Sacramento Sắp Có Khu Little Saigon

[bmm]

Thứ Ba, Ngày 2 tháng 2-2010

Sacramento - Hôm thứ ba, cộng đồng người Việt đang lớn mạnh tại Sacramento, CA sẽ yêu cầu Hội đồng Thành phố đặt tên một quãng đường trên đại lộ thành phố Stockton là khu Little Saigon. Hành lang thương mại này từ phía Nam đường Fruitridge ố đầy các nhà hàng, tiệm nail, tiệm tóc, tiệm nữ trang và các siêu thị Á Đông ố sẽ trở thành khu vực sắc tộc thiểu số đầu tiên tại thủ đô Sacramento. Cô Stephanie Nguyen 30 tuổi, giám đốc chương trình Asian Resources cho biết việc vận động tên cho khu vực này là Little Saigon sẽ đem lại sự tín nhiệm cho khu vực này, có nghĩa là mọi người có thể mua sắm, ăn thử các món tại đây thoải mái.

Dù rằng khu này vẫn được coi là một Tiểu Sài Gòn từ khi có người tỵ nạn Việt Nam đến đây 20 năm trước, nhưng với danh xưng chính thức, Little Saigon sẽ là niềm hãnh diện cho hơn 20,000 người Mỹ gốc Việt đang sống tại quận này. Trước đây thành phố Westminster và Garden Grove đã chính thức công nhận tên Little Saigon, thành phố San Francisco cũng tương tự, chỉ có thành phố San Jose đã gặp nhiều trở ngại khi cộng đồng tại đây vận động tên này cho khu phố người Việt, nhưng những tranh cãi đã đưa tới những cuộc biểu tình kéo dài nhiều ngày và cho đến nay vẫn chưa được chính thức công nhận.

[TooSixy]

Sacramento to designate 'Little Saigon' district
Thirty-five years after the fall of South Vietnam, Sacramento's growing Vietnamese community will ask the City Council on Tuesday to designate a two-mile stretch of Stockton Boulevard as "Little Saigon."

The business corridor south of Fruitridge Road – chock full of restaurants, nail and hair salons, jewelry stores and Asian markets – would become Sacramento's first official ethnic neighborhood.

Community leaders hope the branding will provide an economic shot in the arm that will defuse some of the crime along Stockton Boulevard.

"It's a positive thing to recognize the community that has turned this section of the street that used to be full of gangsters and prostitution into a very lively, prosperous business district," said Nancy Tran, director of Vietnamese Radio TNT.

Community leaders expect "Welcome To Little Saigon" signs on Stockton and Highway 99 to draw tourists, shoppers and investors.

"To name it Little Saigon will bring credibility to the area, that people can shop here, try the food and not be afraid," said Stephanie Nguyen, 30, program director of Asian Resources.

There was a gang-related homicide at Pho Ga Hung Vietnamese Cuisine just off the boulevard last Wednesday afternoon, police said.

Though the area has been known as Little – or Mini – Saigon since Vietnamese refugees began revitalizing the boulevard 20 years ago, the official naming of Little Saigon is a point of pride for the county's more than 20,000 Vietnamese Americans.

With the communist victory in 1975, "Saigon was taken from us and renamed Ho Chi Minh City," Nguyen said. "Back in Vietnam they're not allowed to call it Saigon anymore. For my parents' generation, it's nice to bring a place they called home here."

The old red-and-yellow South Vietnamese flag waves over Vietnamese Radio TNT, and about half a dozen business names include Saigon.

"For a lot of Vietnamese immigrants Saigon has a deep meaning – it reminds us of freedom," said Tran, 56, who grew up in Saigon and is part of a "flood of people moving here" from San Jose's large Vietnamese community in search of affordable housing.

In San Jose's politically charged Vietnamese community, a bitter fight erupted last year over the official naming of the Vietnamese commercial corridor.

But in Sacramento, more than 500 Vietnamese spanning generations have joined forces, said Mai Nguyen, vice chairwoman of the Little Saigon Of Sacramento Committee.

"This is the first time in 35 years the Vietnamese community has come out as one," said Mai Nguyen, the daughter of a South Vietnamese officer. "We've all said we need to recognize the past, but we also have to plan for the future."

Mai Nguyen, marketing director for the Design Copy and Print Center on Stockton Boulevard, is among the 30-somethings who have taken the lead on Little Saigon.

"It's like a movement, a reawakening of our youth," said tax and financial adviser Tido Hoang, 36, who canvassed about 50 businesses for support and helped organize a Jan. 17 community meeting attended by 500 people.

"My parents are proud of what I'm doing," said Hoang, who was born in Saigon and raised in the projects at Elder Creek Road and 65th Street Expressway. "In college I started going back to my roots and realized Stockton Boulevard was a part of me."

Hoang joined the Little Saigon movement because he saw mom-and-pop nail salons, pho restaurants and other small businesses "struggling big-time. … Everybody told us there needs to be an image change to create a sense of identity, a sense of ownership."

Lao, Hmong, and Latino businesspeople also have signed on.

"I think it's a good idea to help clean up the boulevard and make it nice," said Jorge Limon of Ixtapa Auto Sales.

About 70 percent of businesses from Fruitridge to Florin are Vietnamese, alongside entrepreneurs from India, Ukraine, Thailand and Eastern Europe, said Terrence Johnson, executive director of the Stockton Boulevard Partnership. "In general the Asian businesses haven't actually faltered" in the recession, he said. "They shop with each other, employ one another, and there's a lot of room for growth as the economy comes back."

City Councilman Kevin McCarty initiated the campaign after seeing a "Welcome To Little Saigon" freeway sign in Santa Ana. He called the recognition overdue.

McCarty acknowledged the problem of Southeast Asian gangs, but said he hoped "this designation will bring more resources and commerce, because nothing addresses the problems of our youth more than a good job." He recalled that when four teenage Vietnamese gunmen took over the Good Guys electronics store on Stockton Boulevard in 1991, "one of the things they said they wanted was jobs and to be productive members of community." Three gunmen, two store employees and one customer died and 11 people were wounded in the eight-hour standoff.

McCarty expects the City Council to designate 1 1/2 miles of Stockton Boulevard from Fruitridge Road south to Riza Avenue as Little Saigon. A half-mile from Riza to Florin Road outside the city limits is expected to be approved Feb. 9 by Sacramento County supervisors, McCarty said.

The Vietnamese community will hold a design contest and raise about $20,000 to pay for the signs.
_________________
Source: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/01/31/2502279/sacramento-to-designate-little.html