Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-03-23
CHINATOWN DOOMED. New York's Ulcer of Oriental Vice to
 Become Park.

The end of New York city's China.
 town Is at hand. The board of esti.
 mate on parks has authorized the lay
 Ing out of park on the site, and al.
 ready the denizens of the strange bit .Iof the orient between the Bowery and Fell. Doyers and Mott streets, have
 started to scatter. In a few years.
 nothing but memory will remain of
 tnis show place cs the metropolis. With its booming temple gongs and drums, stifling incense. it's theater with interminable plays, the shops.
 restaurants, fireworks and colored Ian. iterns. and of the real Chinatown, where horriiying vice flourishes in defiance of the police.
 Those who should know best de- clare that New York's Chinatown will not be fully known until the wreckers rage the old tenements and open their cellars to the sunlight. They proph.
 esy that conditions will be found to
 exist similar to those uncovered in San Francisco after the earthauake
 end fire. In the western city it was
 known that by the use of secret doors iand passages, of wells and tunnels.
 It was possible for the Chinamen to
 hide themselves and their victims or
 lead the authorities on long and flu.
 tile man.hunts from floor to floor and
 building to building. The extent and elaborate scale of these passages and tunnels were not fully realized until the ruins of San Francisco's China. town disclosed all of its secrets after the earthquake.
 The Chinatown of New York ranks next to that of San Francisco in size and importance. The police of this city have already penetrated to some of the wells and secret passages and chambers. The authorities are forced to admit that vice still flourishes in these hidden resorts in spite of all they can do. It is a logical step to the belief that New York's Chinatown. resembling that of San Francisco in so many ways as 1t does, holds more secrets unknown to the white man.
 New York's Chinatown. which will thus be wiped out. comprises about 1ie acres. The assessed valuation of the property is $5S3.200. The agita. ton for park in this section has been met by the question of cost, and a rehearsal of the arguments regarding Mulberry park. which is so close at | hand, and the experiences in wiping out that pest-spot in the slums. When | the condemnation proceedings for ac- quiring Mulberry park were started in 1891. nearly ten years had been spent in agitation and preliminaries. The park covers 2.15 acres. nearly twice as much as will the Chinatown park. and the cost of the land. exclusive of was s1.522, ,055.60. The park was opened six years later.
 Where will the new Chinatown be? Several sites have been suggested. and have aroused more or less opposi. ton from the white men of the neigh borhood. One of them was at Red Hook Point. Brooklyn. the property being the factory site of the Worth Ington Manufacturing company. which is covered with old buildings. The Chinamen looked at the property. but their appearance raised a storm of opposition from the neighbors. and t was suspected that there was trick among the real estate dealers.
 The other site Is the district near he Brooklyn end of the Williamsburg bridge It is said that the firsi of Soy . Kee Brothers. who are wealthy Chi sese merchants. has purchased two vhole blocks of real estate in that vi- , :inity. and will rent the houses to the ,hinamen who are fast leaving China 1. own |,