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Chinatown Seniors, Protestors Flock to Bloomberg

By DNAinfo Staff on October 6, 2009 7:02pm

By Suzanne Ma and Heather Grossmann

DNAinfo Reporter/Producers

CHINATOWN — About 1,000 Chinese-American seniors lined Elizabeth Street Tuesday morning to share a free dim sum breakfast with Mayor Michael Bloomberg at Jin Fong restaurant.

Most of the seniors were happy to sip tea and snack on free spring rolls, shrimp dumplings and barbeque pork buns provided by Bloomberg’s campaign.

But a crowd of about 30 community organizers, Chinatown residents and business owners stood outside the restaurant in protest of the mayor.

The group carried signs reading, “Buying breakfast, buying votes?” and “Chinatown Not For Sale,” and shouted "Dump Bloomberg" and "Bloomberg Out" in English, Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese.

Facing controversy in Chinatown is new for Bloomberg, who captured approximately 80 percent of the vote in the last election, according to community organizers.

Protestors said Bloomberg's pro-development stance has raised rents and created an unprecedented crisis in affordable housing in the neighborhood. They argued that a special protective zone protecting tenants should be implemented in the densely-packed immigrant neighborhood.

Over the last few years, new construction in Chinatown has been booming — a survey conducted in 2008 by the Community Development Project of the Urban Justice Center and the Chinatown Justice Project counted 118 new high-end boutiques, 25 new hotels and 26 luxury residential buildings in Chinatown.

The mayor has hosted similar breakfast events across New York City this campaign season.