Nonprofit serving Chinatown to help support small businesses, preserve community

CHINATOWN, Manhattan (WABC) — Chinatown is one of New York City’s most culturally-treasured neighborhoods, and one nonprofit is serving to help small businesses and preserve the community.

“Welcome to Chinatown” is lending its support to small businesses around Chinatown, which has become systematically underfunded and under resourced.

“We purposely designed this to be able to support hospitality training given how food and beverage is so so important in Manhattan Chinatown,” said “Welcome to Chinatown” spokesperson Vic Lee.

Chinatown was hit hard by the pandemic, and from 2019 through 2021, economic decline led to a 26% decrease in jobs, 12% more than the New York City average.

“A lot of businesses in Chinatown still don’t accept credit cards,” added Lee. “They’re still cash only. We have to work with them to create a website, create a social media presence. Have a digital POS system.”

The challenges the Chinatown community are facing are not unique, which resulted last year them participating in the first-ever North America Chinatown Solidarity Summit. The conference brought leaders from Chinatowns all over the U.S. and Canada together to address cultural preservation, economy development and public safety.

“What would make sense for the next generation?” said U.S./Canada Chinatown Solidarity Summit’s Brian Pang. “So Chinatowns as is? The historic Chinatown artifacts, do those still make sense and resonate with the next generation? Or do we need to actually invest in some development and make sure that buildings are secure, make sure that we’re modernizing facilities.”

This year’s North America Chinatown Solidarity Summit is taking place in New York City later this week.

READ MORE: ‘Now it’s bare’: NYC’s Chinatown small businesses battle to keep doors open

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