From coast to coast, American Chinatowns remain more vulnerable to climate change due to their dense urban population, old infrastructure, and accumulation of heat, studies report. San Francisco’s and Boston’s Chinatowns exemplify these challenges.
Poor air circulation and overcrowded households
The Voice of San Francisco recently reported that San Francisco’s Chinatown’s geography and density have led to poor air circulation. Its old buildings lack proper ventilation, which traps pollutants in the air. This is especially concerning, considering that over a quarter of households exceed the recommended occupancy levels.
According to the San Francisco Health Improvement Partnership, 29% of Chinatown households live in overcrowded conditions. The United Department of Housing and Urban Development defines overcrowded houses as more than one person living in a habitable room.
More than a decade ago, San Francisco’s Department of Public Health listed the city’s Chinatown as having the lowest score in climate resilience, according to San Francisco Public Press. Subsequently, San Francisco Planning identified the neighborhood as one of the city’s top three communities facing “cumulative environmental and socioeconomic burdens.”
Extreme heat
Meanwhile, Boston’s Chinatown became the city’s hottest neighborhood in July, reaching a high of 105 degrees Fahrenheit, Boston University News Service reported. This was nearly six degrees hotter than the city’s average that day.
The World Resources Institute links air pollution and heat waves as two interdependent factors. When temperatures rise, so do air pollution levels. This is a cause of concern, especially for elderly residents who are more vulnerable.
“The elderly residents of Chinatown are especially at risk due to the neighborhood’s high residential density, overcrowded living conditions, and urban heat island vulnerability,” the San Francisco Department of Public Health published in 2014.
Boston’s Chinatown Heat Action Plan also states that low-income and foreign-born residents who have limited English are more vulnerable because they have less access to resources during heat emergencies. The heat action plan was created by community members and residents to combat the heat after the record-high temperatures last summer.
A recent study from the Yale School of Public Health revealed that heat-related deaths rose by 53% in the last decade. The national annual average of heat-related deaths was 2,670 between 2000 and 2009. However, between 2010 and 2020, it increased to more than 4,000.
Boston attributes Chinatown’s climate vulnerability to limited green space and dense building design, Boston University News Service reported.
According to the city’s Heat Resilience Solutions plan, most of Chinatown’s buildings are made up of brick and roofs, making them dense. Compared to the other city spaces studied, Chinatown had extreme heat day and night. The report explains that at night, the heat is released into the dense neighborhood, limiting airflow. This keeps temperatures hot throughout the night.
Traffic congestion
On top of heat concerns, air pollution can also be attributed to the dense traffic that both cities experience.
A Dutch-based location technology firm, Tom Tom, recently listed San Francisco as the second slowest traffic city in the country, the San Francisco Examiner reported. Other findings rank Boston as the nation’s fifth and the world’s 12th worst traffic city, according to Boston.com.
Multiple studies have found traffic congestion linked to higher air pollution rates. According to Boston’s Heat Resilience Solutions plan, Chinatown is in the top 95th to 100th percentile for diesel particles.
Lydia Lowe, the Executive Director of Chinatown Community Land Trust, spoke to The Bay State Banner about air pollution in Boston’s Chinatown in 2024.
“The history of Chinatown, in a lot of ways, is a history of a series of encroachments that have led to this polluted environment,” said Lowe. “[That’s] why it has probably the least amount of permeable surfaces [which can absorb harmful particulates] of any neighborhood in the city, the least tree canopy, and also became victim to urban renewal and the construction of two interstate highways that cut through Chinatown.”
San Francisco’s Chinatown is home to almost 35,000 residents living in the 24-block neighborhood, according to a local tour website. Meanwhile, Boston’s Chinatown houses about 4,620 residents, according to U.S Census data reported on a real estate website.
Registration is closed for Common Ground: Building Together conference and gala award banquet in San Francisco on January 24. A shoutout to our planning committee: Jane Chin, Frank Mah, Jeannie Young, Akemi Tamanaha, Nathan Soohoo, Mark Young, Dave Liu, and Yiming Fu.
We are published by the non-profit Asian American Media Inc and supported by our readers along with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, AARP, The Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Charitable Foundation, The Asian American Foundation & Koo and Patricia Yuen of the Yuen Foundation.
Find additional content on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram ,Tiktok, X, and YouTube. Please consider interning or joining our staff. Don’t miss a single headline. Subscribe for free.
I visited Chicago Chinatown and was a part of the No Arena in Philly Chinatown campaign. Chinatowns and other ethnic enclaves are special to me because not only are they reminders of history, but they are living documents of resilience. They are the beautiful reminders of why diversity is much needed. Thank you all for writing about this.