Crisis in Chinatown
BUSINESS OWNERS AND RESIDENTS REVEAL THEIR FEARS FOR FUTURE AS DRUGS AND ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR PLUNGE DISTRICT INTO DECLINE
SITTING on a delivery truck outside his family’s supermarket, Jimmy Low looked at the state of Chinatown in despair.
Homeless people sleeping or drinking alcohol on public benches, plant beds filled with rubbish, and the once beautiful Pagoda hidden behind ugly metal fencing.
While we were watching, a group began openly cutting up drugs to share.
Jimmy says it’s like this, if not worse, every day.
Sometimes the vagrants shoplift beer from in his shop, or fruit from the baskets outside.
Many are often slumped over in a zombielike state – a tell-tale sign of the drug Spice.
Jimmy later shared a video of a regular set of troublemakers fighting between themselves – it’s the kind of intimidating behaviour that’s driving customers away by the bucket load.
He has recently resorted to employing a private security guard, using valuable resources he can ill afford as manager of Wing Fat Supermarket, the shop his parents opened 32 years ago. But he has to do something. He believes he’s lost between 10 to 25 per cent of footfall in the last 12 months alone.
“I’m worried for the future of Chinatown,” Jimmy, 37, said.
Chinese people began arriving in the city at the start of the 20th century and the first restaurant, Ping Hong, opened on Mosley Street in 1948. In the 1970s dozens of restaurants, takeaways and supermarkets popped up within a tight square of the city centre. Chinatown’s borders are generally considered to be Charlotte Street to the north, Portland Street to the east, Princess Street to the south and Mosley Street to the west.
The area’s crowning glory is the Ming Dynasty Imperial Arch that straddles Nicholas Street and Faulkner Street – a gift from China which was dedicated in 1987.
Manchester now has the biggest Chinese population outside of London and the third largest in Europe. Many come to study at our renowned universities and stay and set up life here. Chinatown is now a familiar part of Manchester’s cultural landscape – whether its watching the parade at New Year, enjoying an all-you-can-eat buffet or stumbling into a latenight karaoke bar.
Meanwhile, our business ties with China have gone from strength to strength, with an estimated £3billion in investment secured for landmark projects such as Airport City and the first-ever direct flight to Beijing taking off in 2016.
But life is proving much more of a battle for the Mancunian diaspora.
Residents and business owners who have spoken to the M.E.N. describe a neighbourhood under siege from vagrancy, littering, drug-taking and anti-social behaviour.
When we visited on two occasions, the plant beds in the square were filled with rubbish and benches were frequently taken up by people sleeping or showing the effects of drugs.
“It’s relentless,” said Bonnie Yeung, who runs the famous Yang Sing restaurant with father Harry. “We’ve been raising the same problems since at least 2012.
“We didn’t get the drug dealing at first – it was the anti-social behaviour and homeless people. But then the drug dealers see a business opportunity and move in.
“We’re in the situation where our staff won’t park here because they’re scared for their safety. Particularly our female staff – they don’t want to go to a poorlylit car park late at night on their own.
“Residents coming out of apartment buildings are finding people sleeping on their doorstep and they’re too afraid to come out.”
According to the latest figures, there were 304 crimes recorded in the Chinatown neighbourhood in the first three months of this year, a 44 per cent increase on the same period in 2017. Around half of those crimes were categorised as anti-social behaviour.
Greater Manchester Police is aware of the perception that parts of the city centre are perceived as dangerous and launched a crackdown this week.
The M.E.N. joined Inspector Jon Middleton on the first of three days of action aimed at making the city centre a ‘hostile area’ for criminals. During a briefing, it was acknowledged that Chinatown is a particular area of concern and may be the centre of an ongoing turf war between rival drugs gangs.
There is a feeling that efforts to combat problems in Piccadilly Gardens over the past year may have simply moved the problem to Chinatown, where the narrow streets and alleyways are naturally attractive to those wanting to avoid attention and engage in criminal activity.
In November 2016, two homeless men died in a fire in an abandoned building on Nicholas Street opposite the Arch. Police launched a murder investigation and an arrest was made, but no charges followed and the case officially remains open with the offer of a £50,000 reward for information.
Businesses here are mostly family-owned and run by older Chinese immigrants who sometimes struggle with the language barrier.
The younger members of the Chinatown community are not giving up without a fight.
Bonnie and Jimmy are among those who recently joined a Whatsapp group where they regularly share information about what’s going on and log numbers for crime reports.
“I took my three-year-old to go to Yuzu [Japanese restaurant] the other evening and would not take him out in Chinatown in an evening again,” said Bonnie. “I counted 17 vagrants on benches, lying on ground, in the doorway between the arch and Yuzu – it is appalling. They’re swearing, spitting, gurning, lying on the ground.”
Concerns have been raised at regular meetings between the council, police and Chinatown community in recent years where.
But Bonnie says businesses are so fed up, there’s been discussion about a collective day of closure or non-payment of rates.