WASHINGTON - From his family's tiny basement grocery store in the heart of Chinatown, William Chin has watched his community change over the past 50 years.
The throngs of Cantonese-speaking people milling about H Street in the 1950s have disappeared, and many Chinese restaurants and stores have moved to the Maryland and Virginia suburbs.
Today, Chinatown's regulars tend to be tourists, nearby office workers and more tourists. And along with the new crowd, Chin has watched a wave of Chinese businesses move out in recent years to make way for a new breed of commercial activity in his neighborhood - the MCI Center, chain restaurants like Ruby Tuesday and, come September 2002, a 21-screen AMC movie theater.
"I think Chinatown is a lost cause," said Chin, 58, whose family has owned Mee Wah Lung grocery store on H Street since his grandfather set up shop 65 years ago. "I feel sad. But it's not your place to feel anything if you can't do nothing about it."
As this new century begins, Washington planners face a challenge - how to revitalize the Chinatown area without destroying a historically ethnic community's character.
In the three-square-block neighborhood between Washington's monuments and the Capitol, city planners and developers see a prime location for retail and entertainment projects that would jump-start economic growth in the downtown area.
But others worry that using Chinatown as a catalyst for growth by bringing in big-chain stores will destroy a community once populated with thriving local businesses and restaurants. The high rents that property owners can now command have forced out several Chinese businesses.
"This is going to completely suburbanize Chinatown," said Alfred H. Liu, president of AEPA Architects Engineers, which compiled a study of the area for Washington planners in 1988. "Chinese people are going to lose their presence in the nation's capital."
Developers and planners emphasize that they are just trying to find the best use for a Chinatown that had been declining in recent years, with several vacant rowhouses and large parcels of land available for new projects even before the chain stores started moving in.
"The important thing is, what is the appropriate role for Chinatown in the 21st century," said John Fondersmith, a city planner with the District of Columbia government. "Yes, some of the uses and activities will be different than they were in the past. ... Different areas have different roles all the time. All downtowns go through that."
