![]() ![]() Patrons crowded and queued to enter vacant retail shops that were temporarily taken over by businesses helmed by young, Asian American entrepreneurs like Yu and Me Books, Dawang clothing, and Ga Ma Diam Taiwanese goods. On January 28 of this year, East Broadway mall was once again alive, albeit in a thoroughly different type of scene: The nonprofit Welcome to Chinatown was hosting a pop-up fair during Lunar New Year. All three problems still plague Chinatown. Combine those factors with office workers who used to hit the neighborhood for lunch fleeing the city or working from home indefinitely. As COVID-19 spread, businesses closed, many for good Chinatown elders stayed at home at first for fear of contracting the disease, and then also for fear of being beaten up or worse. The three years since then have been dark days for the neighborhood. That restaurant has been closed since 2020, shortly after the onset of the pandemic upended the world, and especially Manhattan’s Chinatown. Waiting for an excruciating 30 minutes or so during a weekend brunch rush granted you entrance to a true, steam cart-pushed-by-old-aunties style dim sum experience until you were ready to take a nap atop the soy sauce-splattered tablecloth. Many New Yorkers remember it for the large Cantonese banquet hall, 88 Palace, on its upper level. Anchored beneath the rumbling overhead tracks of the Manhattan Bridge between Chinatown and Two Bridges, the 88 East Broadway mall has been home to a number of businesses since it opened in 1988: doctor’s offices, hairdressers, travel agencies, clothing shops.
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