To: Counciler Carol Fukunaga, Honolulu City Council
Don't displace working families from Chinatown!
City Councilor Fukunaga,
Please stop pushing for the displacement of people making 60% of median income from Chinatown as part of the sale of the city owned buildings. 60% of median income is about 58,000 a year, which means teachers, nurses, firefighters, police, dishwashers, waiters, and cooks. These are people who work for a living and moreover make the city work. They are not dragging down Chinatown or turning it into a ghetto or anything like what I have heard people say. Instead these people are the Chinese families who live and work in Chinatown; without them there would be no Chinatown.
Why is this important?
I am really depressed about the way Councilor Fukunaga has singled out these families for removal as part of the rules governing the sale of city owned housing.
I know many of these people personally and I think they are being targeted in order for a few wealthy land owners to drive the price of their properties up. It would be easy to manage the sale of the city owned housing without kicking these people out!