Little Saigon | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 37°19′55″N121°51′26″W / 37.3318833°N 121.8573377°W | |
Country | United States |
State | California |
County | Santa Clara |
City | San Jose |
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, [1] as San Jose has more Vietnamese residents than any city outside of Vietnam. [2] 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.
The epicenter of the Vietnamese-American community of San Jose is on Story Road, the home of Grand Century Mall and Vietnam Town, is officially designated by the San Jose City Council as "Little Saigon". [1] [3]
Lee's Sandwiches, (a Vietnamese banh mi sandwich chain eatery) as well as the phở chain, Pho Hoa Restaurant, had their first locations here in San Jose. [1]
In 2007, the Little Saigon district was officially created and recognized by the City of San José. [4] The city council's initial refusal to name the district Little Saigon prompted protests and a hunger strike at San Jose City Hall by Lý Tống . [5]
In 2021, as part of the Stop Asian Hate campaign, the San Jose Police Department increased patrols through the neighborhood, after a rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. [6]
With over 180,000 Vietnamese residents, (approximately 10.6% of the population as of the 2010 U.S. Census), San Jose has more Vietnamese residents than any single city outside of Vietnam. [2]
The Vietnamese community of San Jose has been politically divided over the naming of the business district, with various groups favoring "Little Saigon", "New Saigon", and "Vietnamese Business District". [7] Non-Vietnamese businesses and residents, as well as the San Jose Hispanic Chamber of Commerce have also opposed the name "Little Saigon".
In November 2007, the San Jose City Council voted 8–3 to choose the compromise name "Saigon Business District", resulting in ongoing protest, debate, and an effort to recall city council member Madison Nguyen, who proposed the name "Saigon Business District". [8] On March 4, 2008, after a public meeting in which more than 1000 "Little Saigon" supporters participated, the city council voted 11–1 to rescind the name "Saigon Business District", but stopped short of renaming it.
Little Saigon is the site of celebrations every year for the Tết (Vietnamese New Year) festival. [9]
An intercity bus service named Xe Đò Hoàng connects the Little Saigon in San Jose to the one in Orange County and various other cities in California and Arizona with high concentration of Vietnamese Americans. [10]
Little Saigon is located in East San Jose. [3] It is bound by the Junípero Serra Freeway (CA 280) to the north, Senter Road to the west, and the Bayshore Freeway (US 101) to the east. Its southern boundary is roughly Owsley Avenue.
The primary thoroughfare through Little Saigon is Story Road.
San Jose, officially the City of San José, is the largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2022 population of 971,233, it is the most populous city in both the Bay Area and the San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland Combined Statistical Area—which in 2022 had a population of 7.5 million and 9.0 million respectively—the third-most populous city in California after Los Angeles and San Diego, and the 13th-most populous in the United States. Located in the center of the Santa Clara Valley on the southern shore of San Francisco Bay, San Jose covers an area of 179.97 sq mi (466.1 km2). San Jose is the county seat of Santa Clara County and the main component of the San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara Metropolitan Statistical Area, with an estimated population of around two million residents in 2018.
The Chinatown–International District is a neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. It 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.
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.
The Mercury News is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidiary of Media News Group which in turn is controlled by Alden Global Capital, a vulture fund. As of March 2013, it was the fifth largest daily newspaper in the United States, with a daily circulation of 611,194. As of 2018, the paper has a circulation of 324,500 daily and 415,200 on Sundays. As of 2021, this further declined. The Bay Area News Group no longer reports its circulation, but rather "readership". For 2021, they reported a "readership" of 312,700 adults daily.
Phở or pho is a Vietnamese soup dish consisting of broth, rice noodles, herbs, and meat – usually beef, and sometimes chicken. Phở is a popular food in Vietnam where it is served in households, street-stalls, and restaurants country-wide. Residents of the city of Nam Định were the first to create Vietnamese traditional phở. It is considered Vietnam's national dish, and is said to be influenced by Chinese and French cultures.
In Vietnamese cuisine, bánh mì or banh mi is a short baguette with thin, crisp crust and a soft, airy texture. It is often split lengthwise and filled with meat and savory ingredients like a submarine sandwich and served as a meal, called bánh mì thịt. Plain bánh mì is also eaten as a staple food.
City Heights is a dense urban community in central San Diego, California, known for its ethnic diversity. The area was previously known as East San Diego. City Heights is located south of Mission Valley and northeast of Balboa Park.
Madison Nguyen is an American politician from California. She served on the San Jose City Council from 2005 to 2014, representing District 7, and she additionally served as Vice-Mayor from 2011 to 2014. She was the first Vietnamese-American elected to the city council.
Lee's Sandwiches International, Inc., is a Vietnamese-American fast food restaurant chain headquartered in San Jose, California, with locations in several states and in Taiwan. Lee's Sandwiches specializes in bánh mì, "European-style" baguette sandwiches, Vietnamese iced coffee, and Vietnamese dessert chè. It is credited with popularizing Vietnamese sandwiches and iced coffee among mainstream American consumers and inspiring several other Vietnamese-owned bakery chains.
The media in the San Francisco Bay Area has historically focused on San Francisco but also includes two other major media centers, Oakland and San Jose. The Federal Communications Commission, Nielsen Media Research, and other similar media organizations treat the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose Area as one entire media market. The region hosts to one of the oldest radio stations in the United States still in existence, KCBS (AM) (740 kHz), founded by engineer Charles Herrold in 1909. As the home of Silicon Valley, the Bay Area is also a technologically advanced and innovative region, with many companies involved with Internet media or influential websites.
San Antonio is a large district in Oakland, California, encompassing the land east of Lake Merritt to Sausal Creek. It is one of the most diverse areas of the city. It takes its name from Rancho San Antonio, the name of the land as granted to Luís María Peralta by the last Spanish governor of California.
Samuel Theodore Liccardo is an American attorney and politician currently serving as the U.S. Representative from California's 16th congressional district. Previously, he served as the 65th mayor of San Jose from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, Liccardo was elected mayor in November 2014. He was reelected in 2018 with 75.8% of the vote. As the leader of the California Big City Mayors Coalition, Liccardo advocated on statewide issues including homelessness and COVID-19 response.
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.
Vietnamese has more than 1.5 million speakers in the United States, where it is the sixth-most spoken language. The United States also ranks second among countries and territories with the most Vietnamese speakers, behind Vietnam. The Vietnamese language became prevalent after the conclusion of the Vietnam War in 1975, when many refugees from Vietnam came to the United States. It is used in many aspects of life, including media, commerce, and administration. In several states, it is the third-most spoken language, behind English and Spanish. To maintain the language for later generations, Vietnamese speakers have established many language centers and coordinated with public school systems to teach Vietnamese to students who are born and raised in the United States.
Rincon de los Esteros, also known as Innovation Triangle, the Golden Triangle, the Innovation District, or simply as Rincon, is a vast district of San Jose, California, making up a significant portion of North San Jose. The district has one of the largest concentrations of high tech company headquarters and campuses in Silicon Valley.
Viet Mercury was a Vietnamese-language newspaper serving the Vietnamese American community in San Jose and the surrounding Silicon Valley area in California. It was published weekly by the San Jose Mercury News from 1999 to 2005; it also published daily for a time. It was the first Vietnamese-language newspaper published by an English-language daily, as well as the first non-Hispanic ethnic newspaper published by a major American company. Along with the Spanish-language Nuevo Mundo, it was one of two non-English weekly newspapers published by the Mercury News.
Phở Hòa is a phở restaurant chain based in Sacramento, California, United States. It was founded in San Jose, California, in 1983. As of 2017, it has more than 70 locations across the United States, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, and Taiwan.
Little Saigon, also popularly known as Vietnamtown or simply Viet-Town, is a neighborhood in Houston, Texas centered on Bellaire Boulevard west of Chinatown. It is one of the largest Vietnamese enclaves in the United States.
Rincon South is a neighborhood of San Jose, California, located in North San Jose. Rincon South is a major employment hub for Silicon Valley businesses, and is home to numerous high tech companies.
Tri Ta is a Vietnamese-born American politician currently serving as a member of the California State Assembly. He represents Assembly District 70, which consists of much of the Little Saigon area of northwestern Orange County. He previously served as Mayor of Westminster, California.