched by American cities have similar
definitions about legacy businesses. A qualified legacy business that is able to get registered in
the city’s legacy business program must has a significant contribution to a particular
neighborhood/community’s history, culture, and/or identity. However, no clear definitions of this
core concept, a significant contribution to a particular neighborhood/community’s history,
culture, and/or identity, were provided. The first chapter of this thesis discusses the concept of
cultural heritage and how to identify it for legacy businesses. It also introduces the significance
of legacy businesses to immigrant ethnic neighborhoods as well as the complex dynamic these
neighborhoods are facing in American urban context.
Based on the construction of the core concept of cultural heritage and cultural
significance, in Chapter two, the thesis analyzes three Legacy Business Programs of San
Francisco, CA, San Antonio, TX, and Los Angeles, CA, from three perspectives: (1) the criteria
of a qualified Legacy Business; (2) the process of applying and approving the Legacy Business
registration; and (3) benefits offered by the program. San Francisco’s Legacy Business Registry,
as the earliest legacy business program in the United States, was widely drawn as an inspiration
by other cities in the country. It shaped the framework of city-wide official legacy business
program. It not only introduced the concept of legacy business to the country but also create a
variety of tools to support long-standing community businesses, such as financial incentives for
both commercial landlords and tenants to encourage long-term leases for the businesses. San

1
Elizabeth Morton, “Legacy Businesses: Emerging Directions,” APA California – Making Great Communities
Happen (American Planning Association, January 1, 2022), https://www.apacalifornia.org/events/legacy-businesses-
emerging-directions/.
2
Ibid.
2
Antonio’s program, on the other hand, is led by the city’s Office of Historic Preservation and
pays more attention to cultural heritage inventory and education. (Appendix A) It works closely
with citizens and emphasizes the social and use value of legacy businesses. As for Los Angeles’s
newly adopted Legacy Business Registry, it was innovatively configured as an economic
development tool to address the city’s social equity issues through its weighted selection system
that favors legacy businesses located in low-income neighborhoods or business owners from
low-income households. (Appendix B) Through the three case studies, this thesis evaluates
eligibility criteria, benefits, implementation, and effects of legacy business programs and
potential problems lies in them.
The thesis also examines and discusses neighborhood-level bottom-up legacy business
preservation practices in two iconic immigrant neighborhoods in Los Angeles - Little Tokyo and
Chinatown. After the brief introduction of the community’s history and common cultural
practices to maintain their ethnic identities, I identify the ongoing challenges faced by legacy
businesses and present actions and solutions taken by the communities. With a close observation
and analysis of legacy businesses at the neighborhood scale, the thesis identifies the gap between
current criteria and measures that are commonly adopted by official legacy business programs,
so that it yields recommendations to close the gap.
Methodology
The data for this thesis comes from documents and research focused on heritage
conservation, ethnic and immigrant community, urban planning, small business operation, and
community development. I spent ten months as a volunteer at Chinatown Community for
Equitable Development (CCED) in Chinatown, from March 2022 to present, collecting
ethnographic and case study data. Primary data collection includes thirty-four semi-structured
interviews with small business owners, residents, historians, community activists, community
organization staff, community leaders, former staff at San Francisco Heritage, staff at the Los
Angeles Conservancy, and ethnographic observation at community meetings as a volunteer and
at storefronts as a customer. Material used to conduct a content analysis on three official legacy
business programs includes city council documents, city council minutes, program websites,
media reports, books, and published research related to the programs.

3
Chapter 1 Legacy Business and Heritage Conservation
Cultural Significance and Heritage Conservation
The Concepts of Cultural Significance and Intangible Cultural Heritage
Taking care of places or objects of historical value, such as aesthetic, historic, scientific,
social, and spiritual values for past, present or future generations is a fundamental goal of
heritage conservation professionals. The completeness of the job will shape our understanding of
who we are and how we perceive the world. The epistemology and methodology to capture and
conserve these values, however, has long been a challenging topic in the industry, especially in
the United States.
Under the direction of the National Register Criteria, the standards and guidelines set by
the Secretary of the Interior, and common historic designation criteria adopted by state and local
governments, heritage conservation practice in the U.S. places a high value on preserving the
physical fabric of historic places.
3
The concept of cultural significance, recognizing both the
tangible and intangible heritage of a historic place, however, has not gained as much attention in
this field. Existing preservation tools with a material focus often fall short of recognizing the role
of intangible heritage in reflecting the historic values of a place.
The concept of cultural significance was first developed in the 1964 Venice Charter by
the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS). Article 1 of the Venice Charter
expands the concept of historic monument from “great works of art” to “more modest works of
the past that have acquired cultural significance with the passing of time.”
5
This internationally
used guideline, however, does not further discuss the concept nor conservation strategies to
safeguard the cultural significance of heritage. Instead, it emphasizes the maintenance of the
layout, materials, and decorations of a historic monument (Article 5, 6).
6
In 1999, the Burra
Charter adopted by Australia ICOMOS defined the concept and proposed a set of processes to

3
California State Parks, “National Register Criteria,” National Register of Historic Places (California Office of
Historic Preservation), accessed January 13, 2023, https://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=21237; National Parks
Service, “The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties,” Technical Preservation
Services (U.S. Department of the Interior), accessed January 13, 2023, https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1739/secretary-
standards-treatment-historic-properties.htm.
5
“The Venice Charter” The Venice Charter - International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), accessed
January 13, 2023, https://www.icomos.org/en/participer/179-articles-en-francais/ressources/charters-and-
standards/157-thevenice-charter.
6
Ibid.
4
manage a place of cultural significance.
7
Since then, the concept has been widely used by many
preservation entities as an effective and flexible framework to protect places of significant
physical and non-physical values.
8

Cultural significance means aesthetic, historic, scientific, social, or spiritual value
for past, present, or future generations. Cultural significance is embodied in the place
itself, its fabric, setting, use, associations, meanings, records, related places, and related
objects. Places may have a range of values for different individuals or groups.
12

The concept of cultural significance here points out that both physical and non-physical
aspects can carry and convey the historical values of a place. Non-physical aspects such as “use,
associations, and meanings” can reify historic values in tandem with tangible heritage “fabric,
setting, records, related places and objects.” This change implies an expansion of goals of
conservation activities from merely preserving physical fabric to managing “the intellectual and
emotional connections we make between memory and environment,” as Randall Mason puts it.
13

Moreover, the Burra Charter also acknowledges the diversity of values of a place for different
individuals or groups and the potential changes in values over time. Accordingly, the Burra
Charter Process (2017) that aims to manage cultural significance consists of three parts:
understanding cultural significance, developing policy, and managing in accordance with
policy.
14

Since the 1990s, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) and the World Heritage Center (WHC) have required a statement of cultural
significance for sites that apply for the recognition of the World Heritage List, further confirming
the importance and feasibility of the Burra Charter framework.
15
In 2003, UNESCO started to
use the terms of tangible and intangible in regards of heritage conservation in the Convention for

7
Australia ICOMOS, “The Burra Charter (2013)” Burra Charter (Australia ICOMOS, 2013),
https://australia.icomos.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Burra-Charter-2013-Adopted-31.10.2013.pdf.; Sílvio Mendes
Zancheti, Lúcia Tone Ferreira Hidaka, Cecilia Ribeiro and Barbara. “Judgement and Validation in the Burra Charter
process: Introducing Feedback in Assessing the Cultural Significance of Heritage” (2009).
8
Graham Brooks, “The Burra Charter: Australia's Methodology for Conserving Cultural Heritage,” Places 8, no. 1
(July 1, 1992), https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3391f9g5.
12
Australia ICOMOS, “The Burra Charter (2013),” Burra Charter (Australia ICOMOS, 2013),
https://australia.icomos.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Burra-Charter-2013-Adopted-31.10.2013.pdf.
13
Randall Mason, “Fixing Historic Preservation: A Constructive Critique of ‘Significance’,” Places 16, no. 1
(2004), http://escholarship.org/uc/item/74q0j4j2.
14
Australia ICOMOS, “The Burra Charter Flow Chart,” The Burra Charter Flow Chart (Australia ICOMOS),
accessed January 13, 2023, https://australia.icomos.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Burra-Charter-flow-chart.pdf.
15
Sílvio Mendes Zancheti, Lúcia Tone Ferreira Hidaka, Cecilia Ribeiro and Barbara. “Judgement and Validation in
the Burra Charter process: Introducing Feedback in Assessing the Cultural Significance of Heritage” (2009).
5
the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The Convention defines intangible cultural
heritage as:
The intangible cultural heritage means the practice, representations, expressions,
knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces
associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals
recognize as part of their cultural heritage.
This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is
constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their
interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and
continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity.
16

Based on the content of the Burra Charter and the definition of the Convention, the
Practice Note of the Burra Charter (2013) suggests that intangible cultural heritage has certain
defining characteristics as below:
• Intangible cultural heritage is an aspect of the associations that may exist between
people and a place, and that contributes to the cultural significance of the place.
• Intangible cultural heritage is a form of knowledge, skills or techniques that is
passed from person to person over time, and often across generations.
• Intangible cultural heritage may be known and important to a specific community or
group or to a wider community or the society as a whole.
• Intangible cultural heritage may be traditional or contemporary or both, and is part of
the life of its community or group.
• Intangible cultural heritage is often dynamic and may be characterised by continuity,
adaptation, and revival, along with changes in methods, materials used, and
technology.
• Intangible cultural heritage may be enriched through continuing cultural creativity,
responses to the environment and nature, and interaction with other groups.
• Intangible cultural heritage is often undertaken, performed or practised by people
with specific skills, knowledge or status within the community or group and who
may have the responsibility for passing on the knowledge.
17

These characteristics of intangible cultural heritage further describe what the diverse
reification of intangible cultural heritage could be - It could be the association between people
and place, a form of knowledge or skill that passes from generation to generation, or simply the
collective memories or emotions shared by the community. The broad and flexible description of

16
UNESCO, “Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage,” Text of the Convention for the
Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage), accessed January 13,
2023, https://ich.unesco.org/en/convention.
17
Australia ICOMOS, “Practice Note for Intangible Cultural Heritage and Place,” Intangible cultural heritage and
place (Australia ICOMOS, October 20, 2017), https://australia.icomos.org/wp-content/uploads/Practice-
Note_Intangible-Cultural-Heritage-Place.pdf.
6
intangible cultural heritage transcends the traditional notion that it is passed down from our
ancestors or of aesthetic or historic values acknowledged by the public or institutions. This
concept of intangible cultural heritage therefore allows conservation professionals and
community members to identify diverse heritage in a more flexible manner.
As the Practice Note mentions, the cultural significance in the Burra Charter
encompasses the intangible value proposed by UNESCO. The above discussion about intangible
cultural heritage is helpful to clarify related concepts and establish a framework to proceed with
the analysis of cultural heritage embedded in legacy businesses in this thesis.
Conserving Cultural Significance
To accommodate the shift of the concept of heritage, the Burra Charter suggests a three-
phase process to conserve cultural significance of a place: understanding significance,
developing policy, and management based on the policy (Figure 1.1). In addition to traditional
heritage analysis, such as physical, documentary, oral, and other evidence (Burra Charter, Article
26.1), and written statements of cultural significance and policy as the basis for management
plan (Burra Charter, Article 26.2), the Burra Charter also includes input from “groups and
individuals with associations with the place” in identifying and managing cultural significance
of the place (Burra Charter, Article 26.3). The inclusion of participation from interested
communities could greatly change conservation practices because it (1) enriches the
understanding of local context and culture; (2) incorporates personal/collective intellectual and
emotional connections into associations; and (3) offers public history/culture education
opportunity and thus enhances social cohesion.
7

Figure 1.1 The Burra Charter Process: Steps in Planning for and Managing a Place of Cultural Significance. Image courtesy of
Australia ICOMOS.
Some scholars criticized that the Burra Charter defines cultural significance as
“embodied in a place”, considering cultural significance as a quality attributed to a place and
8
ignores the nature of cultural significance - a social construct.
18
It is argued that
individuals/communities are subjective agents to determine the cultural significance of a place
and therefore a step of “validation among stakeholders” should be added in the phase of
“understanding significance” in the Burra Charter.
19

While the feedback loop might effectively enhance the understanding of local context and
to some extent empower related communities, the role of preservationists in the Burra Charter
Process framework is still positioned as central to conservation activities, rather than a facilitator
of the connection between people and the environment. Therefore, it may still fall short of
conserving certain heritage such as living legacy. On the other hand, the Burra Charter Process
framework does not highlight the potential role of heritage conservation in improving other
social issues, such as social equity, racial injustice, affordable housing, and environmental
sustainability. Synchronizing cultural significance conservation and other social issue solutions
can not only expand the feasibility of conservation practices, but also increase the benefits of
conservation for communities.
Legacy Business and Heritage Conservation
The term "legacy business" has been used informally over the years to describe beloved
iconic small businesses that contribute to the character of the local community.
20
Usually, legacy
businesses have been present in a community for long enough to create a sense of place for
nearby residents. It is widely regarded as a "third space" other than home and work for people to
meet, gather, and interact face-to-face, forming a sense of community, especially in ethnic
enclaves where community members can enjoy cultural comfort as well as practice their own
traditions and thus maintain their cultural identities. In addition to the contribution to the
community’s social fabric, legacy businesses also function as economic mainstay in the
neighborhood that provide employment, attract tourists, increase foot traffic, and generate taxes.
Led by San Francisco's preservation efforts, legacy business programs as an emerging
conservation tool to protect community cultural heritage have been growing rapidly across

18
Sílvio Mendes Zancheti, Lúcia Tone Ferreira Hidaka, Cecilia Ribeiro and Barbara. “Judgement and Validation in
the Burra Charter process: Introducing Feedback in Assessing the Cultural Significance of Heritage” (2009).
19
Ibid.
20
Ibid.
9
American cities since the 2010s.
21
Facing the demise of long-standing community businesses due
to gentrification or neighborhood decline, citizens and conservation entities in some cities started
to explore strategies and policies to retain these beloved community assets.
The rationale for incorporating legacy businesses as part of community heritage can be
traced in the definitions, measures, reports, or legislative codes of legacy business programs
adopted by major American cities. San Francisco Heritage, a non-profit heritage conservation
organization, described legacy businesses in the city as “mainstays of San Francisco’s cultural
landscape” and “our cultural heritage asset” in the report “Sustaining San Francisco’s Living
History: Strategies for Conserving Cultural Heritage Assets,” because these long-standing small
businesses “sustain a neighborhood’s cultural character” and “[tie] to broader historical, cultural,
or societal patterns.”
22
San Francisco’s Legacy Business Registry, an official legacy business
program launched by San Francisco County and City in 2015, requires that a Legacy Business
“...has contributed to the neighborhood's history and/or the identity of a particular neighborhood
or community. Community does include a business or industry community,” as codified in
Criterion 2 of eligibility for the program. In a questionnaire that applicants for the program were
required to submit, business owners were asked to elaborate the association between the business
and neighborhood history, significant events, or an important person.
23
Similarly, another leading
legacy business program implemented by San Antonio, Texas, also requires the business to
“represent San Antonio’s culture”.
24
In these two legacy business programs, the cultural heritage
of a business plays a central role in determining whether it could be regarded as a “legacy
business.”
“Legacy Business Study,” a report published by the Office of Economic Development
of the City of Seattle, Washington, defines legacy businesses based on four dimensions:

21
Elizabeth Morton, “Legacy Businesses: Emerging Directions,” APA California – Making Great Communities
Happen (American Planning Association, January 1, 2022), https://www.apacalifornia.org/events/legacy-businesses-
emerging-directions/.
22
UNESCO, “Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage,” Text of the Convention for the
Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage), accessed January 13,
2023, https://ich.unesco.org/en/convention.
23
City and County of San Fransico, “Sec. 2A.242. Legacy Business Registry,” City Charter (American Legal
Publishing Corporation), accessed January 13, 2023,
https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/san_francisco/latest/sf_admin/0-0-0-50671.
24
“Legacy Business Program,” The City of San Antonio - Official City Website (Office of Historic Preservation),
accessed January 13, 2023, https://www.sanantonio.gov/historic/LivingHeritage/LegacyBusiness.
10
community value, longevity, economic characteristics, and ownership characteristics. For the
dimension of community value, the report elaborate on it as follows:
…legacy businesses serve some community function that goes above and beyond the
simple sale of goods and services. Legacy businesses fulfill a community role through
one or more of the following:
• Providing a community gathering space
• Serving as a linchpin for a distinct cultural community
• Contributing to the community through volunteering, fundraising, or in-kind
donations
• Providing an opportunity for diverse people to come together
Strengthening social networks and community cohesion
25

From the description above, in Seattle, the societal value as a “third place” for
community gathering of legacy business was highlighted in addition to the cultural aspect.
26

Similar rationale of identifying and conserving legacy business can also be observed in many
legacy business programs across American cities.
27

In sum, citizens and conservation practitioners value legacy businesses because of its
cultural significance that gains from the business’ longevity, association with
community/neighborhood history/culture/characteristics, societal and use value as a community
gathering place as well as architectural style. Therefore, identifying these attributes should be the
focus of legacy business conservation efforts in both research and management phase. Case
studies of legacy business programs in San Francisco, CA, San Antonio, TX, and Los Angeles,
CA are discussed in the following chapter.
Legacy business in urban ethnic neighborhood
Ethnic neighborhoods are an important cultural landscape in many American cities as
they demonstrate immigrant history, unique ethnic culture, distinct urban tourist destinations, and
reflect a city’s cultural landscape. Due to the long history of systemic racial discrimination
practices in the United States, isolation, as well as shared cultural values allow communities in
historic ethnic neighborhoods in inner city areas to form tight-knit social relationships and

25
Office of Economic Development City of Seattle, “Legacy Business Study,” Legacy Business Study - Office of
Economic Development, September 2017, https://www.seattle.gov/office-of-economic-development/about-us/our-
work/legacy-business-study.
26
Setha M. Low and Irwin Altman, “Place Attachment,” Place Attachment, 1992, pp. 1-12,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-8753-4_1.
27
Elizabeth Morton, “Legacy Businesses: Emerging Directions,” APA California – Making Great Communities
Happen (American Planning Association, January 1, 2022), https://www.apacalifornia.org/events/legacy-businesses-
emerging-directions/.

11
economic connections. Gentrification and suburbanization force many historic ethnic
neighborhoods in urban areas to confront population loss and displacement. With distinct
cultural significance and urgent threats, the future of legacy businesses in urban ethnic
neighborhoods is worrisome. Chapter Three discusses two neighborhoods in Los Angeles,
California, Little Tokyo and Chinatown, to explore legacy business conservation in the context
of an urban ethnic neighborhood and gentrification.
Ethnic businesses that are owned, operated by co-ethnic community members, and serve
other co-ethnic members in an ethnic neighborhood make up an enclave economy.
28
Scholars
revealed that an enclave economy has cultural components that epitomize the relationships
between owners, workers, and patrons for their shared cultural backgrounds and ethnic identity.
29

Min Zhou points out that ethnic business owners prefer to partner with kin and co-ethnics as well
as hire co-ethnic workers because of the trust based on shared origin and cultural heritage.
30
In
terms of cultural components in the relationship between business and customers, an example
about Chinese restaurant might be helpful to explain. For diners of Chinese background, food
quality might be the most important factor when choosing restaurant to patronize, whereas
service quality might be the least important one. Chinese restaurants with bad service quality
may find themselves difficult to attract and retain patrons outside of Chinese American enclave,
but they could be in a very different position when situated in Chinatown where customers
shared common dining culture preference. Another important aspect of the cultural significance
embedded in an ethnic business is its goods and services that relate to ethnic traditions and
culture. For instance, the crafts and arts of culture-related items such as moon cakes might be
considered an intangible cultural heritage. In this sense, both the production and consumption of
culture-related products are culture practices. Besides, ethnic businesses can also be a place
where ethnic cultural knowledge can be organically passed down from individual to individual
and from generation to generation, and thus contribute to the conservation of community cultural
heritage.

28
Min Zhou, “Revisiting Ethnic Entrepreneurship: Convergencies, Controversies, and Conceptual Advancements,”
International Migration Review 38, no. 3 (2004): pp. 1040-1074, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-
7379.2004.tb00228.x.
29
Ibid.
30
Ibid.
12
In addition, for long-standing small businesses in urban ethnic enclave, the history of the
business and its owners reflects historical and societal patterns of the ethnic neighborhood and
the broader community. For instance, Fugetsu-Do, the oldest family-owned business operated
since 1903 in Little Tokyo, witnessed the history of the incarceration of Japanese Americans
during World War II and the 1992 riots in Los Angeles.
31
The shop was founded by Seiichi Kito
and his friends soon after they immigrated in the United States to serve other Japanese
immigrants in Los Angeles with traditional Japanese confections. The shop once closed in 1941
due to the President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 to force Japanese Americans to move to
war-era incarceration camps.
32
After World War II, the Kito family returned to Little Tokyo and
reopened the shop.
33
In 1980, Seiichi’s grandson took over the shop and has operated it since
then. Besides, the building that houses Fugetsu-Do in the Little Tokyo Historic District was
designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1995.
34
A business like Fugetsu-Do not only
reflects the history of the owner’s family, but also the history of Japanese American community
in Los Angeles and the United States, which is of cultural significance as historical value.
Moreover, its architecture and interior decoration present cultural characteristics of the ethnic
neighborhood that exist as an integral part of the community’s cultural landscape.
Apart from the cultural components integrated into ethnic businesses as discussed above,
long-standing ethnic businesses also offer a culturally comfortable place where co-ethnic
community members can interact with each other face-to-face and forge social networks using
their own language in a familiar cultural context. Such spaces are especially important for new
immigrants who need to develop their social capital with limited knowledge and skills to
accommodate the American society. In this sense, long-standing and popular small businesses
function as “third places” contributing to community cohesion as well as social mobility for new
immigrants. Furthermore, the racially discriminatory external environment may amplify the
enjoyment and place attachment that are felt by co-ethnic community members when they own,
work, or visit a long-standing ethnic business. The unique cultural characteristics of ethnic

31
“Fugetsu-Do,” Fugetsu-Do | Los Angeles Conservancy (Los Angeles Conservancy), accessed January 13, 2023,
https://www.laconservancy.org/locations/fugetsu-do.
32
Ibid.
33
Ibid.
34
Ibid.
13
businesses in tandem with strong emotional connections between co-ethnic members could
therefore ultimately contribute to community identity.
As studies of placemaking in immigrant neighborhood revealed, people re-establish their
cultural identity in places where businesses and traditional cultural ceremonies offers “common
frames of reference”.
35
Placemaking is a process for immigrants to exert their agency on their
new identity through dealing with conflict, difference, and social negotiation.
36
As such, long-
standing ethnic businesses are places where people negotiate and reproduce their cultural
identity. For the broader community, a cultural landscape that consists of ethnic businesses is a
kind of reification of a city/area’s diverse cultural characteristics as well as public history of
immigrant and racial discrimination.
In sum, cultural significance embodied in a long-standing small business, or a legacy
business, could be captured from the following dimensions:
• Relationships between owners/operators, workers, and customers/visitors;
• Arts and crafts, or cultural characteristics of goods or services provided by the business;
• History of the business;
• Architecture or interior design of the building that houses the business;
• Business’s involvement in the community as a third space where people gather and form
social relationships;
• Association between the place that business occupies and community’s collective
memories and identity construction.
In consequence, conservation efforts for legacy business need to pay closer attention to
the six dimensions discussed above when identifying and managing cultural significance. In
particular, conservationists should consider community knowledge or narratives as primary
cultural resources since available documentation may not tell a complete story.
In American urban context, ethnic enclaves often confront the influence of gentrification
as well because of its “exotic flavor” and relatively low property prices compared to their nearby
city center. Gentrification is a type of neighborhood change that forces current residents or

35
Melissa Butcher, “Ties That Bind: The Strategic Use of Transnational Relationships in Demarcating Identity and
Managing Difference,” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 35, no. 8 (December 2009): pp. 1353-1371,
https://doi.org/10.1080/13691830903123153.
36
Kelly Main and Gerardo Francisco Sandoval, “Placemaking in a Translocal Receiving Community: The
Relevance of Place to Identity and Agency,” Urban Studies 52, no. 1 (May 2014): pp. 71-86,
https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098014522720.
14
businesses to displace because of public or private investment.
37
Developments from outside
investors often cater high-income groups rather than current community members and thus lead
to the increase of rent and property prices.
38
Some literature reveals that gentrification impact
communities of color disproportionally as many of them reside in or near downtown area due to
the historic racially discriminatory land use policy. There are studies criticizing gentrification
will not only exacerbate poverty level of the neighborhood, but also negatively impact the
community in terms of psychological and cultural aspects, as residents are forced to experience
extreme uncertainty and loss.
39

Legacy businesses in urban ethnic neighborhoods may also face unique obstacles
including a language/cultural barrier, neighborhood security concerns, a dwindling customer
base because of gentrification, lack of access to loans or credit, eviction and displacement, and
culture commodification due to ethnic tourism. These challenges require conservationists to seek
a more comprehensive strategy when conserving ethnic legacy businesses in such
neighborhoods.

37
Tom Slater, “Missing Marcuse: On Gentrification and Displacement,” City 13, no. 2-3 (2009): pp. 292-311,
https://doi.org/10.1080/13604810902982250.
38
Ibid.
39
Laureen D. Hom, “Symbols of Gentrification? Narrating Displacement in Los Angeles Chinatown,” Urban Affairs
Review 58, no. 1 (November 2020): pp. 196-228, https://doi.org/10.1177/1078087420954917.
15
Chapter 2 Analysis of Legacy Business Programs Based on Examples in San Francisco,
CA, Seattle WA, and Los Angeles, CA
Following the discussion of the cultural significance embedded in legacy businesses, this
chapter analyzes the eligibility criteria, process, and benefits of official legacy business programs
in three major cities: San Francisco, CA, San Antonio, TX, and Los Angeles, CA. San
Francisco’s Legacy Business Program is the earliest and most well-known one in the country,
often considered an inspiration by legacy business programs in other cities. It appreciates the
social contributions derived from the cultural heritage of long-standing neighborhood anchors. In
terms of the San Antonio’s program, it is a part of a heritage preservation initiative and pays
more attention to cultural heritage inventory and education while offering business education
resources to qualified business owners. As for Los Angeles, although its newly approved legacy
business program has not yet fully rolled out, its attempt at utilizing legacy business program to
address the city’s racial inequity and income disparity is worth study.
In this chapter, the term “Legacy Business” with capital initials refers to a business that is
qualified and registered by the city’s official legacy business program, and the term “legacy
business” is used in a more general sense that refers to a long-standing small business with social
contributions but may or may not be qualified or registered on the official legacy business
program in its city.
Legacy Business Programs in American Cities
Since San Francisco initiated its first citywide legacy business program in 2015, legacy
businesses have gained a lot of attention in the heritage conservation field. Growing numbers of
American cities took inspiration from San Francisco's successful program and launched their
own to support long-standing small businesses that contribute to local culture and identity.
40
In
some ways, this trend reflects the increasing interest of conservation practitioners in exploring a
broader set of heritage beyond just buildings. As legacy businesses conservation practices are
still at their early stages, the definition of legacy businesses, as well as its conservation strategies,
vary greatly from city to city. The purpose of this section is to introduce the concept and roots of

40
Elizabeth Morton, “Legacy Businesses: Emerging Directions,” APA California – Making Great Communities
Happen (American Planning Association, January 1, 2022), https://www.apacalifornia.org/events/legacy-businesses-
emerging-directions/.
16
legacy business program in the American context; technical details of programs are discussed in
the following case studies.
There are three attributes widely adopted by official legacy business programs to decide a
business’s eligibility, including operation longevity, economic characteristics, and social values.
Most programs set a threshold of operation history from twenty to thirty years, with some
extending to fifty years.
41
In terms of defining business characteristics, small business size (the
number of employees) and independent ownership are two key touchstones.
42
Some cities
require Legacy Businesses to have fewer than twenty employees, but not all programs do. For
business ownership, most programs prohibit franchises and affiliations with national corporate
chains to get registered as Legacy Business, while others only consider family-owned businesses
as Legacy Businesses. Finally, almost all legacy business programs define that Legacy
Businesses should contribute to the history, culture, and identity of their communities, while
some of the programs go one step further to require the business to contribute “in a unique way.”
Though all legacy business programs require a social contribution to the community, few
of them provide guidance or assistance to business owners to identify and maintain the cultural
heritage lies in the business. Financial incentives, legal and business consultations, and
marketing campaigns are the most common types of assistance offered by legacy business
programs. The reason behind this could be that most leading city entities of legacy business
programs are economic development department or small business administration rather than
historic preservation office. The available assistance therefore focuses on economic or technical
aspects rather than heritage conservation. It is also important to note that there are a limited
number of programs offering financial assistance to business owners due to insufficient funds or
legal restrictions.
Some cities tailor their programs to tackle local challenges. Los Angeles, for example,
utilizes a weighted selection process for grants to prioritize businesses in low-income
neighborhoods or ethnic communities. (Appendix B) In this way, Los Angeles' legacy business

41
Elizabeth Morton, “Legacy Businesses: Emerging Directions,” APA California – Making Great Communities
Happen (American Planning Association, January 1, 2022), https://www.apacalifornia.org/events/legacy-businesses-
emerging-directions/.
42
Office of Economic Development City of Seattle, “Legacy Business Study,” Legacy Business Study - Office of
Economic Development, September 2017, https://www.seattle.gov/office-of-economic-development/about-us/our-
work/legacy-business-study.
17
program attempts to address the city's racial and income disparities as well as protect legacy
businesses.
Legacy businesses share many challenges that are faced by small businesses, including
rising rents, threats from corporate chains and online commerce, increasing costs (labor costs,
food costs), narrow profit margins, and lack of marketing resources.
43
There are also some
difficulties more common among legacy businesses than other small businesses, such as
succession planning, changing consumer preferences, shifting neighborhood demographics, and
the loss of traditional arts or crafts.
Case study 1: San Francisco Legacy Business Registry
Program Background
When San Francisco residents noticed more and more long-time standing businesses
closing their doors, many of them advocated for preserving these neighborhood anchors to
sustain their lifestyle and community culture.
44
San Francisco Heritage (S.F. Heritage), a
nonprofit historic conservation organization, launched the “Legacy Bars & Restaurant Initiative”
to celebrate “San Francisco’s most legendary eateries, watering holes, dives and haunts.” S.F.
Heritage documented and publicized the history and highlights of the qualified 100 businesses in
foldable brochure maps for tourists and an interactive online map. A “certified” business must
meet three criteria:
(1) has longevity of at least 40 years;
(2) possesses unique architectural or interior design; and
(3) and/or contributes to a sense of history in the surrounding neighborhood.
The registered businesses would receive a “Legacy Bars & Restaurant” logo and decal to
highlight their visibility. This first-of-its-kind program was inspired by the Bares Notables
program in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to raise awareness of the city’s culture and identity.
45

Building upon the success of S.F. Heritage’s “Legacy Bars & Restaurant Initiative”
program, in 2015, San Francisco established an official “San Francisco Legacy Business
Registry'' (S.F. Registry) that is administered by its Small Business Commission. The new legacy

43
Office of Economic Development City of Seattle, “Legacy Business Study,” Legacy Business Study - Office of
Economic Development, September 2017, https://www.seattle.gov/office-of-economic-development/about-us/our-
work/legacy-business-study.
44
San Francisco Heritage, “Sustaining San Francisco's Living History,” San Francisco Heritage, June 21, 2022,
http://www.sfheritage.org/cultural-heritage/.
45
Ibid.
18
business program includes broader business categories, as well as non-profit organizations. What
distinguishes the S.F. Registry from other legacy programs is that it established the Legacy
Business Historic Preservation Fund through a ballot initiative, providing financial incentives for
landlords of legacy businesses as well as grants to qualified business owners. By doing so, the
program attempts to assist legacy business owners in securing long-term leases and alleviate
their financial pressure.
Eligibility Criteria
Apart from expanding eligible business types, the program also lowers the longevity
threshold from forty years to thirty years. It is important to note that the age requirement could
go down to twenty years if the establishment would face “a significant risk of displacement.”
The criteria are listed as below:
Criterion 1: The business has operated in San Francisco for 30 or more years, with no
break in San Francisco operations exceeding two years.
Criterion 2: The business has contributed to the neighborhood's history and/or the identity
of a particular neighborhood or community. Community does include a business or
industry community.
Criterion 3: The business is committed to maintaining the physical features or traditions
that define the business, including craft, culinary, or art forms.
46

Process of Application and Evaluation
In San Francisco, legacy businesses are nominated by the mayor or a member of the
board of supervisors, whereas most cities call for public nominations from residents, regular
patrons, visitors, and business owners themselves. Although there are concerns about political
favoritism, supporters argue that it is a win-win practice to gain political support for legacy
businesses.
47

Applicants are required to fill out an Application Form (Appendix C) and an Application
Narrative form that is prepared by the Office of Small Business to state their eligibility.
(Appendix D) This thesis only discusses the section of “Written Historical Narrative,” which is a
long questionnaire about the business’s history, characteristics, and owner’s commitment to
maintain those defining characteristics.

46
City and County of San Francisco, “The Legacy Business Registry,” Apply to Join the Legacy Business Registry |
San Francisco, accessed December 7, 2022, https://sf.gov/step-by-step/apply-join-legacy-business-registry.
47
Elizabeth Morton, “Legacy Businesses: Emerging Directions,” APA California – Making Great Communities
Happen (American Planning Association, January 1, 2022), https://www.apacalifornia.org/events/legacy-businesses-
emerging-directions/.
19
For Criterion 1, regarding longevity, the questionnaire lists basic questions about
business operation history and ownership history.
The questions for Criterion 3 are about defining characteristics of the business and the
owner’s commitment to maintaining those characteristics. They suggest applicants describe
historical traditions and physical features of their businesses.
When it comes to questions regarding the eligibility of Criterion 2, the form lists as many
as eight questions:
Criterion 2: The business has contributed to the neighborhood's history and/or the identity
of a particular neighborhood or community. Community does include a business or
industry community.
a. Describe the business’s contribution to the history and/or identity of the
neighborhood, community or San Francisco.
b. Is the business (or has been) associated with significant events in the
neighborhood, the City, or the business industry?
c. Has the business ever been referenced in a historical context? Such as in a
business trade publication, media, or historical documents?
d. Is the business associated with a significant or historical person?
e. How does the business demonstrate its commitment to the community?
f. Provide a description of the community the business serves.
g. Is the business associated with a culturally significant
building/structure/site/object/or interior?
h. How would the community be diminished if the business were to be sold,
relocated, shut down, etc.?
48

Question a and f require business owners to provide a sketch of the history and identity of
the neighborhood, community, or industry where the business is located, while question b, c, and
d directly examine the relationship between the business/non-profit organization and the
community’s characteristics. Question b suggests that legacy businesses should involve and
support the neighborhood or community’s significant events as a way to contribute to the
neighborhood/community’s history or identity. It is reasonable to measure community
contributions in terms of community engagement as community events foster collective
memories. As for question d, it refers to the association between the business and a significant
person, but does not specify the scope of the figure's influence, such as at a neighborhood or
national level. To some extent, this question is parallel to National Register’s Criterion b
"associated with significant persons in or past," although it's less strict. As for question c, it's

48
“Written Historical Narrative,” Apply to join the Legacy Business Registry (The City and County of San
Francisco), accessed January 16, 2023, https://sf.gov/sites/default/files/2022-
08/LBR%20Application%20Narrative%20Template%202022.07.docx.
20
more a public exposure requirement for the business to prove its social value through media and
historical records. Question e and h, on the other hand, direct to the future scenario where
Question e is about the owner’s commitment to the community. By the presumption of closing
the business, question h measures the level of the significance of the business to its community.
Finally, question g focuses on the material aspects of the business.
In sum, the eight questions for Criterion 2 examine both the cultural and physical
heritage of the business through past (history) and future (commitment) perspectives. For
cultural significance of the business, the questionnaire examines applicant’s involvement in
community events, association with significant figures, public exposure, and commitment to
maintain its defining characteristics in the future.
In addition to submitting “Business Assessment Questions”, applicants are also required
to attach documents or materials to support their statements. Many applications come with
supporting letters from customers or community members.
Application assistance is provided by the Office of Small Business. Once the application
is submitted, the Small Business Commission, or the Executive Director of the Office of Small
Business on its behalf, would ask for advisory recommendations from the Historic Preservation
Commission as to whether the business qualifies for Criterion 2. If the application was approved
by the Historic Preservation Commission, applicants need to attend a public hearing that decides
if the business is qualified for the S.F. Registry.
Program Benefits
S.F. Registry offers Legacy Business a relatively comprehensive package of benefits,
including financial and technical assistance. The assistance aims to mitigate problems faced by
legacy businesses, such as the risk of being displaced or evicted and lack of marketing promotion
resources.
Both legacy business owners and their landlords could gain financial assistance through
the program. The Business Assistance Grant offers business owners with funds to pay rents,
improve commercial space’s physical features, or implement marketing campaigns. A qualified
owner can receive a grant of $500 for each full-time employee up to a maximum of 100
employees. On the other hand, the Rent Stabilization Grant for landlords who offer their tenants
at least a 10-year lease term. The amount of the Rent Stabilization Grant equals $4.50 per square
foot, with a cap of 5,000 square feet per location. In addition to these two grants, S.F. Registry
21
also provides Accessibility Grant for Legacy Business owners to improve ADA infrastructure.
The highlight of financial assistance offered by S.F. Registry is that it attempts to incentivize
landlords to offer tenants a long-term lease, which can effectively prevent the Legacy Business
from displacement in the long run. According to the Annual Report of the Office of Small
Business of San Francisco (FY 2021-2022), there were 320 businesses on the Legacy Business
Registry as of September 2022; 44 Rent Stabilization Grants were awarded to commercial
landlords for a total of $724,863.70 in FY 2021-22, while 179 Legacy Business Grants totaled
$400,000 for 179 businesses.
49

As to technical assistance, the program offers legal, business operation, and real estate
market advisory to help Legacy Business owners negotiate with landlords or potential landlords
when relocating, obtain loans and credits, and so on. Besides, the program also assists with a
business succession plan if the owner cannot find an appropriate person to take over. Employee-
owned small business model, for example, is one of the solutions that promoted by the program
to stabilize Legacy Businesses. All technical assistance is provided by the San Francisco Small
Business Development Center, a city entity.
There is also a city-wide marketing campaign targeting both San Francisco’s residents
and tourists. (Appendix C) The marketing campaign was outsourced to a local company who
designs and publishes the program logo, decal, certificate, plaque, and brochures for legacy
businesses, and a program website features an interactive map and the business’s history or
stories. Such massive marketing promotion greatly increases public exposure, attracting media
attention and increasing public awareness about the living legacy in the city. (Figures 2.1, 2.2,
2.3)

49
City and County of San Francisco, “Annual Report (FY 2021-2022),” Annual Report (FY 2021-2022) (City and
County of San Francisco, January 12, 2023), https://sf.gov/sites/default/files/2023-01/FY21-
22%20OSB%20Annual%20Report_0.pdf.
22

Figure 2.1: Maps and social media displayed in S.F. Registry website. Image courtesy of San Francisco Legacy
Business Registry.

Figure 2.2: The Legacy Business logo. Image courtesy of San Francisco Legacy Business Registry.

23

Figure 2.3: Legacy Business Plaque. Image courtesy of San Francisco Legacy Business Registry.
Case Study 2: Legacy Business Program in San Antonio, Texas
Program Background
In San Antonio, Texas, the Legacy Business Program is a part of the city’s Office of
Historic Preservation’s Living Heritage Initiative, an internationally recognized preservation
program with its inclusive and sustainable strategies.
50
The Initiative identifies, designates, and
implements treatments of local heritage. As it claims in its social media campaign, “preservation
is all about People + Place.”
51
Besides the Legacy Business Program that provides financial
support and recognition, the Initiative also launched a series of programs to survey, document,
and publicize local historical stories, community narratives, and related materials to build a
cultural heritage inventory. The Heritage Education, for example, is a program to “promote civic
engagement and foster a preservation ethic in grade school students in the San Antonio area” that
is run by the Initiative. This section mainly focuses on its Legacy Business Program. (Figure 2.4)

50
Office of Historic Preservation, “San Antonio Legacy Business Program,” Legacy Business Program (Office of
Historic Preservation, April 5, 2021), https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/74f995c768374ba9970fc52ac6e97303.
51
Office of Historic Preservation, “Office of Historic Preservation,” The City of San Antonio (Office of Historic
Preservation), accessed December 7, 2022, https://www.sanantonio.gov/historic/LivingHeritage.
24

Figure 2.4: Maps and Business Categories of Legacy Businesses in San Antonio. Image courtesy of San Antonio
Legacy Business Program.
San Antonio’s legacy businesses program began with the loss of a once popular
restaurant, the Malt House, which was also a long-time community gathering place.
52
Although
the business owner owned the commercial property, a building that was designated as a
landmark in 2012 through San Antonio’s West Side Cultural Resource Survey, it had to be
demolished and sold to 7-Eleven because it failed to meet the health code and the owner cannot
afford to modify the building.
53
Realizing preservation tools of the city by then was not able to
sustain places such as Malt House that were of social and use value, the city’s Office of Historic
Preservation launched the legacy business program to fill the gap.
54
However, unlike San
Francisco’s program, San Antonio’s program has not been codified and is largely an honorary
program. The program recognizes local living heritage - legacy businesses - and offers

52
Erica C. Avrami and Claudia Guerra, “Finding the Soul of Communities” in Preservation and Social Inclusion
(New York, NY: Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, 2020).
53 Ibid.
54 Ibid.
25
educational resources to business owners, enabling them to access legal, business, and technical
knowledge to sustain the heritage.
Eligibility Criteria
There are two requirements for businesses to get certified as legacy businesses:
(1) the business has to operate in the community for at least 20 years; and
(2) the business has to represent San Antonio’s culture.
55

Process of Application and Evaluation
In comparison with its counterpart in San Francisco, this program is less complicated for
business owners to apply for. Anyone in the community can nominate a legacy program and the
applicant only needs to submit a one-page nomination form and a separate page of historic
narrative. The narrative requires business owners to describe their business story and why it
qualifies based on the two criteria in 250 to 750 words. (Appendix A)
Program Benefits
Benefits provided by the Legacy Business Program in San Antonio, as mentioned
previously, offers recognition, marketing assistance, and access to business education resources.
Although a grant pilot program assisting architectural improvements is available in
neighborhoods around World Heritage missions in the city, no funding is available for its legacy
business program. Compared to San Francisco, the assistance offered by the program is
relatively limited.
Case Study 3: Los Angeles’s Legacy Business Registry
Program Background
Considering increasing property rents, geographical diversity, and social equity issues in
the city, Los Angeles tailored its “Legacy Business Registry” (L.A. Registry) based on San
Francisco’s model. The program was adopted recently in the Fall of 2022 and each council
district can designate up to ten Legacy Businesses. Unlike S.F. Registry, non-profit organizations
are excluded from this program. Although it hasn't been officially launched, its innovative
preservation strategies are worth studying.
The L.A. Registry is led by the City’s Economic and Workforce Development
Department (EWDD) and administered in partnership with the Department of City Planning and

55
Office of Historic Preservation, “Legacy Business Program,” The City of San Antonio - Official City Website
(The City of San Antonio), accessed December 13, 2022,
https://www.sanantonio.gov/historic/LivingHeritage/LegacyBusiness.
26
its Office of Historic Resources (OHR). (Appendix B) It is more complicated in comparison to
the other two programs discussed above, which is reflected in its eligibility criteria, complex
evaluation process, and the benefit package that aims to mitigate racial inequity and income
disparity.
Eligibility Criteria
The age requirement for Los Angeles Legacy Business is at least twenty years, the same as
San Antonio’s and lower than San Francisco’s. Apart from the longevity requirement, eligible
legacy businesses also need to meet at least three out of the four following criteria:
i. it contributes significantly to its community’s history or identity.
ii. it sustains and cultivates distinctive cultural traditions or practices.
iii. the business is not franchised or affiliated with a national corporate chain.
iv. it provides vital goods and services in a language and manner that is culturally
accessible to the community.
56

Similar to programs in San Francisco and San Antonio, Los Angeles also emphasizes
social values and independent business ownership as the first three criteria show. Criterion ii,
however, requires a legacy business to foster distinctive cultural traditions or practices, implying
that the L.A. Registry may favor businesses that reflect minority culture. What makes the
program stand out is Criterion iv that explicitly supports minority communities without sufficient
access to necessary goods and services. It is reasonable to take goods and services along with
language into consideration as the long history of racial discrimination in the city. Businesses
serves people who speak language other than English (for example, ethnic grocery stores)
usually function as culturally significant places for minority groups, especially immigrants, to
comfortably practice their culture, maintain their identities on a daily basis when obtaining vital
resources and developing social capital.
Process of Evaluation
Another groundbreaking measure of L.A. Registry is its weighted selection process,
which aims to address racial and income inequity issues. The applicants for grants distributed by
the program will be more heavily weighted if:
1. Businesses located in low-and moderate-income communities (50% and 80% of
Area Median Income or AMI), as defined by Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD).
2. Businesses owned by low- and moderate-income owners (50% and 80% of AMI),

56
Carolyn M. Hull, “Report from Economic and Workforce Development Department,” LACityClerk Connect (City
of Los Angeles, March 3, 2022), https://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2019/19-0781_rpt_EWDD_03-10-22.pdf.
27
as defined by HUD.
3. Small businesses with annual gross revenue below $1 million.
4. CalEnviroScreen Map communities with health hazard ranges at 9-% +
5. Socioeconomic Data Composite Score by Census Tract (i.e., poverty rates,
educational attainment, median income, etc.) with the areas with disadvantaged
factors received higher lottery weightings.
6. Other criteria as determined by EWDD.
57

The weighted selection process explicitly prioritizes legacy businesses located or owned
by low-income community. This suggests that goals of the L.A. Registry go beyond heritage
conservation and aims to ameliorate income inequality by supporting small businesses in
disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Program Benefits
Although the detailed processes and measures of the L.A. Registry have not yet been
finalized and published, according to publicly available City Council documents, Los Angeles
will have a similar benefit package as S.F. Registry in terms of marketing and branding
assistance and financial incentives. But instead of soliciting a contractor for marketing promotion
as San Francisco, Los Angeles City Planning’s Office of Historic will work with the
department’s graphics session to create branding material such as poster, plaque or window
decal, social media promotions, and listing on EWDD, City Planning and City of Los Angeles
websites. (Appendix B) It seems that L.A. Registry will not have an independent marketing team
to publish the program website, online maps, or brochures. Without massive marketing
promotion and cultural heritage inventory to share stories of the Legacy Businesses, the program
might not gain much public attention that it would have made, nor become an influential public
history education program.
For financial assistance, each council district will have at least ten qualified legacy
businesses receive Legacy Business Assistance Grants. Legacy Businesses with less than six
employees can receive $10,000 of grants, and $20,000 for those with six or more employees. It is
notable that no grants will be provided to Legacy Business’s commercial landlord as S.F.
Registry does.

57
Carolyn M. Hull, “Report from Economic and Workforce Development Department,” LACityClerk Connect (City
of Los Angeles, March 3, 2022), https://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2019/19-0781_rpt_EWDD_03-10-22.pdf.
28
To apply for Legacy Business Assistance Grants, considering small business owners may
lack sufficient formal documentation, there is a variety of types of supporting material acceptable
by L.A. Registry, including:
1. Employee payroll
2. Rent, utilities, and insurance
3. Working capital to reopen or continue operations
4. Adapting to technologies
5. Payment of outstanding business expenses incurred on or after March 3, 2021
58

The inclusive terms will likely encourage business owners to submit applications. Thus,
those who do not have formal documents due to a long period of time or ownership changes will
not be excluded from the L.A. Registry.
Although it seems that no one-to-one technical consultations will be provided through the
program, Los Angeles will solicit a contractor to create a Legacy Business Technical Assistance
Curriculum, which includes programs and courses tailored specifically to Legacy Business,
covering topics such as succession planning and lease contract education, similar to San
Antonio’s program.
The following table summarizes characteristics for the three legacy business programs
discussed in this chapter. (Table 2.1)
Program Leading
City
Department
Criteria (Condensed) Application and
Process
(Condensed)
Benefits
(Condensed)
San
Francisco
Legacy
Business
Registry
Small
Business
Commission
i. The business has operated in San
Francisco for 30 or more years, with
no break in San Francisco
operations exceeding two years.
(The threshold could be 20 years if
the business faces a significant risk
of displacement”)
ii. The business has contributed to
the neighborhood's history and/or
the identity of a particular
neighborhood or community.
Community does include a business
or industry community.
iii. The business is committed to
maintaining the physical features or
traditions that define the business,
including craft, culinary, or art
forms.

1. Obtain
nomination from a
member of the
Board of
Supervisors or the
mayor to be a
Legacy Business.
2. Fill out and
submit application
forms.
3. Attend
commission
hearings.
1. Financial
support:
Business Assistance
Grant (For business
owner); Rent
Stabilization Grant
(For landlord);
Accessibility Grant
(For business
owner).
2. Technical
support: free one-
on-one business,
legal, and real-
estate market
consultation
session.
3. Promotional
support: city-wide
marketing campaign

58
Carolyn M. Hull, “Report from Economic and Workforce Development Department,” LACityClerk Connect (City
of Los Angeles, March 3, 2022), https://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2019/19-0781_rpt_EWDD_03-10-22.pdf.
29
with program
website, maps, logo,
decals, certificates,
and plaques.
San Antonio
Legacy
Business
Program
Office of
Historic
Preservation
i. The business has to operate in the
community for at least 20 years; and
ii. the business has to represent San
Antonio’s culture.

1. Fill out and
submit a
Nomination Form,
or
2. Tag
#legacybizsa on
social media to
nominate a historic
business
1. Promotional
support: program
webpage and social
media platforms;
program logo and
decal distribution.
2. Educational
support: access to
business education
resources.
Los Angeles
Legacy
Business
Registry
Economic
and
Workforce
Development
Department;
City
Planning and
its Office of
Historic
Resources
i. it contributes significantly to its
community’s history or identity.
ii. it sustains and cultivates
distinctive cultural traditions or
practices.
iii. the business is not franchised or
affiliated with a national corporate
chain.
iv. it provides vital goods and
services in a language and manner
that is culturally accessible to the
community.

Not published yet. 1. Financial
support: Legacy
Business Assistance
Grants (evaluated
by weighted
selection system).
2. Technical
support: Legacy
Business Technical
Assistance
Curriculum.
3. Promotional
support: branding
material such as
poster, plaque or
window decal, and
social media
promotions.
Table 2.1: Summarization of characteristics of legacy business program in San Francisco, CA, San Antonio, TX,
and Los Angeles, CA. Table by the author
Conclusions
The analysis of three legacy business programs in San Francisco, CA, San Antonio, TX,
and Los Angeles, CA, suggests that all programs highlight the cultural heritage of Legacy
Businesses through criteria regarding contribution to the community’s history, culture and/or
identity. However, it seems that there are no clear explanations for either the concept of
community identity or the contribution to the community. Although the criteria (and application
forms) shed some light on this topic, whether the business meets the requirement for social
contribution remains largely in the hands of city staff. Therefore, the heritage conservation field
may need to further study and address the void of identifying and assessing the cultural
significance of a legacy business in practice.
Most measures deployed are economic development strategies rather than heritage
conservation, except for the San Antonio’s that launched an initiative to document and educate
30
the public history and stories of Legacy Businesses. Despite all three programs underscoring the
importance of maintaining important characteristics and cultural heritage aspects of legacy
businesses, they do not provide business owners with guidelines or education resources to
identify, document, and sustain the heritage. Here is a list of some recommended conservation
strategies to address these problems:
1. Research and identify cultural heritage of each neighborhood, parallel to the work of
SurveyLA.
59
Note that this process should be conducted in a collaborative manner to
achieve the inclusion goal.
2. Establish cultural heritage inventory for each community and legacy business that
works as the source and database for constructing guidance to preserve cultural
heritage. It is also a valuable cultural resource for communities.
3. Historic narratives submitted by business owners should be published and channel
back to the broader community as part of public history education. Thus, extensive
marketing promotion is key to the program.
4. Partner with community organizations and seek feedback from the community.
It is noteworthy to mention that Los Angeles Conservancy, a non-profit preservation
organization in Los Angeles, had reached out to community partners for a long time when the
City conceiving its own legacy business program. The Conservancy collected communities’
opinions and channeled them back to city’s policymakers.
60
Supporting letters with opinions and
suggestions from diverse neighborhoods across the city were submitted to the City Council as
critical input of decision making.
61
The close relationship between policy makers, preservation
professionals, and community partners may largely explain the uniqueness of the L.A. Registry
model. In addition, the non-profit organization recently launched its own Legacy Business Grant
Program that covers long-time businesses in Los Angeles County.
62

Except for San Francisco, most legacy business programs exclude non-profit
organizations. Acknowledging that non-profit organizations might face very different challenges

59
Los Angeles City Planning, “Survey LA,” Historic Resources Surveys (Los Angeles City Planning), accessed
December 13, 2022, https://planning.lacity.org/preservation-design/historic-resources-survey.
60
Rosalind Sagara, Interview by author, Los Angeles, June 16, 2022.
61
An Le, “Communication from Public,” LACityClerk Connect (clkrep.lacity.org, June 30, 2022),
https://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2019/19-0781_PC_AB_06-30-2022.pdf.
62
Los Angeles Conservancy, “LA Conservancy Launches a Legacy Business Grant Program,” Legacy Business
Grant Program (Los Angeles Conservancy), accessed January 18, 2023, https://www.laconservancy.org/legacy-
business-grant-program.
31
from small businesses, many of them are important to sustain and impart community culture. For
example, in Chinatowns, family associations are key institutions to maintain kinship, culture, and
traditions among residents. Legacy business programs may not suit best to support such
organizations, but it is worth exploring conservation strategies to conserve such establishments
and conserve community cultural characteristics.
Finally, the financial incentives that programs distribute help strengthen Legacy Business
owners’ position in commercial lease negotiation, but it may not be every effective in areas that
are experiencing gentrification because the financial assistance of the programs is probably not
attractive enough for commercial landlords given the speculative opportunities derived from
replacing tenants or selling properties. Gentrifying neighborhoods, especially inner-city
neighborhoods, are therefore facing more complex urban issues such evictions and population
loss. The inner-city dynamics warrant more comprehensive conservation strategies to support
legacy businesses in this type of neighborhood.
In short, the majority assistance offered by three programs discussed in this chapter
concentrates on economic development strategies and to a great extent neglects the research and
maintenance of cultural heritage that the Legacy Business bears, but they nonetheless creatively
go beyond focusing on architectural aspect and strive for preserving the cultural heritage as well
as social use of the place. These three programs push the limits of the heritage conservation
toolbox and will continue to inspire future programs.

32

Chapter 3 Neighborhood-scale Case Studies Based on Little Tokyo and Chinatown in Los
Angeles, CA
This chapter analyzes the relationship between cultural significance and legacy
businesses in urban ethnic neighborhood. Based on the discussion about their cultural heritage,
this chapter further explores the difficulties faced by legacy businesses and community strategies
to fight against the internal weakness as well as external threats. From history of both community
and businesses, to the demonstration of cultural heritage embedded in legacy businesses, to
gentrification and anti-gentrification efforts, this chapter aims to show a holistic legacy business
landscape in the neighborhood scale through two case studies: Little Tokyo and Chinatown in
Los Angeles.
Little Tokyo and Chinatown, two historic immigrant neighborhoods standing in the heart
of Los Angeles, both have faced challenges of gentrification resulting in population loss, shifting
demographics, commercial and residential affordability, and poverty. Over the years, the two
communities demonstrated their resilience and solidarity through grappling with systemic racial
discrimination and sustaining their cultural identity. During World War II, residents in Little
Tokyo were forced into internment camps, yet they managed to return to the neighborhood and
claim their identity through ethnic businesses, public arts, and cultural and spiritual institutes.
Likewise, Old Chinatown once was demolished to pave the way for the construction of
Union Station, a railway terminal constructed by the city. While non-white immigrants were
prohibited from owning property, the Chinatown community found their way to rebuild a
modern, spacious New Chinatown nearby the lost Old Chinatown. Today, owing to the
proximity to Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA), these two neighborhoods were both impacted by
aggressive development and gentrification. While Little Tokyo is already a gentrified
neighborhood, Chinatown is wrestling with the growing high-rises.
The data for this chapter draws from published research, media reports, community
organization websites, and ethnographic observations including semi-structured interviews with
stakeholders as well as my personal experience of being a community volunteer and visitor.
33
Case Study 1: Little Tokyo
Neighborhood Context
Little Tokyo is a relatively small neighborhood standing in the heart of Los Angeles, only
one block away from City Hall. The roughly 140 years old neighborhood is home to long-time
small businesses, churches and Buddhist temples, the Japanese American National Museum,
Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, and active community organizations. It has
been the largest Japanese American settlement in the mainland United States since 1915.
63
Many
Japanese Americans in the area have connections with Little Tokyo as they regularly visit the
neighborhood for community events, Japanese culture-related goods, or Japanese restaurants. As
one interviewee described, “Little Tokyo is a sacred place for JA (Japanese Americans).”
64

By 1915, more than seven-thousand Japanese Americans lived in the Los Angeles and
most of them lived near Little Tokyo.
65
Many of them were small business entrepreneurs,
operating grocery and produce stores, clothing shops, boarding houses, cafes, florists, and two
local Japanese newspapers.
66
In addition, Japanese immigrants were also major players in Los
Angeles agriculture industry, cultivating vineyards, citrus groves, and flower fields.
67
By
establishing ethnic shops and facilities, Japanese immigrants and their descendants created a
cohesive ethnic neighborhood in the core of Los Angeles.
Like many other immigrant neighborhoods in the city, Little Tokyo has experienced
destructive challenges over the years: redlining, racial hatred, social isolation, economic
recession, forced removal and diaspora during WWII, eminent domain for the construction of a
police complex, urban renewal, and consistent pressure from gentrification.
68

During WWII, residents were sent to prison camps across the country by then American
government. Little Tokyo once became “Bronzeville,” home to African Americans who migrated
from the South for wartime jobs on the West Coast. Jazz clubs flourished on First Street in Little
Tokyo as they moved into the empty neighborhood. After the war, Japanese Americans returned

63
Dolores Hayden, “Contested Terrain” in The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History (Cambridge,
MA: The MIT Press, 2006), pp. 211.
64
Bill Watanabe, interview by author, Los Angeles, June 16, 2022.
65
Ibid.
66
Ibid.
67
Dolores Hayden, “Contested Terrain” in The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History (Cambridge,
MA: The MIT Press, 2006), pp. 217.
68
Kelly Simpson, “Three Waves of Little Tokyo Redevelopment,” Three Waves of Little Tokyo Redevelopment
(KCET, February 17, 2016), https://www.kcet.org/shows/departures/three-waves-of-little-tokyo-redevelopment.
34
to the neighborhood, but many young people chose to leave for better employment
opportunities.
70
The elders stayed in the communities as cultural organizations and ethnic shops
provided them with traditional cultural products.
71

In the 1970s and 1980s, as international capital converged with the city’s urban renewal
policy, Little Tokyo experienced drastic change – modern hotels and retail complexes sprang up
while many residents were pushed out of the community. In response to the gentrification,
community organizations such as Little Tokyo People's Right and Little Tokyo Service Center
(LTSC) were formed to fight for affordable housing and traditional ethnic shops.
72

By 2010, Little Tokyo had approximately 40% Asian residents, around 25% blacks and
20% Hispanics, respectively, and about 12% whites.
74
As gentrification progressed in recent
decades, many Japanese American residents were displaced from their homes while high-income
young professionals moved into brand-new luxury apartments due to the proximity to Downtown
and the neighborhood’s distinctive culture. According to Bill Watanabe, a respected community
leader and former CEO of the LTSC, most Japanese American residents living in the
neighborhood today are elderly people who live in senior housing.
75
The demographic shift poses
pressure for sustaining cultural heritage as well as legacy businesses in the neighborhood.
Legacy Businesses and Community Development in Little Tokyo
When first-generation immigrants left Japan to seek a better life in Los Angeles, they
brought their tastes and legacy to Little Tokyo too. Small businesses flourished along today’s
First Street and comforted the Japanese American community with names such as Kawafuku
Cafe, Kyodo Drug, Umeya, Inc., Fugetsu-Do Confectionary, San Kwo Low, and Entoro (Far
East Cafe), where people flocked into Little Tokyo for hometown flavors.
76
The historic First
Street North block of Little Tokyo, which used to house these small businesses, remains one of
the busiest sections in the neighborhood today. Walking along the pedestrian-oriented First

70
Dolores Hayden, “Contested Terrain” in The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History (Cambridge,
MA: The MIT Press, 2006), pp. 216.
71
Ibid.
72
Little Tokyo Service Center, “History,” About Us (Little Tokyo Service Center, October 21, 2022),
https://www.ltsc.org/about-2/.; Kelly Simpson, “Three Waves of Little Tokyo Redevelopment” Three Waves of
Little Tokyo Redevelopment (KCET, February 17, 2016), https://www.kcet.org/shows/departures/three-waves-of-
little-tokyo-redevelopment.
74
Gary Painter et al., “Little Tokyo Community Assessment,” n.d., p. 1.
75
Watanabe, interview.
76
Gwen Muranaka, “Nisei Week History: A Love Letter to Little Tokyo,” Nisei Week Japanese Festival (Nisei
Week Foundation), accessed December 8, 2022, https://niseiweek.org/about/#legacy.
35
Street in the neighborhood, you will see plaques outside of some of the storefronts, introducing
the history of Japanese-owned businesses once located there. (Figure 3.1) The plaques were
issued by the Little Tokyo Historical Society, a non-profit community organization dedicated to
preserving and maintaining the neighborhood’s ethnic heritage. (Figure 3.2)

Figure 3.1: The First Street North block in Little Tokyo. Photo courtesy of Sustainable Little Tokyo.

Figure 3.2: Plaque issued by LTHS to recognize the site of first Japanese-owned business in Los Angeles. Photo
courtesy of the Little Tokyo Historical Society.
36
The Little Tokyo community has a long history of preserving legacy businesses as a way
to promote economic growth and transmit Japanese cultural heritage to the next generation. In
1934, to boost the community economy from the Great Depression, the second-generation
Japanese American immigrant (or Nisei in Japanese) launched the Nisei Week Festival, a famous
cultural event to celebrate Japanese heritage that continues today as “a symbol of hope and
inspiration to an entire community.”
77
Mom and pop shops in the neighborhood sell Japanese
cultural products to support the festival. For example, during the festival, stores would sell
uchiwa fans, kachi kachi and other instruments of ondo dancing, an important event of the
festival to showcase Japanese culture.
78
(Figure 3.3, 3.4)

Figure 3.3: Ondo dancing in Little Tokyo during the Nisei Week Japanese Festival circa 1934. Photo courtesy of
Nisei Week Japanese Festival.

77
Gwen Muranaka, “Nisei Week History: A Love Letter to Little Tokyo,” Nisei Week Japanese Festival (Nisei
Week Foundation), accessed December 8, 2022, https://niseiweek.org/about/#legacy.
78
Ibid.
37

Figure 3.4: Ondo dancing and Uchiwa fan in Little Tokyo during the Nisei Week Japanese Festival circa 2022.
Photo courtesy of Nisei Week Japanese Festival.
Most legacy businesses in Little Tokyo have been owned and operated by their original
families over the years, serving Japanese American families for generations. As one business
owner put it, “I’ve seen my customers were brought in baby carts or as kids. And now they are
bringing their own kids here.”
79
Every store has unique stories and legacy because every family
is different. The immigrant family histories of fighting against racial discrimination and
becoming small business entrepreneurs are the cornerstone of community heritage.
The tradition of supporting legacy businesses in the neighborhood also continues today.
According to Watanabe, during the recent COVID-19 pandemic period, the community donated
for small businesses, especially legacy businesses owned by seniors who are at risk of COVID,
to go through the difficult time, while small businesses also bequeathed the community by
delivering free meals to seniors. LTSC played as a key coordinator for mutual support within the
community through closely following the legacy businesses, assisting them to pivot to online
sales and providing grants for those in need.
80
The close bond between legacy businesses and
community members defines the character of the community.

79
USC Impact and Beatrice Xinran Gao, “Little Tokyo,” Little Tokyo (USC Annenberg Media), accessed January
17, 2023, https://www.uscannenbergmedia.com/2022/05/29/little-tokyo/.
80
“2021 Small Business Report,” Small Business Program (Little Tokyo Service Center, November 15, 2022),
https://www.ltsc.org/small-business-program/.; Watanabe, interview.
38
In sum, the history of the legacy businesses in Little Tokyo is an important part of history
of Japanese American community in Los Angeles and the country. A legacy business that
produces and serves Japanese culture-related items plays a critical role in preserving the
intangible cultural heritage for the community. Long-standing co-ethnic community businesses
are also places where community members meet, communicate, and create collective memories
that affirm and pass down their cultural identity as Japanese Americans. Besides, legacy
businesses have functioned as a glue and economic booster for community members during
economic downturns while celebrating their cultural heritage. Finally, legacy businesses in Little
Tokyo create leisure places for not only co-ethnics to meet and establish social relationships but
also people with other cultural backgrounds to learn Japanese American community history and
culture.
Challenges Faced by Legacy Businesses in Little Tokyo
According to a LTSC report, by 2021, Little Tokyo had more than 400 small businesses,
fifty of which are older than twenty years.
81
For legacy businesses, there are a variety of business
types, including gift shops, sweet shops, newspapers, hardware stores, barber shops, restaurants,
cosmetic stores, and others. Some of them cater primarily to tourists as Little Tokyo is a popular
urban destination, while others mainly serve local Japanese American families. Among legacy
business owners, over 40% of them are more than 60 years old and many of them are non-native
English speakers. Considering the demographics of business owners, succession planning
becomes be a concern.
82
Rafu Shimpo, for example, is the nation’s leading Japanese American
newspaper serving the Japanese American community since 1903. It is currently owned and
operated by a couple who are in their 80s. According to Watanabe, the owners recently
considered closing this historic bilingual Japanese-English newspaper.
83

Another major challenge for legacy business owners in Little Tokyo is fast-rising rents.
Most legacy businesses in the neighborhood are on a month-to-month lease and therefore
businesses are not locally stabilized. The hot real estate market in the Downtown area structures
the unbalanced negotiating power that favors commercial landlords. It is extremely difficult for
legacy business owners to secure long-terms lease amidst gentrification.

81
“2021 Small Business Report,” Small Business Program (Little Tokyo Service Center, November 15, 2022),
https://www.ltsc.org/small-business-program/.
82
Ibid.
83
Watanabe, interview.
39
In addition, the influx of luxury apartment residents who are mostly young, high-income
professionals raises challenges for legacy business owners as well. It is vital yet not easy for
business operators to pivot and attract new residents while sustaining their cultural
characteristics, especially for those traditionally serving Japanese American community.
Furthermore, language barriers as well as the lack of skill to accommodate online
business also challenge legacy business owners. As a significant part of legacy business owners
are elders, language barriers may prevent them from obtaining funds, loans, credit, or other
resources. Also, varying consumer preferences and retail markets make online-commerce a
crucial part of business, posing pressure on many legacy business owners.
Bottom-up Community Strategies
In Little Tokyo, community organizations are the principal facilitator in helping legacy
businesses cope with gentrification and various challenges. This section focuses on actions and
strategies taken by some community-based organizations to support legacy businesses.
1. Follow up with legacy businesses’ needs and offer technical assistance
Little Tokyo community organizations have made great efforts in helping small
businesses and established close ties with them. For example, LTSC’s Small Business Program
holds free one-to-one consulting sessions, networking opportunities, and workshops for business
owners in both Japanese and English. It also conducted a survey to learn small businesses’ needs
during COVID-19 and managed to organize staff and volunteers to assist business owners pivot
through the difficulties. According to Watanabe, during the pandemic, LTSC matched two to
three staff or volunteers who are mostly young people with each legacy business to help them set
up and use online payment systems, websites, social media webpages, and delivery platforms
that allow customers to order items remotely.
84
Besides, LTSC helped fundraise and distribute
grants to legacy businesses in need. These supportive efforts were helpful to sustain legacy
businesses on the ground.
85

2. Cultural heritage inventory, preservation, and education
There are multiple cultural organizations and institutes in the community that have
preserved and promoted Japanese as well as African American heritage for a long time. Little

84
Watanabe, interview.
85
Little Tokyo Service Center, “Covid-19 Small Business Assistance,” Little Tokyo Service Center (Little Tokyo
Service Center, February 24, 2021), accessed January 16, 2022, https://www.ltsc.org/smallbiz_covid19/.
40
Tokyo Historical Society, for example, is dedicated to community history and heritage research,
exhibition, education, and historic designation. It led the efforts of promoting the historic
designation of Kame Restaurant, the first Japanese owned business in Little Tokyo in 1884, and
the Finale Club, a popular jazz club among the African American community in Los Angeles
during war time.
86
The Japanese American National Museum and the Japanese American
Cultural & Community Organization are two other cultural heritage conservation drivers in the
community, as they offer various programs and exhibitions that are easy for the public to access.
Cultural events such as Nisei Week Grand Parade and LA Tanabata Festival, a traditional
Japanese festival celebrated with cultural decorations, are powerful instruments to sustain and
transmit community cultural heritage.
87
Besides, there are rich public art works that express
community history and identity displayed in the neighborhood’s public space that organized by
these groups. These diverse cultural events and programs not only impart community culture to
future generations, but also to the new residents, improving community cohesion while
sustaining community characteristics.
3. Neighborhood Marketing Campaign
As a popular urban destination with rich transit facilities, the Little Tokyo community
utilizes tourism to support its small business and showcase Japanese American culture.
Marketing campaigns thus become a critical strategy of local community organizations. Little
Tokyo Community Council, for example, worked with L.A. Metro, a regional transportation
agency, and launched marketing campaigns such as Go Little Tokyo and Delicious Little Tokyo
to attract tourists and provide them with guidance to navigate small businesses in the
neighborhood.
88
History and stories of legacy businesses are principal components of marketing
activities.
4. A platform to include different stakeholders

86
Little Tokyo Historical Society, “Landmark Designation & Preservation” Landmark Designation & Preservation
(Little Tokyo Historical Society), accessed December 8, 2022, https://www.littletokyohs.org/landmark-designation-
preservation.
87
Rafu Shimpo, “L.A. Tanabata Festival Restarts for 2022,” Rafu Shimpo (Rafu Shimpo, July 2, 2022),
https://rafu.com/2022/07/l-a-tanabata-festival-restarts-for-2022/.
88
Little Tokyo Community Council, “Go Little Tokyo,” Little Tokyo Community Council (Little Tokyo
Community Council), accessed January 17, 2023, https://littletokyola.org/golittletokyo.; Little Tokyo Community
Council, “Delicious Little Tokyo,” Little Tokyo Community Council (Little Tokyo Community Council), accessed
January 17, 2023, https://littletokyola.org/delicious.
41
As a community that has a long history of fighting against gentrification, the Little Tokyo
community understands the importance of involving in the development process. Organizations
such Little Tokyo Community Council represent the community to actively collaborate with key
stakeholders including the Los Angeles City, Metro, outside for-profit developers, and non-profit
organizations to convey community’s vision and opinions. For example, Little Tokyo
Community Council has worked with Metro on a joint development near the Metro Regional
Connector station site to promote its community vision of equitable development.
5. Innovative financial tools to secure key properties
Recognizing that property ownership is crucial to securing legacy businesses, Little
Tokyo community leaders have explored methods to purchase properties that are important to the
community. Since 1993, LTSC has been building affordable housing, community facilities, and
commercial spaces. According to its real estate portfolio, LTSC controls the Daimaru Hotel and
Far East Building in the historic First Street North block through Neighborworks Capital
Corporation.
89
Although the community does not actually own the property, it managed to
control the use of the building by leveraging financial tools. Little Tokyo Community Impact
Fund (LTCIF) led by Bill Watanabe is another example of securing property ownership. LTCIF
raises money from interested community members, then buys properties that house low-income
residents or legacy businesses, and eventually leases apartments or storefronts at lower rates.
Accordingly, it distributes dividends at relatively low interest rates to its investors.
90
So far, the
program is still in its infancy and has not completed the first round of fundraising.
Conclusions
The case study of Little Tokyo analyzes the cultural significance of legacy businesses in
Little Tokyo and demonstrates how bottom-up community efforts can contribute to the
neighborhood's cultural heritage conservation, legacy business revitalization, and equitable
development. Little Tokyo has suffered population loss and struggled with gentrification but
managed to continue to thrive. Active community organizations, cultural heritage inventory and
promotion, collaboration with key stakeholders, and proactive involvement in the urban planning

89
“Little Tokyo Project,” Building Affordable Housing (Little Tokyo Service Center, July 22, 2022),
https://www.ltsc.org/building-affordable-housing/.
90
Little Tokyo Community Impact Fund, “Invest,” Little Tokyo Community Impact Fund (Little Tokyo Community
Impact Fund), accessed January 18, 2023, http://littletokyocif.com/invest/.
42
process, together generate a synthesis effect to sustain community legacy in an inclusive,
equitable, and sustainable way.
Case Study 2: Los Angeles Chinatown
Neighborhood History and Context
1. Old Chinatown
The history of Los Angeles Chinatown can be traced back to the 1880s when more than
half of the Chinese population in Los Angeles dwelled on the narrow street south of the Los
Angeles Plaza, Calle de Negros, a former Mexican American neighborhood then called Negro
Alley. According to the United States Census, by 1880, Los Angeles had 605 Chinese residents,
who migrated from the overcrowded Chinatown in San Francisco, CA, and settled in Los
Angeles to look for new opportunities when employment in mining and railroad construction
dwindled in the 1870s.
91
Many of them worked near the Plaza as laborers and laundry workers.
92

The majority of them are Chinese immigrants from Tai Shan, Guangdong (or Canton), speaking
Taishanese and Cantonese, and also shared similar cultural backgrounds due to the geographical
proximity of their hometowns.
93
Hence, Chinatown at that time was a closed-knit homogenous
village that served as a gateway for immigrants to gather social and economic capital through
kinship groups, family associations, or clans such as tong.
94

Chinatown later expanded to Apablasa Street near railroad tracks and gas works. The
neighborhood was commonly called Old Chinatown to distinguish it from the New Chinatown
that was built in the 1930s. Due to intense racial hatred and systematic oppression (for example,
the Los Angeles Chinese Massacre of 1871), Chinatown served as a geographical and identity
boundary for Chinese immigrants and their descendants through constructing a physically and
culturally safe environment. Even in the face of extreme conditions, the Chinese community
managed to thrive and became key players in the agriculture, produce wholesale, and retail
industry in the city.
95
Small businesses in Old Chinatown that sold cultural-related items and

91
Roberta S. Greenwood, “Historic Background,” in Down by the Station: Los Angeles Chinatown, 1880-1933 (Los
Angeles, CA: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press at UCLA, 1996), pp. 9-10.
92
Ibid.
93
H. Mark Lai, Becoming Chinese American: A History of Communities and Institutions (Walnut Creek, CA:
AltaMira, 2004).
94
Jan Lin, “From Bachelor Society to Immigrant Enclave,” in Reconstructing Chinatown Ethnic Enclave, Global
Change (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1998), pp. 23-56.
95
Roberta S. Greenwood, “Historic Background,” in Down by the Station: Los Angeles Chinatown, 1880-1933 (Los
Angeles, CA: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press at UCLA, 1996), pp. 11-30
43
restaurants that served Cantonese cuisine also sprang up. In addition, community facilities such
as Chinese temples, churches, Chinese schools, recreational facilities, clubhouses, theaters, and a
Chinese-language weekly newspaper were established in the neighborhood.
96
(Figure 3.5)
However, Angelenos were concerned about the built environment and sanitary conditions
in Old Chinatown at that time, despite the fact that undesirable conditions were the result of
racial land use policy and intentional civil neglect.
97
The stigmatization of the neighborhood that
was caused by racial discrimination was eventually escalated to the municipality as well as the
State’s decision to demolish Chinatown.
98
Although the community made a lot of effort to save
the neighborhood, it was eventually demolished and replaced by today's Union Station in 1936.
99

Figure 3.5: A lion dance troupe moves through Old Chinatown on February 2, 1930 (Lunar New Year). Photo
courtesy of LAist.

96
Roberta S. Greenwood, “Historic Background,” in Down by the Station: Los Angeles Chinatown, 1880-1933 (Los
Angeles, CA: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press at UCLA, 1996), pp. 11-30
97
Josi Ward, “‘Dreams of Oriental Romance’: Reinventing Chinatown in 1930s Los Angeles,” Buildings &Amp;
Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum 20, no. 1 (2013): p. 19,
https://doi.org/10.5749/buildland.20.1.0019.
98
Ibid.
99
Ibid.
44
2. New Chinatown
In response to the demolition, community leaders such as Peter Soo Hoo led community
efforts to elude land ownership prohibitions targeting non-whites and secured a land parcel to the
north of the original Old Chinatown.
100
To remove the stigma of Old Chinatown's crooked
alleys, dense residences, and unsanitary environment, the urban form of New Chinatown was
designed to be neat and modern.
101
With wide avenues and spacious two- to three-story buildings
that reflect Chinese architectural style, the New Chinatown community intentionally expressed
their identity through neighborhood landscape.
102
Central Plaza, an outdoor shopping mall,
however, was designed on a smaller scale to recall the nostalgic scene in Old Chinatown. (Figure
3.6, 3.7)

Figure 3.6: Central Plaza in New Chinatown. Photo courtesy of Chinatown Central Plaza.

100
Josi Ward, “‘Dreams of Oriental Romance’: Reinventing Chinatown in 1930s Los Angeles,” Buildings &Amp;
Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum 20, no. 1 (2013): p. 19,
https://doi.org/10.5749/buildland.20.1.0019.
101
Ibid.
102
Ibid.
45

Figure 3.7: Postcard of Sun Mun Way (孫文路). Photo courtesy of Chinatown Central Plaza.
Small businesses continued to propsper after relocating to New Chinatown. With
urbanization sweeping Los Angeles, the emerging working-class people who worked and lived
in the city were passionate about exploring urban destinations, which fueled the flourishing retail
businesses in the neighborhood.
103
However, it is important to acknowledge that the prosperity of
small businesses in the neighborhood during this time was largely the result of racial
discrimination, since Chinese immigrants and their descendants were not able to find
employment outside of Chinatown.
104

During WWII, some discriminatory laws against Chinese Americans were lifted
considering international relationships because China was regarded as the United States’ ally at
that time. The ending of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1943 and the enactment of the 1965
Immigration and Naturalization Act reopening doors to non-European immigrants greatly
impacted demographics in New Chinatown. Many residents left the neighborhood for job
opportunities and a suburban living environment outside New Chinatown while a huge influx of
Chinese immigrants from China and Southeast Asia countries, diversifying the community's
Cantonese culture. During this period, new immigrants in New Chinatown had different cultural

103
Josi Ward, “‘Dreams of Oriental Romance’: Reinventing Chinatown in 1930s Los Angeles,” Buildings &Amp;
Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum 20, no. 1 (2013): p. 19,
https://doi.org/10.5749/buildland.20.1.0019.
104
Suellen Cheng and Munson Kwok, “The Golden Years of Los Angeles Chinatown: The Beginning,” in Bridging
the Centuries: History of Chinese Americans in Southern California (Los Angeles, CA: Chinese Historical Society
of Southern California, 2001), pp. 33-57.
46
backgrounds and spoke different languages, although many of them are also of Chinese descent.
Many new immigrants speak the Teochew dialect, Vietnamese, Khmer, Laotian, etc. Arriving in
the new environment, they have established their own social networks through kinship, family
association, industry association, and religious institute.
105

The new immigrants’ diverse backgrounds are also reflected in business types and styles.
Southeast Asian groceries, jewelries, restaurants, and bookstores selling books and videos in
Vietnamese, Khmer, and Laotian mushroomed across the neighborhood. Taishanese origin
merchant community was in clash with the aggressive business strategies of those who are of
Teochew and Southeast Asian backgrounds.
106
By 1984, businesses owned by Southeast Asians
became dominated Chinatown economics, representing half of Chinatown’s estimated 1,400
businesses.
107

During the 1970s and 1980s, Chinatown also saw a wave of urban renewal and
international investment that paralleled Little Tokyo. During this period, many modern shopping
centers were built, such as Mandarin Plaza, Bamboo Plaza, Dragon Plaza, Saigon Plaza,
Chinatown Plaza, Far East Plaza, BC Plaza, Dynasty Plaza, and Asian Center.
108
(Figure 3.8)
Buying culture-specific items at shopping centers, chatting with shopkeepers in mother tongue,
and wandering through the hustle and bustle of markets were once part of the Chinese American
community's lifestyle, consisting of the community’s collective memories.

105
Jan Lin, “Los Angeles Chinatown: Tourism, Gentrification, and the Rise of an Ethnic Growth Machine,”
Amerasia Journal 34, no. 3 (2008): pp. 110-125, https://doi.org/10.17953/amer.34.3.v545v63lpj1535p7.
106
Ibid.
107
Ibid.
108
Ibid.
47

Figure 3.8: Far East Plaza in New Chinatown. Photo courtesy of Eater Los Angeles.
Dynasty Center, for example, has about a hundred stalls that sell culture-specific goods,
clothing, gifts, jewelry, plants, and so on. (Figure 3.9) Often, shops may look identical because
many of them sell similar items and the ways they stack goods are similar as well, yet the stalls
together consist of an important place for residents to purchase vital goods and experience the
sense of community. You can easily hear Vietnamese news reports on television and Cambodian
songs on radios in the shopping mall. Customers bargain with shopkeepers in their mother
tongues while chatting about recent news. When there aren't many visitors, shopkeepers gather in
the hallway or stalls to chat and sip tea. The unique cultural atmosphere as well as the
affordability of items attract visitors from surrounding neighborhoods. A business owner I
encountered during community outreach speaks fluent Spanish which he learned from his
customers over the years.
48
Figure 3.9: Dynasty Center in Chinatown. Photo courtesy of Eater Los Angeles. Image courtesy of Lee &
Associates.

Figure 3.10: A gift shop operator and his shop in Dynasty Center. Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Times.
Many people I interviewed, from college students to the elders, were all nostalgic for the
memories they have in Chinatown’s extensive shopping malls, where they spent a lot of time
with families or friends on weekends. Chinatown at that time was the commercial and cultural
49
center of Chinese Americans in the area, seeing a constant influx of immigrants from China and
Southeast Asian countries.
109

In 2003, the Chinatown Gold line Metro station was completed, which sits at the west
gate of the neighborhood. The completion of the Metro station sparked not only the influx of
tourists but also transportation-oriented developments (TOD) in the neighborhood.
Comparatively low property prices in Chinatown and its proximity to Downtown Los Angeles
make it a hot market for developers. A luxury apartment and retail complex called Blossom
Plaza was built on North Broadway across from Central Plaza in 2013, renting for more than
2,000 dollars per month for a studio. Another example is the six-story Jia Apartment that
includes a Starbucks. Outside developers began to aggressively acquire large buildings and land
in the neighborhood. Most of the once popular and symbolic shopping malls in Chinatown were
eventually converted into up-scale housing and retail complexes, office spaces to welcome
young, high-income working professionals. (Figure 3.11, 3.12, 3.13) Many small businesses
were evicted. Some relocated to nearby malls, while others closed permanently. As of today,
small business owners in Dynasty Center, the last shopping center remaining in the
neighborhood, are facing eviction. For many of them, this is the second or third time of being
eviction in the neighborhood.

Figure 3.11: Chinatown Swap Meet before converted to an office building. Photo courtesy of Redcar Real Estate.

109
Rosanne Keynan, “1990s: The Golden Decade: CHINATOWN LOS ANGELES: Revitalized Community Rises
from Shock Waves of Change,” Los Angeles Times, January 15, 1990.
50

Figure 3.12: Chinatown Swap Meet after converted to an office building. Photo courtesy of Redcar Real Estate.

Figure 3.13: An interactive feature on a developer’s website to showcase the before/after scene of a project in
Chinatown. The left picture is The Shop, a former popular community shopping mall, and the right one is an office
building under construction. Photo courtesy of Redcar Real Estate.
51
For over 150 years, Chinatown has served as a gateway for Chinese and later Southeast
Asian immigrants and their descendants. In the neighborhood, they can comfortably start their
businesses and practice cultural traditions. Ethnic restaurants and groceries, herb shops, schools,
churches, and temples are places where the community rebuild their social relations and culture
practices that were disrupted by the immigration. In addition, community organizations are
instrumental when immigrants develop social relations and reinforce community identity. For
example, family associations in Chinatown have a long history of serving as social clubs or
lodges to support new immigrants. They also provided a united voice to fight against racial
discrimination. The influential community associations/organizations in Chinatown include the
Wong Family Association, Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, Los Angeles
(CCBALA), Chinatown Service Center (CSC), and the recent Chinatown Community for
Equitable Development (CCED).
Legacy Businesses in Today’s Chinatown
Except for the aforementioned stalls housed in community shopping malls such as the
Dynasty Center, according to a survey conducted by CCED (see Table 2), there are nineteen
small businesses in Chinatown that are still operating and have a history over twenty years,
including nine restaurants, five bakeries, two jewelries, two gift shops, and a hotel, among which
the oldest small business is F. See On, a jewelry store with more than 150 years of history. There
are two restaurants, Philipe’s and Hong Kong Noodle, that have more than a hundred years of
history. Philipe’s, however, is a historic French dip restaurant forced to move to its current
location in 1951 because of the construction of the Hollywood-Santa Ana 101 Freeway.
The average longevity of these small businesses is over 60 years. Most of the legacy
businesses are located in the commercial core of the neighborhood, along North Broadway and
Gin Ling Way, and some of them are still run by the original same families. As many small
business owners don't necessarily know the history of the business over the years, the age of
small businesses may not be accurate.
According to the same survey conducted by CCED, for community organizations in
Chinatown, there are 7 of them that have served Chinatown for over a hundred years; the oldest
association is the Wong Family Association with 152 years of history. Fong Lun Association and
Lung Kong Tin Yee Association have also existed in the community for over 133 years. The
52
long history of community organizations reflects the history and social network of the
Chinatown community as well.
No. Name Organization
Type
Est.
Year
Longevity
1 F. See On Jewelry 1872 150
2 Jin Hing Jeweler Jewelry 1980 42
3 K. G. Louie Co. Gift Shop 1938 84
4 Chew Yuen Co. Gift Shop 1940 82
5 Metro Plaza Hotel Hotel 1992 30
6 Phoenix Bakery Bakery 1938 84
7 Queen's Bakery Bakery 1961 61
8 Wonder Bakery Bakery 1975 47
9 KBC Bakery Bakery 1992 30
10 Kim Hung Bakery Bakery 1992 30
11 Phillipe’s Restaurant 1908 114
12 Hong Kong Noodle Restaurant 1910 112
13 Paul’s Kitchen Restaurant 1968 54
14 Golden Dragon Restaurant Restaurant 1963 59
15 Full House Restaurant 1981 41
16 Hop Li Restaurant 1983 39
17 Ocean Pacific Restaurant 1988 34
18 Home Boy Industries Restaurant 1992 30
19 Hop Woo Restaurant 1993 29
Table 3.1 Part of existing legacy businesses in New Chinatown. Courtesy of CCED.
Legacy Businesses and Community Development
Frist, for Chinese immigrants and their descendants living in the neighborhood, legacy
businesses where owners, employees, and customers share similar cultural backgrounds allow
them to comfortably obtain ethnic goods and services and develop social relationships in the host
society. Second, for middle-class Chinese residents living in surrounding suburban
neighborhoods, legacy businesses in Chinatown are anchors to attract them back to the inner-city
community and boost the neighborhood economy. Third, for residents with no Chinese
53
background in the neighborhood, legacy businesses are long-standing establishments where
cross-ethnic and -cultural communication happens naturally. Finally, for tourists from other
neighborhoods in Los Angeles and beyond the city, legacy businesses in Chinatown are
important places in which people experience Chinese and Southeast Asian culture, such as
legacy restaurants with signage written in Chinese or Vietnamese, jades and bamboos in
giftshops along Broadway, or the maze-like Dynasty Center filled with affordable cultural items
along with Chinese or Vietnamese songs.
Particularly, legacy businesses are vital places for residents to form social relations and
build a sense of community. As an interviewee put it: “When I am in Chinatown, I don't need to
explain myself to others, and neither do they.”
110
On my walk with Pauline Chau, a lady in her
80s who has lived in Chinatown for fifty-three years, I observed that all shopkeepers and servers
knew her and chatted with her in Cantonese when we bought groceries in the Dynasty Center and
dined at a Cantonese restaurant. Another interesting observation is that Chinatown natives can
even distinguish the shopkeeper’s background by a glimpse of the storefront. One interviewee
told me that business owners with Southeast Asian background prefer not to display price tags,
while those with Cantonese origin do.
111
Ethnic businesses in Chinatown serve as the “third
place” for people to interact with, to maintain cultural identity on a daily basis, and function as
an informal culture exhibition with culture-related items or even invisible price tags.
In sum, legacy businesses in Chinatown foster distinct social relationships between
owners/operators, workers, customers/visitors (both with or without a Chinese cultural
background) and promote cross-culture communication. Moreover, the arts and crafts embodied
in the culture-related items offered by legacy businesses in Chinatown are themselves a type of
intangible cultural heritage. The experience of purchasing and consuming such items can be
regarded as cultural practices. Common origins, cultural backgrounds, languages spoken, and
repeated encounters together heighten the association between legacy businesses and community
members in Chinatown. For many interviewees, visiting legacy businesses is a necessary
lifestyle that to some extent infuses into their identity. In addition, the history of legacy business
in Chinatown is not only a critical component of Chinese American community history in Los
Angeles and immigrant history of the US, but also an epitome of Los Angeles development

110
Interview with a college student studying at Cal State LA, Los Angeles, June 20, 2022.
111
Interview with a Chinatown resident, Los Angeles, June 20, 2022.
54
history that spans over the agricultural period in the late 1800s to recent globalization and
gentrification in the inner city. Not to mention the architectural and interior design of many
legacy businesses in Chinatown reflect the cultural characteristics of Chinese American culture.
Finally, for visitors with no Chinese cultural background, it is also a cross-cultural experience
and therefore, the experience of visiting or patronizing legacy businesses in Chinatown reflects
the cultural diversity in the broader community.
Challenges Faced by Three Types of Legacy Business in Chinatown
Chinatown has a variety of small businesses that meet the longevity criterion of L.A.
Registry which is at least 20 years of history. Many retail establishments, restaurants, and
professional services such as dental clinics have their roots in the community and define the
neighborhood characters. Some of them are popular and well-known city-wide, others may be
less famous but vital to residents. In addition to traditional mom-and-pop shops, hundreds of
independent stalls inside shopping malls also together contribute to the community cultural
heritage and neighborhood economy. Although these establishments could be considered as
legacy businesses, their situations differ greatly depending on their commercial space
ownerships, customer base, industry, online commerce adaptation, etc.. In addition, they have all
faced challenges stemming from neighborhood gentrification.
In order to better examine the various milieu and challenges legacy businesses are facing,
this section demonstrates and analyzes three different types of small businesses through three
case studies: the well-known Phoenix Bakery with over 80 years of history on Broadway, Zen
Mei Bistro near the Alpine Recreation Center serving generations of residents and office workers
in Downtown Los Angeles, and Cindy’s Shop in Dynasty Center whose clientele includes
residents and tourists. The case studies were based on interviews with business owners,
community organization members who have experience working with business owners directly,
and published media reports.
1. Phoenix Bakery
112

Founded in 1938 and still operated by the Chan Family, Phoenix Bakery has served the
Chinatown community for 84 years. (Figure 3.14) Its founders Fung Chow Chan and his wife
Wai Hing were originally from Guangzhou, China. They established Phoenix Bakery (雙鳳餅

112
This section was all derived from an interview conducted with Kenneth Chan, one of Phoenix Bakery's operators,
on June 20, 2022, in Los Angeles, California, unless otherwise noted.
55
家) with the idea of “creating a gathering place for the community where people can enjoy
traditional Cantonese pastries and cookies”.
113
Later, Lun Chan, Fung Chow’s brother, who
studied baking at Hong Kong and Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, joined the bakery and
developed western-style cakes that cater to the Chinese community and beyond.
114
Over the
years, its signature Cantonese-style almond cookies and western-style strawberry cake found
favor within the community. In addition, having wedding cakes, birthday cakes, and festival
pastries from Phoenix Bakery became a tradition in Chinatown. For example, the bakery’s
handmade mooncakes made with natural ingredients have been very popular during the Autumn
Festival (a traditional Chinese festival pastry when people worship the moon and celebrate
family reunions). From people in Chinatown to workers in Downtown Los Angeles, to the
Lakers and Dodgers, Phoenix Bakery registered in many Angelenos' memories. As Barbara
Hansen from the Los Angeles Times commented Phoenix Bakery: “It is an L.A. classic.”
115

Figure 3.14: The façade of Phoenix Bakery. Photo courtesy of The Infatuation.

113
Phoenix Bakery, “Our History,” Phoenix Bakery (Phoenix Bakery Inc. L.A. CHINATOWN), accessed December
11, 2022, https://www.phoenixbakeryinc.com/history.
114
Ibid.
115
Elaine Woo, “Fung Chow Chan; Founded L.A.'s Phoenix Bakery,” Los Angeles Times, February 7, 2001,
latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-feb-07-me-22259-story.html.
56
The founder Fung Chow Chan was also a visionary and respected leader in the Chinese
American community. He moved to Los Angeles from Guangzhou, China, to join his father, who
had already established a silk business here. In addition to establishing and running Phoenix
Bakery, he also played a leading role in founding two important Chinese American financial
institutions, Cathay Bank and East-West Bank, two of the oldest banks owned by Chinese
Americans.
116
(Figure 3.15) When Chan found it extremely difficult to obtain a bank loan for his
bakery in the 1970s, despite its enormous success, he and other community leaders in Chinatown
decided to establish a bank to serve the Chinese American community who were often rejected
by mainstream banks due to racial discrimination.

Figure 3.15: Cathay Bank in Chinatown. Photo courtesy of Architectural Resources Group.
The bakery used to be located in Central Plaza for forty years (1938 – 1977). It later
relocated to its current location at 969 N Broadway since 1977. The bakery gained its loyal
customers in the city by the 1970s, selling about a thousand desserts every Saturday.
117
Ken
Chen, the second child of the founders Fun Chow Chan and Wai Hing, shared a story about one
of their customers: “One customer who had lived in Chinatown for many years and moved to

116
John Grimmett, “Passing of a Pioneer,” Passing of a Pioneer (Los Angeles Downtown News, February 12, 2001),
http://www.ladowntownnews.com/news/passing-of-a-pioneer/article_8fa71dd4-5fd2-5dfc-a39c-
3a6195326348.html.
117
Elaine Woo, “Fung Chow Chan; Founded L.A.'s Phoenix Bakery,” Fung Chow Chan; Founded L.A.'s Phoenix
Bakery (Los Angeles Times, February 7, 2001), https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-feb-07-me-22259-
story.html.
57
Nevada insisted on buying the Signature Strawberry Cake for every birthday, Her family
managed to travel interstate on every birthday to by our cakes because ‘it is not a real birthday
without the cake from us.’”
118

Phoenix Bakery was also welcomed by the community as an employer. “Generations of
kids living in Chinatown earned their allowance and tuition by working part-time in our bakery,”
said Ken. Except for part-time employees, most full-time employees have worked here for more
than a decade. Employees were of various backgrounds, including Chinese, Southeast Asian and
Mexican immigrants. Ken mentioned that one employee who worked here for more than thirty
years. who “retired recently but came back and asked us for job again because he missed us.”
According to Ken, his parents never talked about succession plans with him and his
siblings. “But they also did not talk about selling the bakery, so we just knew it. Our uncles and
aunts always lecture us to keep the family business,” said Ken. So far, it is Ken and his siblings
taking care of the bakery together, although all of them have a full-time job. Ken visits the
bakery once a week, and so do his siblings. Ken said: "Honestly, none of us are interested in
taking over the bakery, but we have to. It is our responsibility." The second generation of the
Chan family has not yet determined the future of Phoenix Bakery. When asked about his opinion
on an employee-owned plan, he said they have been considering training and promoting long-
term employees to management roles, but the bakery would highly likely be family-owned.
In Ken's opinion, Phoenix Bakery's biggest challenge was the increasing labor costs due
to complicated baking process that requires long hours of hard work and many workers. Labor
therefore occupied a large portion of their cost. The other problem that he worried about was
inflation, which has driven up the cost dramatically.
As for rents, Ken thought it would not be a matter of problem because the building that
the bakery occupies owned by one of his family members. But he also acknowledged that rent
would be a huge pressure for other legacy businesses that do not have such privilege.
Ken emphasized that language barriers and the lack of knowledge could pose challenges
to business owners. He offered an example of obtaining reasonable deals with point of sale
(POS) payment systems, banks, and internet service providers. They are important businesses
infrastructure for small business, but it is also a time- and energy-consuming process to bargain
for a reasonable price. He said that business owners could be charged unreasonable bills that they

118
Kenneth Chan, interview by author, Los Angeles, June 20, 2022.
58
could not afford if they did not have the knowledge and energy to negotiate. Considering the
relatively low profit margin for most small businesses, such issues could have a huge financial
impact on them. In many cases, due to the high costs and the lack of energy to negotiate, some
business owners simply refuse credit card payment or internet service, limiting their customer
base and their capability to accommodate the changing market.
2. Zen Mei Bistro
119

Zen Mei Bistro (珍美海鮮燒臘麵家)is a family-run Cantonese restaurant located in the
Alpine Recreation Center, a popular community gathering place. (Figure 3.16) Authentic flavors
and friendly service make it a beloved restaurant among residents. Lunchtime is usually the
busiest time window when Downtown office workers rush in for a satisfying Chinese meal. Kids
frequent Zen Mei after basketball games in the recreation center; They enter the restaurant, walk
directly to the refrigerator, and grab a carbonated beverage while having small talk with the
owners, Michelle, and employees about families and school. Some of them are childhood friends
of Michelle's daughter and son.

Figure 3.16: Zen Mei Bistro. Photo courtesy of The Infatuation.
Michelle moved to Los Angeles from Guangzhou, China in 2001 with her daughter and
son to reunite with her husband who worked in Chinatown. She remembered the day they arrived
was right after the tragic September 11 Attack occurred, and they had to spend a whole day at
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) before they were approved to enter the country. After

119
This section was all derived from an interview conducted with Michelle, owner of Zen Mei Bistro, on June 20,
2022, in Los Angeles, California, unless otherwise noted.
59
settling in Chinatown, she worked as a garment worker for a long time and her husband worked
at a Chinese restaurant. With years of hard work, she and her husband managed to save enough
money to buy the Zen Mei Bistro from its last operator, who is also a Chinese American of
Cantonese origin. Michelle is not sure how long Zen Mei Bistro operated before she took it over.
CSC's CEO Peter Ng, who is also the cousin of Zen Mei Bistro's previous owner, said in an
interview that the restaurant had operated for more than 30 years before Michelle bought it. The
chef was replaced by Michele’s husband after they took over the restaurant. The restaurant so far
has five employees who all have a Cantonese background.
The rapid increase in rents has been a major concern for the restaurant. The landlord
kindly offered Michelle a rent cut during the COVID period, but the discount would end soon as
of the interview conducted. Michelle was worried about the restaurant’s future since the number
of lunch diners has reduced substantially due to the working-from-home trend and she felt
pessimistic about the return of lunch diners who were mostly Downtown office workers. Even
worse, the number of visitors and tourists has also declined. She said, “Because of COVID, foot
traffic dropped drastically. The neighborhood has become a lot quieter than before.” The
increasing prices of labor and materials made it even harder. For example, the price of a bucket
of oil rose from $20 to over $50 in a month. To compensate for the loss, she had to extend
business hours to 12 hours, resulting in more than 15 working hours a day.
When asked about online commerce adaptation, Michelle said although she has worked
with online food delivery and ordering platforms, the commissions for these tech companies
were so high that she was considering withdrawing from the platforms. In addition, Michelle
mentioned the changing demographics of her clientele: While the number of customers has
dwindled, the proportion of non-Asian diners has increased, who she said were new residents in
the neighborhood.
Over the years, Michelle has not been able to obtain a formal lease agreement with her
landlord. Although she did not believe that her landlord would evict her soon, she still wanted a
formal signed lease that would make her feel a lot more secure. “I am not sure if I should discuss
this topic with my landlord, because I am afraid that she will straight up kick me out when I
propose the idea,” said Michelle.
Besides, Michelle also worried about safety issues. She used to think that the location of
Zen Mei Bistro was ideal because the popular Alpine Recreation Park is just across the street and
60
people there would keep an eye on the restaurant. In early 2021, however, the restaurant was
robbed, which raised concern about safety. Fortunately, the Chinatown community, led by the
Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, quickly raised funds to support the restaurant
after the robbery. Still, she believed that the safety problem became more and more pronounced
during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The story of Michelle and the nearby unhoused people is well known in Chinatown.
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the Alpine Recreation Center has seen an increase in the
unhoused population. Michelle regularly offered them water, food, clothes, blankets and let them
use the bathroom in the restaurant. Theo, one of the unhoused people who once received support
from Michelle, used to occasionally assist Michelle’s son with his schoolwork in return. Theo
later left Chinatown but still frequented Zen Mei Bistro once a week to express his gratitude to
Michelle.
Talking about the future of Zen Mei Bistro, Michelle and her husband were considering
retiring in four years after their son graduates from college. “We work more than 12 hours a day.
The culinary industry is so cruel. I can’t wait to retire.” She shared her feeling of guilt with her
children due to the limited time spent with them. “It is my obligation to earn college tuition for
my kids and it will end after my younger kid graduates from college. After all these years of hard
working, I just want to enjoy my life with family.”
3. Cindy’s Shop
120

Cindy Ho just relocated her shop to Dynasty Center from The Shop several years ago.
She has sold jewelry, accessories, and cultural-related items in Chinatown for over 30 years.
Cindy is from Vietnam with Cantonese origin, so she can speak Cantonese and Vietnamese. She
and her family emigrated from Vietnam in the 1970s to escape war and then settled in Los
Angeles Chinatown for a better life. She is proud to establish her own business from scratch and
nostalgic about the good old times in the neighborhood before.
But this is the second time she was forced to relocate. The Shop, another community
shopping center opened during the 1980s and where her store was originally located, was
converted into an office building by an outside developer. She was shocked by facing the
second-time eviction in Dynasty Center so soon from the same developer who pushed her out of

120
This section was all derived from an interview conducted with Cindy Ho, the owner of Cindy’s Shop, on
February 25, 2022, in Los Angeles, California, unless otherwise noted.
61
The Shop. (Figure 20) This caused her a lot of concerns since her last relocation experience was
not a pleasant one. For commercial tenants, the developer is hard to reach and there is almost no
communication between them. She said that there were various accounts and rumors about the
eviction plan which might be intentionally spread by the developer, leading to huge uncertainty
hanging over every shopkeeper’s head. “Last year, there was a rumor that the developer would
kick us out by the end of 2021. But when coming to 2022, it changed to March, and then again it
was changed to by the end of 2022. Now I heard that the deadline was push to the next year. I
really don’t know what is going on,” said Cindy. Another conflict between her and the developer
is about rent. She used to pay 50% of the rent to the previous landlord throughout the COVID-19
pandemic, she had to pay full rent for the new landlord who issued 3-day notice. Cindy felt
extremely uncertain about her business’s future because she found that there is no other
community shopping mall like Dynasty Center in Chinatown to move in after being evicted
again and she did not want to leave the neighborhood. As she put it, “All the goods I am selling
are related to Chinese culture. Chinatown is where my store should stay.”

Figure 3.17: Dynasty Center. Photo courtesy of Chinatown Community for Equitable Development.
Over three decades of operating giftshops in Chinatown, Cindy met countless tourists
who visited the neighborhood to experience Chinese culture. “In Chinatown, I met people from
all over the world. Some of them returned to visit me after years, appreciating the cultural items I
62
sold and Chinese culture. But it will never happen again due to the frequent relocation,” said
Cindy.
Cindy hoped that the voice of small business owners in the neighborhood could be heard
by the broader community and governments. “I don’t know if County or City should take care of
this issue. But I think there should be a way to intervene. I hope that the developer can give us
three to five more years when most of us (small business owners in Dynasty Center) are ready to
retire, otherwise we cannot find jobs elsewhere. It would be great if the developer could leave
some space as a community shopping mall for us to continue to run business in the future.”
Analysis on Three Case Studies
Except for Phoenix Bakery whose operator owns its commercial space, the other two
businesses were both facing the risk of being evicted. The owner of Zen Mei Bistro failed to
obtain a formal lease from her landlord, which left her in a vulnerable position to protect her
rights as a commercial tenant. The motivation for not signing a leasing contract for the landlord
could be (a) eluding landlord’s obligation, such as property maintenance; and (b) securing an
advantageous position for the flexibility of selling property to potential buyers in the hot real
estate market. Due to the unbalanced negotiation power between the commercial tenant and
landlord, the business owner even feared bringing the matter to the landlord. In Cindy’s case,
although she has a month-by-month contract with the current landlord, the developer is in a
favorable position where it can issue eviction notices in a very short period. The speculative
potential of the Chinatown real estate market left property owners huge bargaining power against
commercial tenants, letting legacy business owners in a difficult position. Without a stable long-
term lease, owners cannot come up with long-term business plans due to the uncertainty, nor can
they obtain loans or credit from banks.
Moreover, the shifting client base and consumer preferences require businesses to pivot.
Due to suburbanization in the regional context and the lack of affordable housing in the
neighborhood, many long-term residents moved out of Chinatown for spacious and affordable
residences. People who stay in Chinatown are generally poorer and older than the average level
in the city.
121
While Chinatown still serves vital goods and services for residents at affordable
prices and in a culturally comfortable manner, many small businesses started adapting to

121
Los Angeles Times, “Chinatown Neighborhood Profile,” Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles Times), accessed
December 12, 2022, https://maps.latimes.com/neighborhoods/neighborhood/chinatown/index.html.
63
preferences of visitors and tourists. However, they still need to confront fierce competition from
online platforms. For example, a gift shop on Broadway near the Central Plaza shifted to sell
cultural items and plants from books and videos imported from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and
China. As its owner who is a Vietnamese-Chinese immigrant said, “No one goes to bookstore
today, and no one buys DVDs because everyone watches YouTube and Netflix.”
122

In addition, many business owners have not yet formed a communal vision for
Chinatown's future, although many of them realized that the historic Chinatown has been
reshaped rapidly by new developers. Many of them did not feel they were able to confront
powerful developers. There are some community-based organizations, however, established to
organize commercial tenants as well as residential tenants to negotiate with landlords and
developers, such as CCED and Southeast Asian Community Alliance (SEACA). But long
working hours drain tenants' energy, making it difficult to organize. Nevertheless, the emergence
of such grassroots community organizations could empower the community to negotiate and
envision an equitable future.
Finally, the competition from the ethnoburbs in the San Gabriel Valley that attract recent
Asian immigrants as well as residents who used to live in Chinatown also affects the
neighborhood.
123
According to several interviewees who are or were long-time Chinatown
residents, many ethnic groceries, Asian supermarkets, and herb stores moved to suburban cities
as they have a broader client base there. The relocation of such major and vital facilities further
pushes people out of the neighborhood, making it harder for small businesses to sustain.
Conclusions
History of business or the family who owns the business in urban ethnic enclaves such as
Little Tokyo and Chinatown in Los Angeles is an epitome of immigrant history in the United
States as well as regional development history. It is also a critical source as a part of public
history in the progress of racial reckoning. Therefore, researching, preserving, and displaying the
history of those small businesses should be integrated into legacy business conservation practices
as an important component. Non-profit professional organizations such as local historic societies,

122
Interview with a gift shop owner on Broadway, Chinatown, Los Angeles, May 30, 2022.
123
Wei Li, “Anatomy of a New Ethnic Settlement: The Chinese Ethnoburb in Los Angeles,” Urban Studies 35, no. 3
(1998): pp. 479-501, https://doi.org/10.1080/0042098984871.
64
community service centers, community-based organizations, and business associations could
play as community partners when collecting and studying historical information.
Rooted in a solidified community where many people share a common cultural
background, legacy businesses in urban ethnic enclaves that serve culture-related goods or
services are places where people practice cultural traditions and maintain their cultural identity
through everyday life. In addition to goods and services, the language spoken, settings of
commercial spaces, relationships between shop operators, employees, and customers are all
cultural practices that the community may not be able to enjoy outside of the ethnic
neighborhood. Therefore, legacy businesses are part of the cultural institution in urban ethnic
enclaves.
As community gathering places, legacy businesses in ethnic neighborhoods also foster
social relationships among community members organically through daily encounters and
interactions, which is especially important for new immigrants who just started establishing
social capital. Besides, employment opportunities offered by ethnic businesses are critical to new
immigrants as well because such working places may to some extent exempt cultural barriers.
Moreover, legacy businesses in ethnic enclaves serve as places for natural cross-culture
communications for the broader community. With a long and rich history standing in the
neighborhood, legacy businesses are linchpins for visitors or residents outside of the ethnic
community to learn local history and culture, enhancing social cohesion for the region.
The urban context of ethnic neighborhoods, however, gives pressure on the existence of
legacy businesses as shown in two case studies above. The lucrative real estate market in the
downtown area brings powerful developers into the ethnic claves along with luxury offices,
residential, or commercial buildings that might replace historic legacy businesses. The
displacement or closure of legacy businesses will result in the erosion of the social and cultural
fabric in the neighborhood.
Compared to Little Tokyo which has already been gentrified, Chinatown is still in the
process of gentrification.
124
Therefore, the conflict between commercial tenants and landlords is
more pronounced in the latter neighborhood, which calls for community organization and, if

124
Saki Nakashima, “Mapping Gentrification in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles: Using Geographic Information System
(GIS) Analytical Tools,” Proceedings of the ICA 2 (October 2019): pp. 1-8, https://doi.org/10.5194/ica-proc-2-91-
2019.; Laureen D. Hom, “Symbols of Gentrification? Narrating Displacement in Los Angeles Chinatown,” Urban
Affairs Review 58, no. 1 (November 2020): pp. 196-228, https://doi.org/10.1177/1078087420954917.
65
possible, public agency intervention. Although the urban contexts are different, legacy
businesses in both neighborhoods share many challenges. First, the rapid increase in rent is a
major pressure poses on businesses. Thus, securing a long-term lease is a key to stabilizing
legacy businesses. Little Tokyo is exploring diverse methods to tackle this problem, including
community land trust. The other shared challenge is language barriers. Many business owners in
these two neighborhoods are not native English speakers, therefore they may not be able to
access necessary resources to help them develop businesses or fight for their own rights. Besides,
a substantial portion of legacy business owners are seniors who may need additional assistance to
learn knowledge and skills to accommodate the changing market. Moreover, many legacy
business owners have not yet identified or realized the historical values and cultural heritage
embedded in their businesses, and do not have the awareness of archiving documents or
documenting family history. This issue suggests legacy business programs need to begin with
raising public awareness and educate business owners about heritage conservation, otherwise the
program will be dominated by those already well-known and well-documented businesses,
failing to represent neighborhood characters and history. It also entails assistance to legacy
business owners in writing historic statements during the application phase for legacy business
programs.
As discussed in this chapter, the urban context is a major force in reshaping a
community's cultural landscape, which involves a variety of stakeholders including developers,
landowners, tenants, residents, governments, and community organizations. Therefore, cultural
heritage practices in rapidly changing urban neighborhoods would not succeed if the
conservation strategies were isolated to traditional historic preservation, simple financial
incentives, and technical assistance. Working with the community, learning challenges and
concerns, forming collective vision for the community, and seeking collaboration with various
stakeholders are necessary for legacy businesses conservation in an equitable manner.
Legacy business conservation cannot become successful without historical research and
conservation efforts on the ground. Both Chinatown and Little Tokyo have their own historical
association (Chinese Historical Society of Southern California and Little Tokyo Historical
Society, respectively), they play a central role to survey, identify, and document historic
accounts of families, business, and community groups. It is also critical to channel this
66
knowledge back to the community through education programs or youth programs, acting as a
catalyst to raise public awareness and sustain cultural heritage of the communtiy.

67
Chapter 4 Conclusions
Chapter 1 discusses the cultural significance of legacy businesses in American cities,
particularly those in urban ethnic neighborhoods, and its main attributes, including:
1. Relationships between owners/operators, workers, and customers/visitors;
2. Arts and crafts, or cultural characteristics of goods or services served by the business;
3. History of the business;
4. Architecture or interior design of the building houses the business;
5. Business’s involvement in the community as a third space where people gather and form
social relationships;
6. Association between the place that business occupies and community’s collective
memories and identity construction.
The characteristics and complex urban issues confronted by legacy business warrant
more complex conservation strategies that may be helpful in mitigating social equity issues
beyond the traditional conservation scope. In addition, for ethnic legacy businesses, related
community members should be the primary source of cultural knowledge as available historic
documents may not be sufficient, which requires deeper collaboration between conservation
experts and the community.
The case studies of legacy programs in three American cities - San Francisco, CA, San
Antonio, TX and Los Angeles, CA in Chapter 2 revealed that longevity and cultural contribution
to the community are two major standards for legacy businesses to get registered, while the
process of assessing cultural contribution is not clarified. The highlights of legacy business
programs are its expansion of historic objects to small business of historic, social and use value
and innovative conservation strategies such as marketing and financial incentives that sync with
improving social equity. Therefore, legacy business programs in American cities bring about
more opportunities in the field in regards to conserving living legacy, intangible cultural
heritage, and involving in mitigating broader social issues.
In the discussion of two neighborhood scale case studies – Little Tokyo and Chinatown in
Los Angeles, the thesis analyzes neighborhood context and the relationship between the legacy
business and the symbiotic cultural heritage of the community. Legacy businesses here serve
beyond commercial establishments selling goods and services and play an active role in
preserving, transmitting community culture on a daily basis as well as community identity. They
68
also function as a “third place” for community interaction and gathering where people create
collective memories, cultivate place attachment, and reinforce cultural identity. In addition, the
history of legacy businesses in these two communities reflects historical and social patterns in
the city of Los Angeles and the broader community in terms of immigrant history, the history of
city development and the region’s character of cultural diversity. The wave of gentrification and
the real estate market, however, threatens the continuity of legacy businesses in these
neighborhoods.
In America, the disappearance of urban neighborhoods is not an uncommon
phenomenon. Under this context, the strategy for conserving and revitalizing ethnic legacy
businesses –irreplaceable places for immigrant communities to access vital goods and foods as
well as maintain cultural identity – needs input from diverse agents and flexible measures.
Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs), for example, are legal contracts negotiated between
developers or companies moving into a neighborhood and the community who is impacted. It is
a useful tool for the community to convey their concerns, mitigate negative effects brought about
by gentrifiers, and channel resources back to the community.
While offering financial grants to legacy business owners is an innovative approach, it is
difficult to enhance their negotiating power with commercial landlords as the lucrative property
market. Neighborhoods such as Little Tokyo are exploring community land trust funds to secure
property ownership to counteract rising rents. Los Angeles Chinatown started to unite voices
from both commercial and residential tenants to resist evictions. Both attempts are still in their
infancy, but they are worthy of further research.
Recognition and marketing promotion are popular assistance offered by legacy business
programs, which were also regarded as a part of public history education. Extensive city-wide
marketing campaigns can attract media as well as the public’s attention. By doing so, the
program can encourage citizens and business owners to rediscover cultural heritage embedded in
establishments where they encounter every day and empower them to explore their unique
stories and culture. The spillover effects of massive scale marketing activities can also promote
other small businesses in the neighborhood.
Another popular benefit provided by legacy business programs is technical consultation
or business education resources. Immigrant communities, however, many of whom struggle with
language barriers may require the program to collaborate with community organizations for
69
better program outcomes. Thus, collaboration between city entities and community organizations
is recommended, particularly for immigrant neighborhoods, to distribute benefits as well as offer
application assistance.
Prioritizing legacy businesses which face risk of being evicted is adopted by S.F.
Registry and L.A. Registry, while the latter one goes one step further to prioritize businesses in
low-income neighborhoods. Marketing campaigns and application assistance should therefore
pay more attention to traditionally underserved neighborhoods.
There is a major issue, however, lying in many legacy business programs of American
cities: There is insufficient support or guidance provided to business owners about how to
discover, identify, document, and sustain the history and cultural heritage of their businesses.
Identifying and documenting the cultural heritage of a business is normally limited to the
application process in which business owners need to describe their history, contributions to the
community, and plans to maintain cultural heritage. Although some programs, such as S.F.
Registry, offer application assistance by its Small Business Commission staff, it may still pose
challenges for business owners, especially immigrant communities whose history and cultural
heritage may not have been sufficiently documented and studied. Therefore, it requires
collaboration between historians, heritage conservation practitioners, and community members
to establish and maintain a cultural heritage inventory to lay a foundation for legacy business
programs implementation.
The Burra Charter Process could be a starting point to establish the framework for
conserving legacy businesses with deeper and broader collaboration with community and diverse
stakeholders to identify cultural significance, issues in the local and regional context, available
resources. It also helps recognize potential alliances and establish a monitoring mechanism.
126

Based on the discussion, this thesis proposes a conservation process for legacy businesses in
urban ethnic neighborhoods in American cities that demonstrated as Table 4.1:
Phase Step Burra Charter Process Added Processes Proposed by this Thesis
Understand
Significance
1 Understand the place: define
the place and its extent,
investigate the place including
history, use, associations, and
fabric.
(Articles 5-17, 12, 26)
(a) Partner with community members or organizations
for cultural significance information, especially for the
following:
• Relationships between owners/operators,
workers, and customers/visitors;

126
Australia ICOMOS, “The Burra Charter Flow Chart,” The Burra Charter Flow Chart (Australia ICOMOS),
accessed January 13, 2023, https://australia.icomos.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Burra-Charter-flow-chart.pdf.
70
• Arts and crafts, or cultural characteristics of
goods or services served by the business;
• History of the business;
• Architecture or interior design of the building
houses the business;
• Business’s involvement in the community as a
third space where people gather and form
social relationships;
• Association between the place that business
occupies and community’s collective memories
and identity construction.
(b) set up reasonable and effective conservation goals
for the business;
(c) Identify opportunities and threats faced by the legacy
business;
2 Assess cultural significance:
assess all values using
relevant criteria and develop a
statement of significance.
(Article 26)
(a) Validate information collected in the Step 1 with the
community;
(b) Research community and regional historical and
cultural significance.

Develop
Policy
3 Identify all factors and issues:
identify obligations arising
from significance, future
needs, resources, opportunities
and constraints, and condition.
(Articles 6, 12)
(a) Assess opportunities and threats confronted by the
legacy business through following dimensions:
• Urgency of the opportunities or threats;
• Where do the opportunities/threats come from?
Are they business-specific or regional context
issue?
• If they are business-specific opportunities,
what kind of available resources or support can
be directed to the business?
(b) If opportunities/threats stem from
community/regional issues, what policies need to be
revised or proposed? For example, unreasonable zoning,
gentrification, the lack of affordable housing in the
neighborhood, ineffective economic development
policies, etc.
(c) Identify and consult with stakeholders and potential
allies, such as other government departments, interested
developers, preservation entities, community
organizations, interested groups and individuals, etc.
4 Develop policy
(Articles 6-13, 26)
(a) Based on the consultation from last step, develop
policy and collaboration mechanisms among
stakeholders and allies;
(b) Ensure the participation of community members.
5 Prepare a management plan:
define priorities, resources,
responsibilities and timing,
and implementation actions.
(Articles 14-28)

Manage in
Accordance
with Policy
6 Implement the management
plan
(Articles 26-34)

7 Monitor the results & review
the plan
(Article 26)

Table 4.1 Legacy Business Conservation Process Based on Burra Charter Process, table by author.
71
The Legacy Business Conservation Process improves the existing Burra Charter Process
in four aspects: (a) It specifies characteristics of cultural significance of legacy businesses and
steps of identifying them; (b) it emphasizes the step of identifying potential partners/stakeholders
related to legacy business conservation, such as community partners, developers, and
government entities; (c) it encompasses broader issues in conservation practice, including
business/economic development, cross-culture communication, urban planning, and social
equity; and (d) it goes beyond the conservation scope to the broader community/regional context.
Breaking down silos and incorporating diverse stakeholders and allies can bring more
opportunities to legacy business conservation practices. As it can simultaneously take care of
other social issues, legacy business programs may gain more visibility and support from city
councils, government entities, and the public.

72
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Appendix A
San Antonio, TX, Legacy Business Program Application Form

79
Appendix B
Los Angeles, CA, Legacy Business Registry Council Documents (File No.19-0781, Nos. 2, 6, and 7 of
Exhibit B of the March 3, 2022 Economic and Workforce Development Department Report)

80
81
82

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No. 2 of Exhibit B of the March 3, 2022 Economic and Workforce Development Department Report

No. 6 of Exhibit B of the March 3, 2022 Economic and Workforce Development Department Report

No. 7 of Exhibit B of the March 3, 2022 Economic and Workforce Development Department Report

84

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Appendix C
San Francisco, CA, Legacy Business Registry Application Form

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Appendix D
San Francisco CA, Legacy Business Registry Application Narrative Template

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Abstract (if available)

Abstract Heritage conservation practice has a long history of focusing on the architectural aspects of buildings or subjects and formal aesthetics. More recently, conservation practitioners have expanded their focus to acknowledge the social context and the use of a place. Newly established legacy business programs are one of the tools that conservationists developed to push the boundaries of the heritage conservation field as many programs implement technical, marketing, or financial assistance to legacy business owners or commercial landlords. The new conservation tool, however, may fall short of identifying the cultural significance of the legacy business, recognizing opportunities and threats faced by the business, aligning stakeholders and potential partners in the community, and mitigating complex social issues in urban immigrant neighborhoods.

This thesis focuses on the emerging legacy business programs in American cities and attempts to identify the gap between existing measures of the programs and legacy businesses’ needs in urban ethnic enclaves by analyzing three representative legacy business programs: San Francisco, California, San Antonio, Texas, and Los Angeles, California, and two neighborhood-level case studies of Little Tokyo and Chinatown in Los Angeles, California. This thesis also highlights both the limitations and innovations of commonly adopted policies by legacy business programs. In Chapter Three, by two case studies, the thesis demonstrates how ethnic legacy businesses reflect and support cultural heritage conservation through analyzing histories of both the community and businesses, goods and services provided by legacy businesses, relationships between business operators, employees, and visitors, difficulties that legacy businesses are facing, and bottom-up conservation practices in the community. While understanding that legacy business programs alone cannot solve all the issues that are faced by legacy businesses, the thesis proposes the Legacy Business Conservation Process to address the problems lying in existing legacy business programs adopted by local governments. Finally, this thesis advocates for collaborative efforts with community members to identify, document, and sustain community and regional cultural heritage.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Fang (), Xiaoling (author)

Core Title Legacy business program implementation in American urban immigrant neighborhoods: a case study of Little Tokyo and Chinatown, Los Angeles

School School of Architecture

Degree Master of Heritage Conservation / Master of Urban Planning

Degree Program Heritage Conservation / Urban Planning

Degree Conferral Date 2023-05

Publication Date 04/20/2023

Defense Date 01/25/2023

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Community development,community-based business,gentrification,Heritage Conservation,immigrant history,immigrant neighborhoods,living heritage,OAI-PMH Harvest,Small business,Urban planning

Format theses (aat)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Sandmeier, Trudi (committee chair), Horak, Katie (committee member), Reitan, Meredith Drake (committee member)

Creator Email xiaolinf@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC113056712

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Legacy Identifier etd-FangXiaoli-11667

Document Type Thesis

Format theses (aat)

Rights Fang, Xiaoling

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