Health and sanitation in Chinatown have always been a great concern. Recently, however, very few organizations have participated in improving its condition.
Aside from the mounting trash in the streets, the problem is further exacerbated by the scarcity of resources available. News about budgeting problems in the Chinatown Sanitation Association, which has cleaned Chinatown for 13 years have suddenly surfaced and unsettled another organization – the Chinatown Partnership Local Development Corporation (CPLDC) – which was supposed to take over the cleaning responsibility last September. CPLDC board members held an emergency meeting to discuss possible solutions.
Currently, the Chinatown Sanitation Association has a cleaning staff of six. They are responsible for maintaining hundreds of trash bags in Chinatown in order to make it easier for the cleaning personnel from the New York City Department of Sanitation. Besides some schools organizing students to clean the streets, the Association is the only community organization specializing in maintaining the sanitation of Chinatown, making the recent news of its budget problems alarming.
The coming months will bring in the tourist season, and it is expected that the sanitary condition in Chinatown will get worse.
In a phone interview, Chinatown Sanitation Association director Ga-Hwa Lin admitted that the organization was facing unprecedented financial problems. He explained that since they thought the Chinatown Partnership Local Development Corporation would take over the responsibility at the end of last year, the organization set up the necessary budgets. They cancelled fundraising activities at the beginning of the year. However, unexpected changes occurred.
The Chinatown Partnership Local Development Corporation has been unable to raise enough funds to operate and take over the cleaning responsibility. Because Chinatown Partnership Local Development Corporation overestimated their fundraising capacity, Chinatown Sanitation Association has been facing financial constraints for the past few months.
Lin, who is also serving as a board member of the Chinatown Sanitation Association, emphasized that during the coming tourist season, it would continue to have the staff to clean the streets. Lin admitted that the financial crisis has been difficult and the organization has been losing more and more money; however, it will continue to operate until the Chinatown Partnership Local Development Corporation can successfully take over the operation.
Al Rahner, CPLDC director of operations for the Clean Streets Program, responded that the organization held a meeting last week to address the budget problems and to find possible solutions. He emphasized that attempting to obtain the funds from the government would take a considerable amount of time.
