Open Letter on Rezoning Concerns and the Combat Zone From Chinatown Residents
Keep Chinatown as Our Home! An Open Letter to Mayor Wu and BPDA Chief Kairos Shen on Rezoning Concerns and the Combat Zone From Chinatown Residents
December 5th, 2025
Dear Honorable Mayor Wu and Director Kairos Shen:
As residents and longtime community members of Chinatown, we hope that the rezoning for our neighborhood can get finalized to reflect our numerous calls for protection against displacement. We had expected that the rezoning draft would get approved in February 2025, but then we were told that because of differing ideas from other community stakeholders, the city needed to slow down and reconsider portions of the draft.
What these other community stakeholders, namely larger landlords and developers, propose is alarming, and it is equally alarming that their proposals have caught on enough in the city to stall the rezoning process. The vision they offer is one that prioritizes money making for the few and drives out working-class residents like us.
We have written numerous letters, signed countless petitions, and talked to you and other City officials in person in the past year, but it is unclear to us if you have heard our calls about rezoning. Many of us are residents living in the center of Chinatown (CC district) who are facing very real threats of displacement; the zoning guidelines will decide whether or not we have a future in Chinatown.
At 15 Beach Street, where some tenants have lived for three or four decades, our landlord has chosen to cancel our Section 8 contract in March 2026, and we worry that we can no longer remain in Chinatown. At 86A Harrison Avenue, where we have 24 single room lodgings, our landlord is trying to sell to developers who want to demolish our building and has filed for eviction of two small businesses on the ground floor. On Oxford Street, our landlord has kept us living in terrible conditions while he waits for the opportunity to develop more profitable projects. We know that others face similar threats; we are only the most organized.
Mayor Wu, we congratulate and celebrate with you on your recent re-election, and we hope that you will have time to listen to our concerns. Below we share, again, our proposals for the Chinatown rezoning:
Continued protection of the rowhouses in R-1 by keeping a building height limit of 45 and protecting the small back yards where people can garden.
While we acknowledge that the CC district and MU-10 district have mixed usage, height should be limited to curb speculative development and negative environmental impacts. CC district should be zoned as no taller than 100ft and MU-10 should be zoned to be no taller than 130ft —the current maximum height in the neighborhood.
Housing in the neighborhood should be actually affordable to those of us who need it. This means that if there is an affordable housing overlay, the income level should be restricted to a maximum of 60% AMI. Most of us and our families make 30-60% AMI, so housing restricted at 100% AMI would not be attainable. We do not need more luxury apartments when so many residents are struggling to find affordable housing in Chinatown.
Chinatown is an extreme heat zone with bad air quality: we need to keep existing green space and create opportunities for more green spaces.
We were recently made aware that Centerfold, an adult entertainment night club, proposed to relocate from Lagrange Street to Stuart Street. We do not approve of this proposal to relocate to a main road of Chinatown. In fact, we are against the continual existence of any adult entertainment businesses in Chinatown. The relocation of the adult entertainment zone, otherwise known as the “Combat Zone,” to Chinatown in 1974 created severe safety issues to residents, and we do not wish to live through this again. We demand to remove adult entertainment as an allowed usage from the Chinatown rezoning plan.
To be clear, we are not against change; nor are we against development. We also want to improve the neighborhood. What we are against is development that does not center the actual needs of working class residents, who are the most vulnerable to displacement from these development projects. We implore you to consider zoning codes that protect Chinatown and help it grow in a way that centers working-class needs.
This past year, you and your Office of Immigrant Advancement have been telling immigrant communities, “you belong here” and that “Boston is your home.” These beautiful messages really resonate with us, but it must be met with actual policies that create housing security and neighborhood stability. If Boston is truly to be a city where everyone belongs, then the planning, and thus zoning policies, need to reflect that. If you and BPDA really believe that we belong here in Boston, then at a time when affordable housing and displacement are two of the city’s biggest issues, you must actively work to keep working-class, immigrant residents like us in the city, in our neighborhoods.
Sincerely,
Boston Chinatown Resident Association
Oxford Street Tenant Association
15 Beach Street Tenant Association
86A Harrison Avenue Tenants
Mass Pike Towers Tenant Association
《保住唐人街的家园！唐人街居民致吴市长和波士顿规划局局长沈其樂的公开信，表达对重新分区规划和红灯区的担忧》
2025 年，12月5号
尊敬的吴市长和沈其樂局长，
作为唐人街的居民和长期社区成员，我们希望社区重新分区规划能够尽快完成，以反映我们多次提出的防止居民流离失所的保护诉求。我们原本预计重新分区规划草案将于2025年2月获得批准，但后来我们被告知，由于其他社区利益相关者的意见不同，市政府需要放慢速度，重新考虑草案的部分内容。
这些其他社区利益相关者，特别是大型房东和开发商，提出的方案令人担忧，同样令人担忧的是，他们的提议在市政府内部获得了足够的支持，导致重新分区规划进程停滞不前。他们提出的方案优先考虑少数人的利益，并将像我们这样的工薪阶层居民驱逐出去。
过去一年，我们写了无数封信，签署了无数份请愿书，并与您和其他市政府官员进行了面对面的交流，但我们不确定您是否听到了我们关于重新分区规划的呼声。我们当中许多人都是居住在唐人街中心（CC区）的居民，正面临着非常现实的流离失所威胁；分区规划准则将决定我们在唐人街是否有未来。
在15号必珠街，一些租户已经住了三四十年，我们的房东选择在2026年3月终止我们的第八条款住房补贴合同，我们担心我们将无法继续留在唐人街。在86A号夏利臣街，我们有24间单间公寓，我们的房东正试图将房产卖给开发商，开发商想要拆除我们的大楼，并且已经申请驱逐一楼的两家小商户。在好事福街，我们的房东让我们生活在极其恶劣的条件下，而他自己却在等待开发更赚钱项目的机会。我们知道其他人也面临着类似的威胁；我们只是组织得最严密而已。
吴市长，我们祝贺您成功连任，并希望您能抽出时间倾听我们的诉求。以下是我们再次提出的唐人街重新规划方案：
继续保护R-1区的排屋，将建筑高度限制在45英尺以内，并保护居民可以种植花草的小型后院。
我们承认CC区和MU-10区用途混合，但仍应限制建筑高度，以遏制投机性开发和对环境的负面影响。CC区的建筑高度应限制在100英尺以内，MU-10区的建筑高度应限制在130英尺以内——这是该社区目前的最高建筑高度。
社区内的住房应该真正让有需要的人能够负担得起。这意味着，如果设有可负担性房覆盖区，收入水平应限制在当地收入中位数（AMI）的60%以内。我们大多数人收入为当地收入中位数的 30-60%，因此，收入限制为当地收入中位数 100% 的住房是我们无法负担的。唐人街很多居民都在为找不到可负担性房屋而苦苦挣扎，我们不需要更多的豪华公寓。
唐人街是极端高温地区，空气质量差：我们需要保留现有的绿地，并创造更多绿地的机会。
我们最近得知，成人娱乐夜总会 Centerfold 计划从内街( Lagrange Street)搬迁到主街(Stuart Street)。我们不赞成将夜总会迁至唐人街的主干道。事实上，我们反对唐人街继续存在任何成人娱乐场所。1974 年，成人娱乐区（又称“红灯区”）迁至唐人街，给居民造成了严重的安全问题，我们不希望再次经历这种情况。我们要求在华埠重新分区规划的计划里去除成人娱乐区。
需要澄清的是，我们并非反对变革，也并非反对发展。我们也想改善社区环境。我们反对的是那些不以工薪阶层居民实际需求为中心的开发项目，因为工薪阶层居民最容易因这些开发项目而流离失所。我们恳请您考虑制定分区法规，以保护唐人街，并帮助其以工薪阶层需求为中心进行发展。
过去一年，您和您的移民促进办公室(MOIA) 一直在向移民社区传递“我们属于这里”和“波士顿是我们的家”的信息。这些美好的信息深深打动了我们，但必须辅以切实可行的政策，以保障住房安全和社区稳定。如果波士顿真的要成为一座人人都能融入的城市，那么规划，以及由此产生的分区政策，就必须体现这一点。如果您和波士顿规划局（BPDA）真的相信我们属于波士顿，那么在可负担性房短缺和居民流离失所成为这座城市两大难题的当下，您必须积极努力，让像我们这样的工薪阶层移民居民留在波士顿，留在我们自己的社区。
真挚地,
波士顿华埠居民会
好事福街住客联谊会
15号必珠街住客联谊会
86A号夏利臣街的住客
公路村住客联谊会
