One of the questions I asked when I first started working on this blog was "what happened to Chinatown?" I must admit I knew the more popular events that occurred during the quake, but never really paid much attention to the details.

I did not know that prior to the quake, there were already plans to displace the Chinese and to relocate Chinatown to Hunters Point . I did not know that the residents who lived in the vicinity of the Presidio golf links, upon learning of the Chinese refugee camp in that area, "objected to the establishment of the Oriental quarter so close to their homes, where the summer zephyrs would blow the odors of Chinatown into their front doors ," so the refugees had to be re-moved to Fort Point. I did not know that the catastrophe would be an opportunity for racism to rear its ugly head  once more.

But, as the popular saying goes, “Money talks.” Upon realizing that the city stood to lose a pretty big chunk of change—if Chinatown were to be moved to Hunters Point, the Chinese would have to pay taxes to San Mateo and trade with Asia was already lucrative by then—the proponents of Chinatown’s relocation lost momentum  and the rest is history