Little Saigon, Philadelphia

Last updated
Little Saigon
Neighborhood of Philadelphia
Little Saigon temple Philadelphia.jpg
Vietnamese temple near Washington Avenue
Street map of Philadelphia and surrounding area.png
Red pog.svg
Little Saigon
Coordinates: 39°56′09″N75°09′25″W / 39.9359481°N 75.1569406°W / 39.9359481; -75.1569406
CountryFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States
State Pennsylvania
County Philadelphia
City Philadelphia
ZIP Code
19147
Area code(s) 215, 267 and 445

One of the largest Vietnamese neighborhoods in the United States is Philadelphia's Little Saigon, located in Passyunk Square, a neighborhood in South Philadelphia. This heart of the Philadelphia metropolitan area's rapidly growing Vietnamese community is centered on the intersection of S. Eighth Street and Washington Avenue in South Philadelphia, [1] with "one of the largest Vietnamese populations on the east coast," [2] [3] and is a district where "... neon signs lure shoppers into grocery stores, restaurants, and karaoke bars set back from the street in low-rise concrete strip malls. Shoppers pushing carts laden with rice noodles, bean cakes and imported spices and sauces pack suburban-style parking lots behind the complexes." [4] The author further states that the Vietnamese are now (as of 2013) the largest ethnic community in the Washington Avenue/Passyunk Square section of the city and that the entire Vietnamese population of Philadelphia is larger than that of New York City. [3]

Contents

Southwest Philadelphia and Northeast Philadelphia also contain Vietnamese American neighborhoods. Mimicking Little Saigon is Baby Saigon, a small Vietnamese neighborhood located in the Whitman neighborhood of South Philadelphia, bordering Cambodia Town. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese community has additionally expanded eastward across the Delaware River to Camden, Cherry Hill, Woodlynne, [5] and as far as Atlantic City [6] in the neighboring U.S. state of New Jersey. [7]

Background

According to Ariel Diliberto, a Temple University anthropology scholar, "... the strip malls are typical of Vietnamese business communities across the U.S." Diliberto points out that the architecture "... is an idealization of American enterprise among South Vietnamese frustrated under communism and inspired by the 'simple, geometric high-rise buildings' constructed in Vietnamese towns and cities during the Vietnam war." [4] Unlike other Vietnamese enclaves in the US, "... there’s no gaudy, generically 'Asian' archway entreating the passersby to explore, just a string of unannounced shopping malls and a smattering of nearby businesses integrated into the ever-evolving immigrant territory of the Italian Market and the building materials bazaar along Washington Avenue." [2]

History

Starting from the 1990s, the Vietnamese shopping areas started with Hoa Binh Plaza, followed by Wing Phat Plaza, both of which were dwarfed in 1998 with the construction of the New World Plaza and 1st Oriental Market. According to Dilberto who quotes Pappas that the origins of the Little Saigon closely follow the patterns seen in "... Westminster (a suburb of LA) and Falls Church (a suburb of DC)." [2] [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinatown–International District, Seattle</span> Historic district in Washington, United States

The Chinatown–International District of Seattle, Washington is the center of the city's Asian American community. Within the district are the three neighborhoods known as Chinatown, Japantown and Little Saigon, named for the concentration of businesses owned by people of Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese descent, respectively. The geographic area also once included Manilatown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shopping center</span> Commercial trading complex

A shopping center, shopping centre, also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Saigon</span> Ethnic enclaves of expatriate Vietnamese in some cities

Little Saigon is a name given to ethnic enclaves of expatriate Vietnamese mainly in English-speaking countries. Alternate names include Little Vietnam and Little Hanoi, depending on the enclave's political history. To avoid political undertones due to the renaming of Saigon to Ho Chi Minh City, it is occasionally called by the neutral name Vietnamtown. Saigon is the former name of the capital of the former South Vietnam, where a large number of first-generation Vietnamese immigrants emigrating to the United States originate from, whereas Hanoi is the current capital of Vietnam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eden Center</span> Shopping mall in Virginia, United States

Eden Center is a Vietnamese American strip mall located near the crossroads of Seven Corners in the City of Falls Church, Virginia. Eden Center is the largest Vietnamese commercial center on the East Coast, and the largest Asian mall on the east coast of North America. The city's Economic Development commission considers it the city's top tourist destination. The center is home to more than 120 shops, restaurants and businesses catering extensively to the Asian American, especially the Vietnamese-American, population. Eden Center has created an anchor for Vietnamese culture serving the Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, and Pennsylvania areas, as shown by the large number of phở soup restaurants, bánh mì delicatessens, bakeries, markets, as well as Vietnamese-American cultural events that are regularly held at the center.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asian supermarket</span> Type of grocery store found in Western countries

In non-Asian countries, an Asian supermarket largely describes a category of grocery stores that focuses and stocks items and products imported from countries located in the Far East.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Powelton Village, Philadelphia</span> United States historic place

Powelton Village is a neighborhood of mostly Victorian, mostly twin homes in the West Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is a national historic district that is part of University City. Powelton Village extends north from Market Street to Spring Garden Street, east to 32nd Street, west to 40th and Spring Garden Streets, and to 44th and Market Streets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Italian Market, Philadelphia</span> Market area in south Philadelphia

The Italian Market is the popular name for the South 9th Street Curb Market, an area of South Philadelphia featuring awning covered sidewalks, curb carts, grocery shops, cafes, restaurants, bakeries, cheese shops, butcher shops, etc., many with an Italian influence. The historical heart of the market is the area of 9th Street between Christian Street and Washington Avenue, the commercial district chartered in 1915, the South Ninth Street Business Men's Association, covered the area between Catharine to Federal and Eighth to Tenth streets, and the market is now generally considered to extend from Fitzwater Street at the north to Wharton Street at the south. The term Italian Market is also used to generally describe the surrounding neighborhood between South Street to the North and Wharton Street to the South running a few blocks to the east and west of 9th street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Philadelphia</span> Neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

South Philadelphia, nicknamed South Philly, is the section of Philadelphia bounded by South Street to the north, the Delaware River to the east and south, and the Schuylkill River to the west. A diverse working-class community of many neighborhoods, South Philadelphia is well-known for its large Italian-American population, but it also contains large Asian American, Irish-American, African-American, and Latino populations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Point Breeze, Philadelphia</span> Neighborhood of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, United States

Point Breeze is a multicultural neighborhood in South Philadelphia in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It is bounded by 25th Street to the west, Washington Avenue to the north, 18th Street to the east, and Moore Street to the south. Southwest Center City lies to its north. Passyunk Square and East Passyunk Crossing lie to its east. Point Breeze is separated from Grays Ferry to the west by a CSX railway viaduct over 25th Street.

The City of Oklahoma City uses Special Zoning Districts as a tool to maintain the character of many neighborhood communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Passyunk Crossing, Philadelphia</span> Neighborhood of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, United States

East Passyunk Crossing is a neighborhood in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Its location is considered to be from Tasker Street to Snyder Avenue and Broad Street to 6th Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Passyunk Square, Philadelphia</span> Neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US

Passyunk Square is a neighborhood in South Philadelphia bounded by Broad Street to the west, 6th Street to the east, Tasker Street to the south and Washington Avenue to the north. Passyunk Square is bordered by the Bella Vista, Hawthorne, Central South Philadelphia, Wharton, and Point Breeze neighborhoods. The neighborhood got its Lenape name from the 1800s Passyunk Township, Pennsylvania which named Passyunk Square Park, located between 12th, 13th, Reed and Wharton Streets. The park was eventually renamed Columbus Square Park, and subsequently the neighborhood became known as Columbus Square. Sue Montella, Geoff DiMasi, and a group of neighbors revived the Passyunk Square name when forming the Passyunk Square Civic Association in 2003. The name "Passyunk Square" was researched and proposed by Geoff DiMasi after considering other historical names like Wharton that had been used in the neighborhood over the years. The area has come to be known as Little Saigon for its large Vietnamese American commercial and residential presence, with one of the largest Vietnamese populations on the east coast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Cambodia</span>

Little Cambodia or Cambodia Town is a term that refers to an ethnic enclave of people from the country of Cambodia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economy of Philadelphia</span>

Philadelphia is the center of economic activity in both Pennsylvania and the four-state Delaware Valley metropolitan region of the United States. Philadelphia's close geographical and transportation connections to other large metropolitan economies along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States have been cited as offering a significant competitive advantage for business creation and entrepreneurship. Five Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in the city. As of 2021, the Philadelphia metropolitan area was estimated to produce a gross metropolitan product (GMP) of US$479 billion, an increase from the $445 billion calculated by the Bureau of Economic Analysis for 2017, representing the ninth largest U.S. metropolitan economy. Philadelphia was rated by the GaWC as a 'Beta' city in its 2016 ranking of world cities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Saigon, Orange County</span> Neighborhood in Orange, California, United States

The Little Saigon district straddling the cities of Garden Grove and Westminster in Orange County, California is the largest Little Saigon in the United States. Saigon is the former name of the capital of the former South Vietnam, where a large number of first-generation Vietnamese immigrants originate.

Little Saigon is the Vietnamese ethnic enclave in the Clarendon neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, which served the large refugee population that immigrated after the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975. One of many Little Saigons in the U.S., this neighborhood near Washington, D.C., became a hub of Vietnamese commerce and social activity, and reached its peak during the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The opening of the Clarendon station on the Washington Metro's Orange Line led to new development and higher rents; many businesses closed or moved, notably to the nearby Eden Center.

Whitman Plaza is the largest shopping center in the Whitman neighborhood of South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The shopping plaza is located on Oregon Avenue at S 3rd Street, where it stands at over 280,000 sq ft (26,000 m2). It is located adjacent to Baby Saigon, the Vietnamese neighborhood market in which Oregon Market resides.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Little Saigon, San Jose</span> Neighborhood of San Jose in Santa Clara, California, United States

Little Saigon is a neighborhood of San Jose, California, located in East San Jose. It is a hub for Silicon Valley's Vietnamese community and one of the largest Little Saigons in the world, as San Jose has more Vietnamese residents than any city outside of Vietnam. Vietnamese Americans and immigrants in San Jose make up ten percent of the city’s population and about eight percent of the county and South Bay Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asian Garden Mall</span> Shopping mall in Westminster, California

Asian Garden Mall, known in Vietnamese as Phước Lộc Thọ, is a shopping center in Westminster, California. Opened in 1987, Asian Garden Mall is the first and largest Vietnamese-American shopping mall and is seen as a symbol of the community. The mall is located at 9200 Bolsa Avenue, serving as the focal point of Little Saigon in Orange County and is the site of many cultural and political events in the Vietnamese-American community.

References

  1. Setha M. Low (2010-07-05). On the Plaza: The Politics of Public Space and Culture. ISBN   9780292788268.
  2. 1 2 3 "In South Philly, Subtly Staking Territory". 14 December 2011.
  3. 1 2 Setha M. Low; Dana Taplin; Suzanne Scheld (2009-05-21). Rethinking Urban Parks: Public Space and Cultural Diversity. ISBN   9780292778214.
  4. 1 2 "For Vietnamese Businesses, Washington Ave Is Little Saigon".
  5. "New Jersey Vietnamese Population Percentage City Rank Based on US Census 2010 data". World Media Group. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
  6. "City of Atlantic City Celebrates Vietnamese New Year". City of Atlantic City. January 30, 2023. Retrieved July 4, 2023.
  7. "Vietnamese". EthnicNJ.com. Retrieved May 17, 2015.
  8. Pappas, Leslie A. March. "2005: An Infusion of Asian Flavor Stores Along Washington Avenue Showcase the Area's Diversity. Philadelphia Inquirer, March 16".{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)