Epidemic and crimes against Asia bring chronic illness to New York Chinatown, Chinatown's recovery is slow

　　Chinanews.com, February 18. According to the US "Overseas Chinese News" report, since the new crown pneumonia epidemic, communities dominated by Asian residents, including Chinese, including Chinatown in Manhattan, New York, have been hit hard at the earliest, and have been severely affected by the epidemic. severe impact.

Although the epidemic situation in New York has eased recently, local media AMNY reported that Manhattan's Chinatown is still deeply affected by the negative impact of the epidemic, and the road to recovery is long.

　　According to AMNY reports, the Omicron variant of the new coronavirus, food crisis, discrimination and even hate crimes against Asia, and the assassination of an Asian woman are still looming over Chinatown like a dark cloud.

Victoria Lee, founder of "Welcome to Chinatown", said that through understanding the situation with small businesses in the Chinatown community, many businesses reported that this year's business was even worse than last year.

　　A Welcoming Chinatown survey of 3,000 restaurants in Chinatown last year found that each restaurant owed an average of $32,000 in rent arrears, and that number is rising, Li said.

At the beginning of this year, under the influence of Omicron, some restaurant owners said that this year's business was even worse than last year, and there is still a long way to go before it truly recovers.

　　A New York non-profit organization has set up a free food distribution center at 384 Grand Street in Manhattan's Chinatown to distribute free food to community residents twice a week.

Its person in charge said that the agency distributes food to about 1,000 people every day, and there are often long queues at the scene.

Affected by the low temperature weather, the decrease in the number of volunteers also affected the normal operation of the food distribution center, adding another challenge to the food crisis faced by the Chinatown community.

Among them, many of the residents who go to receive free food are elderly people who need to rely on relief to survive.

(Liu Yiling)