The Chinatown Coalition

Meeting Minutes

January 8, 2015         9:30 AM

Present: Mark Liu, Denny Ching, Pam Eddinger, Helen Wong, Marie Moy, Jennifer Ly, Giles Li, Richard Goldberg, Bet Har Wong-Chan, Angie Liou, Nuri Chandler-Smith, Kun Chang, Christopher Blackler, Enoch Liao, Sherry Dong, Fred Bennett, Terry Yin, Chutze Chou, Kate Chang

Denny Ching, the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services Liaison for Chinatown/Leather District/Downtown Crossing, gave an overview of his duties and service areas as well as the new Neighborhood Walks initiative launched by the Mayor.  Besides addressing issues such as potholes and graffiti, Denny can also assist local businesses in navigating the City’s licensing, zoning and ISD regulations. Denny also serves as the citywide liaison for the Asian community.

Nuri Chandler-Smith of Bunker Hill Community College and Giles Li of BCNC gave a brief overview of the planned arts and cultural space collaboration that will be located at the community space at One Greenway.  The two organizations have obtained a planning grant from the Barr Foundation to conduct community engagement and planning for the programming and uses of the space in February and March 2015.  While BHCC and BCNC do not yet know how the 5,000 SF will be divided up, one of the goals of the plan is to provide performance and rehearsal space for small arts and cultural groups that often have difficulty finding appropriate space.

For the CCEP Adult Education segment, Richard Goldberg provided an overview of AACA’s adult English curriculums and workforce training programs.  Richard highlighted the high job placement and retention rates for the job training programs, and the high college retention rate for the English program.