Rethinking the Growth Machine: How to Erase a Chinatown from the Urban Core

Figures & data

Fig. 1. City of Houston and City designated urban districts.

Fig. 2. Detailed map of Houston's urban districts.

TABLE 1. Selected Urban Development Projects Receiving Public Funding

Project name	Year	Primary developer(s)	Public funding (mill. $)
Buffalo Bayou Waterfront	1986–present	City of Houston, Buffalo Bayou Partnership	331.1—580.6^a
Main Street Redevelopment	2004	Metropolitan Transit Authority	326.9
Convention Center Hotel	2003	City of Houston	285
Reliant Stadium	2002	Harris County Sports & Convention Corp.	284
Toyota Center	2003	Harris County Sports & Convention Corp.	182
Minute Maid Park	2000	Harris County Sports & Convention Corp.	180
Convention Center Expansion	2001	City of Houston	165
George R. Brown Convention Center	1987	City of Houston	104.9
Cotswold Project	2006	City of Houston, Downtown Management District	68
Discovery Green	2008	City of Houston, Downtown Park Corp., Discovery Green Conservancy	41
Bayou Place Phase 1A	1997	City of Houston, The Cordish Company	23
Rice Lofts	1998	The Randall Davis Company	12
Club Quarters Hotel	2004	City of Houston, Downtown Management District	10
Fourth Ward Redevelopment	1994—present	City of Houston, Renaissance Inc., HHFC	10
Southeast Quadrant Streetscape	2004	City of Houston, Downtown Management District	8
Jones Plaza	2001	City of Houston	6
^a Projected costs.
Source: Williams, 1997a; Brewer, 2001; Dawson, 2002; CDS Market Research, 2005; Houston Downtown Management District, 2009.

Fig. 3. Major publicly funded redevelopment projects in downtown Houston.

Fig. 4. Eastex Freeway (U.S. 59) and back service entrance of George R. Brown Convention Center, as seen from Old Chinatown.

Fig. 5. Empty building with Chinese-style rooftop along St. Emanuel Stree, Old Chinatown. Lion statue at right guards the entrance to an abandoned Asian restaurant.

Fig. 6. New Chinatown Gate, Hong Kong Mall.

Fig. 7. Asian-American banks along Bellaire Boulevard, New Chinatown.

TABLE 2. Variable Categories and Definitions^a

Category	Definitions
Population	Percent change in tract population (1980–2000)
Race/ethnicity (change 1980–2000)	Change in percent non-Hispanic white (1980–2000)
	Change in percent non-Hispanic black (1980–2000)
	Change in percent Hispanic (1980–2000)
	Change in percent Asian (1980–2000)
	Change in percent Chinese (1980–2000)
	Change in percent Vietnamese (1980–2000)
Race/ethnicity (status 1980)	Percent non-Hispanic white (1980)
	Percent non-Hispanic black (1980)
	Percent Hispanic (1980)
	Percent Asian (1980)
	Percent Chinese (1980)
	Percent Vietnamese (1980)
Immigrant	Change in percent adults not fluent in English (1980–2000)
	Change in percent foreign born (1980–2000)
Socioeconomic change	Percent change in college graduates (1980–2000)
	Change in percent employed in professional sector (1980–2000)
	Change in percent female-headed families w/ children (1980–2000)
	Change in percent poverty (1980–2000)
	Percent change in average income per household (1980–2000)
	Percent change in average income per family (1980–2000)
Housing	Percent change in owner-occupied property values (1980–2000)
^a Source: Geolytics, 1999; U.S. Census 1980, 2000.

TABLE 3. Five-dimensional PCA Loadings Matrix (Varimax Rotation)^a

Variable	1	2	3	4	5
Percent change in tract population (1980–2000)	0.017	0.673	0.064	−0.077	−0.148
Change in percent non-Hispanic white (1980–2000)	−0.541	−0.243	−0.151	−0.646	−0.291
Change in percent non-Hispanic black (1980–2000)	0.63	0.382	0.114	−0.129	0.366
Change in percent Hispanic (1980–2000)	0.172	−0.05	−0.177	0.928	0.039
Change in percent Asian (1980–2000)	0.025	0.141	0.939	0.025	0.121
Change in percent Chinese (1980–2000)	−0.299	0.031	0.691	0.002	0.016
Change in percent Vietnamese (1980–2000)	0.21	0.059	0.787	0.148	0.052
Percent non-Hispanic white (1980)	0.063	0.742	0.181	0.039	0.233
Percent non-Hispanic black (1980)	0.007	−0.737	−0.029	−0.206	−0.28
Percent Hispanic (1980)	−0.148	−0.1	−0.32	0.272	−0.089
Percent Asian (1980)	0.113	0.074	0.2	0.067	0.896
Percent Chinese (1980)	0.2	0.097	0.329	−0.039	0.753
Percent Vietnamese (1980)	−0.119	−0.064	−0.178	0.141	0.773
Change in percent adults not fluent in English (1980–2000)	0.204	−0.062	0.064	0.901	0.047
Change in Percent foreign born (1980–2000)	0.131	−0.017	0.179	0.931	0.119
Percent Change in college graduates (1980–2000)	−0.104	0.638	0.038	−0.108	−0.229
Change in percent employed in professional sector (1980–2000)	0.027	0.739	0.027	−0.143	0.086
Change in percent female-headed families with children (1980–2000)	0.727	0.28	−0.045	−0.011	0.098
Change in percent poverty (1980–2000)	0.513	−0.26	−0.007	0.522	−0.085
Percent change in average income per household (1980–2000)	−0.847	0.142	0	−0.253	0.077
Percent change in average income per family (1980–2000)	−0.751	0.127	−0.025	−0.303	0.147
Percent change in owner-occupied property values (1980–2000)	−0.694	0.088	−0.043	−0.173	−0.17
Percent of total variance explained	16.248	13.427	10.947	16.525	11.435
Cumulative percentage of variance	16.248	29.675	40.622	57.147	68.582
^a Factor loadings greater than 0.6 are indicated in bold type.

TABLE 4. Component Definitions and High Loading Variables^a

Component definitions and variables	Loadings
Component I: Economically Depressed Black Neighborhoods
Change in percent female-headed families with children (1980–2000)	0.727
Change in percent non-Hispanic black (1980–2000)	0.63
Percent change in owner-occupied property values (1980–2000)	−0.694
Percent change in average income per family (1980–2000)	−0.751
Percent change in average income per household (1980–2000)	−0.847
Component II: High Population Growth
Percent non-Hispanic white (1980)	0.742
Change in percent employed in professional sector (1980–2000)	0.739
Percent change in tract population (1980–2000)	0.673
Percent change in college graduates (1980–2000)	0.638
Percent non-Hispanic black (1980)	−0.737
Component III: Asian Growth
Change in percent Asian (1980–2000)	0.939
Change in percent Vietnamese (1980–2000)	0.787
Change in percent Chinese (1980–2000)	0.691
Component IV: Hispanic Growth
Change in percent foreign born (1980–2000)	0.931
Change in percent Hispanic (1980–2000)	0.928
Change in percent adults not fluent in English (1980–2000)	0.901
Change in percent non-Hispanic white (1980–2000)	−0.646
Component V: Asian Share in 1980
Percent Asian (1980)	0.896
Percent Vietnamese (1980)	0.773
Percent Chinese (1980)	0.753
^a The five-dimensional PCA accounted for 68.6% of the total variance in the dataset.

Fig. 8. Neighborhood clusters within Houston's urban districts.

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